Bristol Museum Egypt Exhibit: Why Do We Love Ancient Egypt?

Bristol Museum is set to go back in time to the land of the pharaohs for the first half of 2019.

Bristol Museum is taking you back in time. The exclusive 'Discover: Ancient Egypt' exhibit was unveiled earlier in January and will run until June. The exhibit is framed as an exploration of Ancient Egypt through Amelia Edwards, famed Egyptologist from Bristol. Guests will be able to handle real and replica artefacts from the time and identify where Amelia found them in the late 1800s. Archaeological discoveries will be on show from not just Egypt but Ancient Assyria to see what life was like centuries ago. Our love of Egypt isn’t just relegated to the museum. In fact, from gaming to film, our interest and excitement at a time in which we can hardly fathom is compounded. But just why do we love Egypt so much?

Gaming

One of the main ways in which we can attempt to step back in time, aside from the actually visiting historic monuments and artefacts is by playing them. The recent Crash Bandicoot remaster retained the original Ancient Egypt levels, while Assassin’s Creed Origins has a segment in Ancient Egyptian times. Betfair have a series of games that take the theme of Ancient Egyptian and tie them to modern slot gaming, such as Queen of the Pyramids and Pharaoh’s Treasure Deluxe. The Egyptian game of Senet has been resurrected for Steam – and is one of the oldest games in existence, found next to King Tut’s tomb! Gaming with the theme of Ancient Egypt gives us a semi-tactile way of investigating what life might have been like in the days of the pharaohs.

Movies

Cinema can also rekindle our fascination with Ancient Egypt by evoking the sights and sounds that the time may have contended with. Lara Croft has recently been remade, which features our heroine raiding tombs and discovering mysteries of Ancient Egypt, while The Mummy remake starring Tom Cruise helped bring to life some of the mythology that was rife in the days of the pharaohs. Even classics such as Cleopatra can give us a glimpse into life among the pyramids and attitudes that may have been present. The main obsession with Ancient Egypt that films try to explain are some of the questions that are still unanswered. The pyramids live on as marvels of the time, but most people are still baffled as to what they were for and how they operated. Dipping into films about Ancient Egypt at least allows some of our questions to be satiated for a spell.

Museums across the world – including Bristol – have exhibitions and features about Ancient Egypt to satisfy our curiosity with a world we can’t imagine. It’s quite right to be so interested in the Ancient Egyptians given everything that they have done to influence our lives right now. If it weren’t for Ancient Egypt, we wouldn’t have paper from their papyrus sheet, ink, or even modern techniques in farming based upon their ox-drawn ploughs. It’s only right that we pay back our Egyptian ancestors for the inventions and customs they have bequeathed us with intrigue and fascination about their lives.