It was a random Saturday and I went to the Hong Kong Science Museum see the MUMMIES exhibition. I remember well that the first History lesson I had back in those days was about the Egyptian, Pharaoh, Nile Valley civilization etc. Yet, I never had the chance to have a closer look at the mummies (except from the movies). That’s why I started this MUMMIES ADVENTURE!
週末怱發奇想,到香港科學館去看木乃伊了,很記得中一歷史課第一課便是學有關埃及、法老王、尼羅河文明……,但還沒近距離見過木乃伊 (除了電影上的) ,現在去趁熱鬧温故知新正好!
I luckily bumped into the Jurassic World too! 還偶然遇上侏羅紀 呢!
Theme of the Exhibition 展覽主題
There are altogether six mummies in the exhibition. They were born in different years with different age and background. For example, one is a female singer and another one is a priest. They also have their unique coffins and body wrappings.
這次展覽六具木乃伊,分別生於不同的年代,有不同的年紀,有不同的職業,像是歌者和祭司,而且由不同的棺木和裏屍布收藏著。
This is not a mummy yet; this is just the coffin for the mummy.
這可不是木乃伊,只是木乃伊的棺木。
LITTLE FACT about the mummies 關於木乃伊的小知識
Ancient Egyptians were buried in a number of coffins (not just one!) because they would like to preserve the body well for a longer period of time. From my History lesson, the ancient Egyptians believed that the body must be preserved well after death so that the deceased can enter the afterlife with the body. The coffin symbolised the universe of the afterlife and can facilitate the rebirth.
木乃伊由多重棺木包好,以防被其他生物侵蝕。以前中學學過,古埃及人相信人死後有另一生命,當死者進入新生命的時候,便會帶同肉身,所以要把死者身體保存好。而且,棺蓋是天,棺身是地,棺木還能為死者重建死後的宇宙呢!
How to make a mummy (if you are too scared, you can definitely skip this section!) 如何製造木乃伊 (如果太害怕,就跳過這一部份吧!)
This is the Canopic jars for storing the organs of the deceased. Throughout the visit, it showed us how the mummies are MADE (which is quite scary for me >_<). If you want to know about the process of making mummies, keep reading:
The Ancient Egyptians first clean the dead body and take out all the organs except the heart. The organs are then put into the Canopic jars.Then they shove a small hook up the nose and get the brain out.The wounds are covered up by small metal pieces.After that, they put some natural preservatives into the bodyAnd also put the fake eye-balls which are made by rocks into the eye socketLastly, the make-up and the body wrappings!
這些是卡諾皮克罐,用來保存死者的器官 (說來感覺有點毛骨悚然)。期間一直有看到木乃伊的製作過程,有點恐怖,想看的就看下去吧!
古埃及人一般先清潔死者身體,把內臟掏出來,放進卡諾皮克罐再以小工具從鼻腔把腦袋拿出並以金屬蓋片蓋好身為上的傷口接著把一些香料塞進屍體裡 (像防腐劑一樣)然後以玉石製成眼球,放到眼窩裡最後便是化妝和用裏屍布包好,並放進一層層的棺木裡
The more shocking fact is that among the six mummies, one was just a two-year old boy. Only rich people would be able to spend time and money for making mummies. The process was quite tedious and expensive because there would be several coffins for just one mummy. My friend beside me kept on saying that “this kid was rich!” Hahaa!
話説六具木乃伊中,竟有一具是幼童的木乃伊,只有兩歲喔!一直聽別人說,以前只有富裕人家才能製作木乃伊,因為工序繁複,一層一層的棺木又所費不菲,還要掘深深的地牢以保存木乃伊,難怪友人一直在身旁說有父幹真好 XD !
The Egyptian alphabets 埃及的文字
There are also some little games after the exhibition. Let’s have a guess on the following Egyptian alphabets:
展覽的最後還有一些小遊戲,大家猜猜以下的埃及字是甚麼意思︰
THREE …… TWO ……. ONE !!!! B-I-N-G-O!!!!! That’s my name on Steemit @SHIRLAM.
三 ………… 二 …………. 一 !!!! 其實是我Steemit的名字啦 @SHIRLAM,嘿嘿!
The writing system in Ancient Egypt is called the hieroglyphs, which are represented by symbols of different objects such as a bird. The Ancient Egyptian called them the words of God because these alphabets were mainly used by the priests during worshiping.
別看這些文字有鳥又有貓頭鷹,十足小朋友的畫,古埃及人稱這些文字為 "神的文字",因為通常這些文字都是由祭司使用的。
After the MUMMIES 木乃伊後記
In this blog, I have just recorded the tip of the iceberg. There are of course a lot of other exhibition such as the Egyptian musical instrument, the ancient myths and so on. Just that my camera did not function well so I did not post all my photos here haha. After looking at my bad photos, my brother cannot wait to show me his photos taken in the Winter Palace in Russia and the REAL MUMMIESFre:
我這個帖所寫的只是鳳毛麟角,當中還有很多其他的展品,像埃及的樂器、神話等等,只是我回家才發現照片都濛濛的,就不在這裡跟大家分享我的劣照了。 我哥看了我的劣照,忍不住給我分享了他那年在俄羅斯冬宫博物館拍的照,他還看到真正的木乃伊呢
The exhibition will be on-going here till OCTOBER – for friends who are in Hong Kong or who are about to visit Hong Kong, I definitely recommend you guys to GOOOO!!!!
這個專題展覽會舉辦到十月,身在香港的朋友不妨去看看哦!!!!!!
Source 資料來源︰
http://hk.science.museum/en_US/web/scm/se/se.html https://www.natgeokids.com/au/discover/history/egypt/how-to-make-a-mummy/ https://discoveringegypt.com/egyptian-hieroglyphic-writing/egyptian-hieroglyphic-alphabet/