Important Artifacts from the Glory of Ancient Egypt Civilization – Ancient Egypt is one of the greatest part of history of mankind. The civilization was so great that it has many great inventions and these affect people in modern era. What the Egyptians did in the ancient times were even surprised the people in modern era. Many incredible things were made by the Egyptians in thousands years ago. The glory of the ancient civilization can still be found in temples, pyramids, ruins, and artifacts. These are some of the greatest artifacts from the ancient Egypt civilization.
First, it is the Tutankhamen Mask. In ancient Egypt, Tutankhamen is one of the greatest pharaohs. He was the king that led the Egyptians in its glory. One of his glories can be seen from the artifact of golden mask. Golden Mask of Tut even can be considered as one of the most important artifacts related to the ancient Egypt. The gold mask is actually a death mask. In the past, Egyptians place the death mask on the pharaoh who passed away and the mask was placed in the pyramid together with the body. It was predicted that the mask was from around 1323 BC. As the name shows, the golden mask was made of gold. There was at least 11kg of gold. The solid gold was shaped into a face mask and it also had some decorations from the blue grass, lapis lazuli, and various precious stones. These showed the glory of Tutankhamen in the past. Then, the mask was found by Howard Carter around 1922. Currently, the golden death mask can be seen in Egyptian Museum.
Next, there is Palette of Narmer. This was one of the oldest ancient documents that human could find. It was predicted from the 31st century BC. The Palette had some carvings of hieroglyph, the ancient characters used by the Egyptians in the past. It was related to King Narmer and the artifact was in shape similar to a shield made of stone. It was ceremonial tablet for the King Narmer who rose in the power at that time. The hieroglyph showed the story of King Narmer who won the war to unify the upper and lower are of ancient Egypt. Now, the Narmer Palette can be found in Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.
Some collections of Canopic Jars were also found from the ancient Egypt. The canopic jars were used in the process of mummification. The jar was the place to store the internal organs that were removed from the dead body during the process. The internal organs should be removed properly so the body could be mummified perfectly. The organs included lungs, stomach, liver, and intestines. These should be preserved because the ancient Egyptian believed in afterlife and these organs would be needed by the dead in life after the death. The jars were made of pottery and it was predicted from the era of Ptolemaic Period. In each of Canopic Jar, there was picture and it was predicted to be the pictures of Horus’s sons who were believed as the guardians of organs.
Rosetta stone was also important artifact from Ancient Egypt. This was predicted from the era of Pharaoh Ptolemy V. the stone was found in the irregular shape. The interesting thing is that the stone had three different writing systems. Those are the Egyptian hieroglyph, Greek writing system, and the Egyptian demotic. This became the instruments for scientists and archeologists to understand hieroglyph because there were no sources to understand the characters well. With three writing systems, people can decipher and understand the characters. The Rosetta stone was found in 1799. The place was known as Rosetta and that is why it is used to name the artifact. This was found during the campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte to the Egypt. Now, the Rosetta stone can be found in British Museum.
There were also many sculptures of ancient Egypt. One of them is the Nefertiti bust. Nefertiti was the wife of Akhenaten. This bust sculpture was considered as one of the greatest sculptures to find in the ancient ruins of Egypt. Nefertiti was important figure in the Egyptians. She had her influence in agriculture and even religion. In the sculpture, there was clear face of Nefertiti and she was wearing a crown. Now, the Nefertiti Bust can be found in Museum of Berlin.
Dendra Zodiac becomes next interesting artifacts from ancient Egypt civilization. It was sandstone curved in some pictures. This was found in the chapel of Osiris that became part of the Hathor Temple at the Dendera temple complex. As its name shows, it has Egyptian zodiac symbols and these could show the 360-days system of Egyptian calendar. In addition to its great details of sculpture and picture, ti also shows that the ancient Egypt had advance calendar system and they had divided the days into similar system as what modern humans have. Now, this can be found in Museum of Louvre in France.