Michael Collings, This is Civilisation, begins with a discussion about art and religion. You can watch short segments from this series on You Tube — follow the links.
Chapter 1: Prehistoric Art
–Cave paintings, UNESCO, 2.5 minutes
–Ice Age art: the female gaze, British Museum, 5 minutes
–Skulls from Jericho, 7 minutes
–Stonehenge, National Geographic, 2 minutes
–Stonehenge, UCL, 8 minutes
Chapter 2: Near Eastern Art
–Royal tombs of Ur, U Penn, 7 minutes
–The Epic of Gilgamesh performed with a reproduction of a harp similar to the Harp of Ur. Listen to words and music…and there are many links to related material.
–Persepolis, UNESCO, 3 minutes
Chapter 3: Egyptian Art
-British Museum, Virtual Autopsy of a Natural Mummy from Early Egypt, 7 minutes
-The Getty Museum, The Mummification Process, 3 minutes
–Mystery Videos of Ancient Egypt: The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone, BBC full Documentary, 56 minutes — a good movie, bit of a costume drama.
Chapter 7: Roman Art
– Flavian-Trajanic Hairstyles
Chapter 9: Islamic Art
–A Virtual Walking Tour of the Dome of the Rock
Chapter 10: Early Medieval Art
-Viking Art, by The Culture Show, BBC 2014
-Making Medieval Manuscripts, from The Getty Museum
-The Lindisfarne Gospels
-Chapel of Charlemagne, Aachen, Germany
-Manuscripts at the Convent of St. Gall, Switerzerland
Chapter 11: Romanesque Art
–A Woman’s Role in the Crusades
-The Animated Bayeux Tapestry
I watched the video on the mummification process and it is remarkable. The fact that Egyptians were able to devise a method that preserved a body so well is astounding. Not only that, but they did it so beautifully and carefully. Each step took time and patience, and the final product is a lovely remembrance of the deceived, along with prayers and offerings for the after life. Truly and amazing civilization.
In watching the videos “The Mummification Process” and “Virtual Autopsy of a Natural Mummy from Early Egypt” I started thinking about the difference between a natural mummy and an artificial mummy. Both can tell us many things about ancient Egyptian life. Artificial mummies help us understand the Egyptians royal burial process and their views on the afterlife. In the case of the mummy mentioned in the video, the thing I found most interesting was a mummifies bird that was placed right on top of him during the process. That breed of bird must of had a great significance in the afterlife. However, I was much more fascinated by the natural mummy. First, it’s an anomaly that this man was able to stay preserved in great condition for 6000 years. Second, because this mummy was not treated after he died all his organs and tissues are still intact. This really helpful to historians who want to know what the lives of a traditional Egyptian were like. In the case of this mummy they were able to find out to cause of death bases on a reanimation of his body and its’ structures. There is certainly a lot of knowledge to be gained from the preservation of these ancient humans.
I’ve always been fascinated with everything ancient Egyptian. From their art, culture, and religion, especially their mummification process. I remember learning about mummy in elementary school when we briefly covered the subject of Egypt. I always new that the process of mummification was an elaborate one but I wasn’t aware of the many steps and how specific everything had to be from the removal of organs, dehydration of body, wrapping in resin and linens, and even including the skeleton on a bird with a curved beak in between the layers of cloth. I had never heard of that before and thought it was pretty cool that they would do something like that. Also, I always thought that these types of mummies were buried in gold or wooden boxes, not wrapped in color shrouds. I love the way the shroud is decorated and how the name is written in Greek letters instead of in Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The video, “Virtual Autopsy of a Natural Mummy from Early Egypt” was quite interesting and intriguing. It is absolutely fascinating to see how modern technology can be used to learn more about a pre-dynastic mummy from Egypt. To me, the most interesting part of the video was when they did the virtual autopsy and were able to come up with a probable cause of death. Most of this information would not have been accurate let alone actually discovered had it not been for the modernization of technology. This could definitely lead to further investigation and research on other mummies, both natural and artificial, to discover more about their lives as well as their deaths.