More Incredible Artifacts
Well, it was certainly a good decision to break this post up into two parts! That's a lot of photos to go through. Interestingly enough, these are barely a fraction of the images that I took while at the Louvre.
Be sure to take a look at part 1 if you've not done so already.
When I look at these amazing ancient pieces of art in the context of a museum, I can't help but wonder just how many eyes have looked upon them over the centuries. Certainly they have been on display in a gallery setting for quite some time now, but also all those years either entombed or on display in their original locations.
I tend to get caught up in a lot of existential, recursive thinking about the futility and temporary nature of our lives here on this planet. In reality we are just a continuation of dividing cells - a somewhere in the middle process of life itself; we are all those people who laid eyes upon these creations over time as well as the creators and those who came before them.
It's not hard to understand how such a culture could arise. I am speaking of a culture such as the ones who created these works of art. We know that they believed that all of these things helped them in their continuation into the afterlife. Why is it, though that we obsess over such things that can never really be known?
As I walk around the exhibit, a strong feeling of curiosity comes over me. Why such obsession with death? What an astounding amount of effort was put into the after death preparations. The elaborate tombs, carvings, inscriptions and attention to detail.
It seems to me that the ancient Egyptians were either at the pinnacle of denial about our own mortality, or perhaps that had some deeper knowledge about the true nature of our incarnation. What a troubling problem is this thing we call death.
I suppose in those days people lived much simpler lives and had quite a bit of time to think about these kinds of things. In today's world we are often engaged in very stressful jobs and activities that tax our minds quite a lot.
In my mid teens to early 20s I spent a lot of time working in fast food restaurants and assembly line work. Once I got pretty good at doing whatever repetitive task that I was asked to do, I found myself sort of zoning out and thinking about all sorts of nonsense. I actually believe that this is when all of my weird personality defects and anxieties started to develop. It is good to think about things, but sometimes too much isn't necessarily better!
I find these depictions of human bodies with animal heads to be the most interesting. The most likely explanation is of course quite boring, but I like to imagine that there is more to it. One thing that sucks about being me is that I both create conspiracies in my head, and then crush them with my skeptical side. This kind of makes everything that I say out loud a little bit unreliable, because I'll change my mind in five minutes.
I don't want to go all Giorgio Tsoukalos on you all, but what if these actually were aliens? I don't mean aliens with bird heads, but aliens who were built similarly to people but had very different faces. Not having any point of reference, these creatures were simply depicted as people having known animals for heads.
Okay, now my skeptical mind is kicking in asking you kindly to ignore my last paragraph. But isn't it still fun to imagine? It's funny how our minds try to fill in the gaps when we don't have a plausible answer, or all of the facts. That is another interesting thing to think about... Why do our minds tend to jump to the most exciting yet insane conclusions?
I think it's just simply the case that we want to live in a world that is much less mundane than the one that we experience in our daily lives. Of course we can just argue that there is actually a lot going on if we are just present enough to notice it, but that is another story.
Isn't that tablet interesting? I know that the ability to read and write was quite rare in that day and age, but can you imagine trying to communicate complex ideas with these pictures and symbols? It's like old school Twitter. Compress everything that you are trying to say into as few words as possible while still getting the main point across.
I bet that written language was much more revered and cherished back on those times. It makes me think of the original 'Dark Crystal' when the main character is telling his friend that he knows how to read the ancient symbols on the wall. He calls writing 'Words that stay'. That is actually a simple yet profound way to look at it!
I feel today that words are so cheap that people don't put much meaning into them anymore. Just look at the vast volumes of useless text just floating around the internet. Perhaps even this very post!
Basically, I am just spewing out my own musings about whatever the hell I want and there is a small group of people who find me interesting enough to read what I am saying. The real proof of its value will be revealed if in hundreds of years from now someone reads these words and wonders about me in the same way that I wonder about these Egyptian people.
I especially like these slabs with the hieroglyphic story accompanied by illustrations. A thought just came into my head that often comes to mind whenever looking at ancient art. Have any of you ever noticed that old artwork is always very serious? Did people never draw or engrave things just to be funny? Where are all of the ancient doodles of characters goofing off?
My best guess is that it was so expensive and time consuming to create art that people just didn't waste their time messing around. Another possibility is that people did do silly art, but mostly with paint or charcoal which has long since been destroyed. Maybe someday we will dig up some ancient cave comic strips.
These sculptures are pretty cool. They seemed to have used a very wide variety of materials to construct their artwork.
This one was neat, but I couldn't get over how long the feet are for the height of the body. Maybe this guy wanted to impress people with his sandal size?
Clearly this statue has faced some abuse. I wonder if it was general vandalism, or hatred or the portrayed person?
This guy sure looks like he meant business. In today's day and age we poke a lot of fun at politicians and leaders, but I imagine that in those days the leaders were meant to be feared and worshiped. I suppose there are still places like this on Earth today.
This final picture dates the trip a bit. I remember at the time I was in the middle of shaving my hair off completely, then I left the bit in the middle. It was kind of funny because I did this right before flying to England. When we got there, we were stunned at the number of people we came across with the same exact hairdo. Am I a trend setter? I think not.
I hope you enjoyed this series of images! I know it is a lot, but there is quite a lot to see in this collection. It is by no means an exhaustive representation of what is available to see at the Louvre. If you haven't been there, it is definitely worth the trip! The entire museum is unbelievably large and takes a really long time to get through. You will not be disappointed if you decide to go!