The giant pharaoh statue and the green-faced painted human coffin are unboxed! The largest Egyptian cultural relic export exhibition in history begins
As several staff members held the wooden box tightly and gently moved it away, the colossus of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, which had only appeared in books and picture albums in the past, with an elongated face and a mysterious smile, was unveiled for the first time in Shanghai. Also unboxed and unveiled at the same event was a human-shaped coffin unearthed in the ruins of the Cat Temple in Saqqara, Egypt in recent years. The painted figure on the coffin had a green face.
At 13:30 on the afternoon of June 17, two heavyweight cultural relics were unpacked at the "Top of the Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition" to be held at the People's Square of the Shanghai Museum on July 18. It is reported that 492 groups of 788 cultural relics to be exhibited in this exhibition have arrived in Shanghai, and the exhibition work has been carried out in full swing.
The first-floor lobby of the Shanghai Museum's People's Square Pavilion has been paved with a passage specifically for the transportation of cultural relics.
Monday is the closing day of the Shanghai Museum People's Square Pavilion. At about 13:00 in the afternoon, the reporter saw that the museum had paved special passages around and around for the transportation of cultural relics to the exhibition hall. This exhibition will use three exhibition halls on the first floor of the Shanghai Museum People's Square Pavilion at the same time, with an exhibition area of more than 3,000 square meters, which is almost three times that of other special exhibitions.
Two huge wooden boxes were quietly placed in the lobby on the first floor of the museum. The archaeologist Said from the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt was busy communicating with Chinese staff. The reporter saw that the wooden boxes were affixed with various stickers indicating the direction of transportation and unpacking, and even a handwritten unpacking order.
At about 13:30 in the afternoon, Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum, removed the seal with the words "Shanghai Museum" printed on the first box, and the unpacking officially began. As the staff removed the wooden box panels in order, the colossus of Akhenaten fixed in the box by wooden strips revealed its true appearance. This sandstone bust is 2.1 meters tall, with a slender face and a raised mouth, as if smiling.
"Unbox" the Colossi of Akhenaten in order.
The original height of the colossus was about 4 meters, and it was placed in the open courtyard of the Temple of Aten in Karnak. The style of the statue is different from the heroic and muscular shape of the previous pharaohs, and the lines are elongated. It is reported that the period from the beginning of Akhenaten's religious reform to the end of Tutankhamun's reform is called the Amarna period of ancient Egypt. With the religious reform, a new artistic style came into being. The characters in this period are often portrayed as long faces, broad foreheads, thick lips, narrow shoulders, and big bellies, in order to achieve the separation of the image of gods and humans.
During this period, there are also a large number of interesting scenes full of life, which are completely different from the religious and ritual themes prevalent in ancient Egyptian art, and present a more lifelike and humane perspective. For example, there will be a sketch of a little princess eating roast duck in this exhibit.
Before opening another wooden box, Said communicated with the Chinese staff, telling them to follow his instructions for all gestures and not to use too much force. He also reminded the people taking photos, "Don't use flash."
After removing the wooden board on the side of the wooden box, two huge drawer-like compartments were revealed. Under the rhythmic command of Said, the staff slowly opened the lower drawer, and a human-shaped coffin with patterns and words painted all over its body was fixed in the box. The head of the human-shaped coffin was painted with a green human face.
According to reports, the green color of the coffin's face symbolizes the legendary god Osiris who died and resurrected, and also represents the flooding of the Nile River. Not only are the figures and clothing depicted in detail and the decorations are complex, but the inscriptions extend from the middle to the base, and even the back and base have inscriptions.
This painted humanoid coffin is 189 cm long, 60 cm wide and 46 cm thick. It is made of wood and is one of the cultural relics unearthed in the Saqqara archaeological site in Egypt in recent years. It is reported that humanoid coffins are a common coffin shape in the late Middle Kingdom of ancient Egypt. In recent years, nearly a thousand humanoid coffins have been unearthed in the Saqqara underground tombs, providing a large amount of new materials for academic research and may break the original classification system. One of the special topics of this exhibition, "The Secret of Saqqara", focuses on this new archaeological discovery.
"This is the largest exhibition of Egyptian cultural relics exported from abroad in history." Chu Xiaobo introduced that this exhibition brings together three thematic exhibitions. In terms of the richness of content, the richness of cultural relics and the immersive exhibition hall, "they are all world-class cultural relics exhibitions." He said that 95% of the cultural relics in this exhibition are coming to Asia for the first time, and many of them are well-known to the audience; some cultural relics are leaving Egypt for the first time, "For example, the latest archaeological discoveries at the Saqqara site have never been displayed in a centralized manner even in Egypt. This exhibition can be said to be a true 'world first'." In addition to nearly 800 ancient Egyptian cultural relics, some Chinese cultural relics will also be exhibited in the exhibition to start a dialogue between the two ancient civilizations. "Ancient Egyptian civilization and Chinese civilization are one of the four ancient civilizations. This year, China and Egypt have deepened their comprehensive strategic partnership. I hope that the audience will have a better understanding of ancient Egyptian civilization through the exhibition, so that there will be more resonance between the ancient civilizations."
In the south square of the People's Square of the Shanghai Museum, several large special transport vehicles were parked side by side, and a crane was also parked on site. This huge number of cultural relics are being safely transported to the exhibition hall, and the exhibition work is being carried out intensively. It is reported that the heaviest cultural relic in this exhibition is over 3 tons, and there is also an ultra-high exhibit that is expected to be displayed outside the museum under the premise of taking protective measures to ensure the safety of the cultural relics.
At about 3:30 a.m. on June 16, a chartered plane carrying the cultural relics for the exhibition arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. At about 9 p.m. that evening, nine transport vehicles loaded with cultural relics departed from the airport one after another, arrived safely at the Shanghai Museum at 10:12 p.m., and all stopped safely at 10:27 p.m. On the morning of the 17th, the cultural relics were moved into the exhibition hall one after another.
The completion of customs clearance and delivery of this batch of cultural relics to the Shanghai Museum within one day is inseparable from a series of convenient measures taken by Shanghai. More than two months ago, the Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Customs under Shanghai Customs promptly contacted the Shanghai Museum to investigate the exhibits in a problem-oriented manner. The exhibits are not only large in number and variety, but also cultural relics such as human-shaped painted coffins and cat mummies have high requirements for temperature and humidity environments, and are not suitable for unpacking and inspection at the port.
In this regard, the Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Customs provides a pre-examination service for the exhibit list, replicates and promotes the facilitation measures for the coordinated disposal of special exhibits at the CIIE, and adopts a collaborative inspection operation mode combining ports and exhibition halls to achieve "exhibits directly reaching the exhibition hall". At the same time, the five-dimensional risk intelligence assessment module of "CIIE Smart Exhibition" is used to combine and analyze the social influence of the exhibition, the exhibits' safety guarantee mechanism, the exhibition hall's human and material defense security system, the degree of exhibits' risks, etc., to establish an exhibition supply chain risk assessment system, and provide support measures such as "on-site supervision and tax exemption guarantee" on the premise that risks are controllable, to reduce the financial pressure of the exhibition.
Zhang Zhengyou, deputy director of Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Customs, introduced that Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Customs actively promotes the construction of smart customs and the "Smart Customs Power Country" action, continuously expands the spillover effect of the CIIE, optimizes the supervision and service model of the exhibition industry, and solidly promotes the construction of Shanghai as an international exhibition city. In the first five months of this year, Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center Customs provided services and guarantees for the smooth entry of 53 international exhibitions and exhibits worth 10.989 billion yuan.
