This year marks the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, and Barnsley is celebrating with a unique exhibition. ‘TUT’22: the Life of Tutankhamun’ opened last Saturday and reveals why the area around the South Yorkshire town is such an important ancient Egyptian outpost.
Tut’ 22 exhibition in Barnsley
The exhibition is curated by Barnsley-born Egyptologist Professor Joann Fletcher and has been over two years in the planning. Joann’s passion for Egyptian history is almost matched by her love of her hometown and you can sense her delight in being able to combine the two.
The exhibition explores the young pharaoh’s life during the 14th century with over 270 objects from Tutankhamun’s birthplace Amarna and related sites in Egypt, the exhibition “blends traditional artefacts with mesmerising, innovative technologies, using augmented reality and 3D printing to lift the lid on the greatest archaeological discovery of all time”. It also features the local people so involved in the rediscovery of the famous ‘boy king’.
Prof Fletcher said: “We’ll be resurrecting the world of Tutankhamun using artefacts from Amarna, the city where he was born and raised. It is a sensory, immersive experience using augmented reality to tell the story of Tutankhamun, his life and his reign.” The exhibition focuses on objects from Tutankhamun’s birthplace and other sites in Egypt including replica busts representing Tutankhamun and his family.
The exhibition features objects relating to Tutankhamun’s birth, the palace he grew up in, the kind of food and drink he ate, the types of clothes and jewellery he would have worn, his hairstyles, cosmetics, and perfumes, as well as objects representing his childhood and education, and figures and images of the gods he worshipped.
A Princess’s mirror
When you walk into an exhibition and the first thing that hits you is the sound of eager and interested children, rather than glazed looks and a clamour to go to McDonalds, you know the museum in question is onto a winner. The room was full of visitors whose ages must have ranged from five to 85, all of whom were thoroughly enjoying the experience. This was the sight I was greeted with on Monday at Barnsley Museum situated within the town’s Portland stone-clad town hall.
Speaking to some of the families who were at the museum when I visited, several commented on the fact that many of the objects were still familiar today and that they could easily relate to them. A mother and her young daughter were having an animated conversation about a 4,000-year-old polished bronze mirror and when the daughter said that it was a princess’s mirror she probably wasn’t that far away from the truth.
Discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb
The objects are being loaned by Bolton Museum’s renowned Egyptian collection, first assembled by curators William and Thomas Midgley whose family came from nearby Cawthorne just the first of many connections to the town
For over 3,000 years no-one knew the name Tutankhamun until excavations began at Amarna in 1891 and in the Valley of the Kings in 1905. Both were places where the Barnsley-born artist-turned-archaeologist Harold Jones worked, and his excavations in the Valley of the Kings uncovered some of the first clues to the location of Tutankhamun’s tomb. After Harold’s early death in 1911, his friends Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter built on his legacy and discovered the real tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
Jones, Carter and the Midgleys also share links to the artists and antiquarians within the Spencer-Stanhope family of Barnsley’s Cannon Hall.
Joann said:
“This collaboration between Bolton Museum and Barnsley Museums is unique.
“There are incredible links to Barnsley and stories that have never been told. It is a local history story as well as an international story and it really will help us mark the centenary in a very special way.”
It is these links that make the exhibition special both for Joann and for the local community of Barnsley.
The exhibition runs until March next year and full details of all the events can be found on their website.
