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Notes from visiting the “Egyptian” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York:
1. I attended a 5 hour tour of the KMT artifacts led by Mfundishi Jhutyms who did an excellent job of reading mdr ntchr to us and explaining how objects were made, how they were used and how they were tampered with. ALL. THE. NOSES. WERE. CHISELED. OFF. It was jaw dropping to see temple wall carvings up close, see the enormous Black granite burial chambers up close, see impossibly tiny inlaid scarab beetle jewelry (3 sesame seed size) and see piles of gorgeous, finely woven linen cloth. Copper toe coverings?? C’mon!! I have no words!
4 years ago ·6 Comments-
2. The warnings of Dr. Cheik Anta Diop, Dr. Asa Hillard, John Clarke, Tony Browder, Dr. Carr and others with extensive knowledge of Ancient Africa are true. You need to see these artifacts in person b/c a) the vibe flowing off them is real and cannot be captured in photographs, b) the museum curator notes distort the facts about EVERY object, c) the museum translations of glyphs don’t match what is written, d) most of the statues look like Black folx we know. A young brother on tour with me took one look at a Black limestone statue and said, “That looks like LeBron!”. This museum map allows you to click through some of the rooms in the “Egyptian Exhibit” https://maps.metmuseum.org/?screenmode=base&floor=1&feature=LTczLjk2MjE3NzgsNDAuNzgwMzg3NkBsbUAzMDkw#hash=17/40.780388/-73.962178/-61 -
3. Starting with KMT made it easy to see what the Nile Valley folx built, thought, observed, organized, discovered and refined 5-6000s years before the tribes of western eurasia even existed!! The white skirts we saw carved into temple scenes were made of finely woven linen that was stored in boxes like this: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545138
This linen was also used to wrapped the bodies of KMT people who transitioned. We learned that the word “mummy” is a corruption of the Arabic word “mumiya” which referred to the substance used to preserve bodies and is not a respectful way to refer to these Ancestors. In fact, seeing these wrapped bodies on display felt disrespectful to the dead. When our group entered the section of the exhibit with complete coffins and wrapped bodies, ,the entire group said, “may you rest in peace Ancestors”. -
4. Other amazing items we saw include highly skilled jewelry made from tiny carved scarabs, scarab beads inlaid with precious stones, tiny handmade beads, gold chains and clasps and much much more! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/545721
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5. This Sarcophagus of Harkhebit ( 595-526 BC ) is unreal! IRL this stone container stands over 8 feet tall and is SOLID stone. The lid and the bottom fit so tightly together they appear to be one piece. This was the container for a wooden coffin made of cedar (probably imported from Lebanon). If you only saw this photo, you’d think that this was a sculpture to be displayed on a table. It’s actually HUGE. If you look closely at the mdr ntchr you can see incredibly fine line detail for hair, fingers and feathers.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/548211?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=sarcophagus&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=5 -
6. As if displaying the dead was not bad enough, remember that European grave robbers sold the preserved KMT bodies to their priests, royalty, pharmacists and collectors who held unwrapping parties and added ground up Ancestor bones to alcohol to create a “cure-all” drink. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2101801/
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7. It’s not surprising to know that throughout European culture, there’s a theme of yt ppl eating Black bodies that began soon after cultural contact, resurfaced in the American south where white lynch mob leaders kept (and sometimes ate) the genitals and organs of Black men AND women they killed, and where DuBois commented on seeing the flesh of Black ppl for sale in grocery stores! Dr. Frances Cress Welsing of course, detailed this cannibalistic mentality in American culture, food, sports and other social activities.
Walking the timeline from KMT at 5000 BCE to the time of the Greeks and Romans around 500 AD is key b/c you can see the very clear decline of carving, architecture and glyph quality to the point where during Roman rule, writings looked like the scratchings of kindergartners. If you live near a city with a collection of KMT artifacts, make time to see them in the company of a Black person who can read mdr ntchr!
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