Egyptian exhibit opens at Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science

Dec. 2—The history and culture of ancient Egypt has long been a source of fascination in the West, where the wonders of the great pyramids, the mysterious sphinxes and the tombs of the pharaohs fired the curiosity of writers, filmmakers and scientists.

Now residents of Bakersfield and the southern valley can get a close-up look at a collection of Egyptian artifacts and high-quality replicas acquired over the past few decades that reflect everyday life — and death — in what was surely one of the most significant civilizations the world has ever known.

The exhibit, titled "Preparing for Eternity: Life and Death in Ancient Egypt" — which opened this week at Buena Vista Museum of Natural History and Science — includes more than 100 pieces representing 5,000 years of the daily items, and especially the funerary objects, used and entombed by the ancient peoples of this extraordinary North African civilization.

"Egypt's history is complex, and involves so many different outside factors," said Cal State Bakersfield Professor of Archeology and Anthropology Robert Yohe, who was instrumental in assembling the exhibit.

"Even though Egypt was united fairly early in its history, it went through several civil wars, but generally was militarily successful and was able to expand," Yohe said.

Of course, with close to 50 centuries of history, ancient Egypt saw great changes over millennia, vast historical periods, progress and decline, invasions from Assyria, the Persians, the Nubians to the south, and Alexander the Great, until ultimately coming to its end under the heavy hand of the Roman Empire.

According to Yohe and museum Director Koral Hancharick, an ancient Egyptian display of this caliber has not been seen in the southern San Joaquin Valley since "The Art of Death" exhibit shown at CSUB in 2009.

The idea for the exhibit started with a discussion about a donor who wanted to give the museum some Egyptian artifacts, Hancharick said.

"Dr. Yohe was involved because of his extensive knowledge and work in Egypt," she said. "Soon we were discussing building a much larger exhibit than just a case or two (of items for) display."

When Yohe offered to place items from his personal collection on loan to the museum, they had the makings of an exhibit of some substance.

Yohe has worked on archaeological projects in Egypt for more than 20 years. Antiquities from his personal collection join artifacts, maps and other items on loan from two other collections.

"Several months of planning went into the forming of the exhibit space, layout and placement to create the exhibit we have today," Hancharick said. "We hope that visitors will see and appreciate ancient Egyptian life and death."

The walled addition to the third floor of the museum, at 2018 Chester Ave., is packed with historical curiosities, including dozens of figurines and art pieces, actual mummified human remains, and ancient papyrus, a plant-based material used by the ancients as a writing surface.

Thanks to the discovery in 1799 of the Rosetta Stone — which included translations of hieroglyphs into Greek — scholars were eventually able to decipher the hieroglyphs, providing an important key to the study of Egyptian history and culture.

"It's really quite an accomplishment because it gives us an opportunity to look into the Egyptian past," Yohe said, "not just based on archeology, but based on the written record, written by the people themselves."

Fortunately for historians, the Egyptians were highly skilled at preservation, and the arid climate also helped preserve all sorts of surfaces, from wood and papyrus to the human body.

"Then we start getting into one of the most important aspects of ancient Egyptian life, and that is preparation for the afterlife," Yohe said as he guided a reporter through the exhibit.

Life in ancient Egypt was all about preparing for life after death, the anthropologist said.

"They took it very seriously."

Eventually, the process of mummification, the preservation of the human body after death, was "democratized," becoming a practice used by everyday Egyptians, not just the pharaohs, their families and rich nobles.

"By that point it meant that everyone has the opportunity to get into the afterlife, which wasn't the case in the beginning," Yohe said.

It was vitally important in the religion of the ancients to preserve the dead body in as life-like a manner as possible.

"So successful were they that today we can view the mummified body of an Egyptian and have a good idea of what he or she looked like in life, 3,000 years ago," according to the Smithsonian.

For the ancient Egyptians, preparing for the afterlife often meant acquiring a number of ushabtis, funerary figurines that are included in the exhibit.

These statuettes were placed in tombs and were intended to act as servants for the deceased, to perform manual labor for them, in the afterlife, Yohe said.

Visitors to the exhibit will also see images of a jackal, which represents Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the dead.

"Anubis remained an important component of Egyptian religion for 4,500 years," Yohe said.

The exhibit is a departure for the museum, which has more often focused on the natural history and anthropology of the region that makes up Kern County and the southern San Joaquin Valley.

But the opportunity to inform and inspire museum-goers was just too good to pass up.

"We feel this is one of many ways to explore and add enrichment to the museum experience," Hancharick said.

Reporter Steven Mayer can be reached at 661-395-7353. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter: @semayerTBC.