Birds in Ancient Egypt As Mummies, Deities, for Food Art Amulets 40 Artifacts

Description: ”Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt” by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer. NOTE: We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles. Odds are we have other copies of this same title in varying conditions, some less expensive, some better condition. We might also have different editions as well (some paperback, some hardcover, oftentimes international editions). If you don’t see what you want, please contact us and ask. We’re happy to send you a summary of the differing conditions and prices we may have for the same title. DESCRIPTION: Softcover. Publisher: Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (2012). Pages: 232. Size: 11½ x 9 inches; 2 pounds. Issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, this is the first comprehensive study of birds in ancient Egyptian society, economy, art, and religion. Essays address the role of birds in the religious landscape, their use in hieroglyphic and Coptic scripts, birds as protective symbols, as decorative motifs, and as food. A group of essays on "Egyptian Birds and Modern Science" presents the newest forensic research on bird mummies. Other articles address bird behavior as shown in Egyptian art and the present state of avifauna in the Nile Valley. The catalog describes forty artifacts, many of which are previously unpublished. An index of bird species makes this volume useful for naturalists as well as for Egyptologists and art historians. CONDITION: NEW. New oversized softcover. Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (2012) 232 pages. Still in publisher's wraps. Unblemished, unmarked, pristine in every respect. Pages are pristine; clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 14 days! #8671a. PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK. PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW. PUBLISHER REVIEWS: REVIEW: Readers are able to step back in time to discover the world of birds in ancient Egypt. “Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt,” the first American exhibit and catalogue devoted to birds in the Nile Valley. The exhibit and the accompanying catalogue explore the impact that birds had on ancient Egyptian religion, design, and the conception of the state. The Egyptians believed that all life emerged from an egg symbolized by the womb, represented in the exhibit by a magnificent ancient ostrich egg. At the end of life, they were buried in a coffin, which was also called an egg, creating a never-ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth based on birds. Both the exhibit and the catalogue include forty artifacts that emphasize how omnipresent birds were in ancient Egyptian culture. The exhibit is divided into sections dealing with bird imagery and the state; the exploitation of birds; birds as protective deities; birds as hieroglyphs; birds and the afterlife; and bird cults. The latter section features the newest forensic examination of bird mummies. The conclusion to the show is devoted to the conservation of wetlands in the Chicago area and in Egypt. The exhibit and catalogue mainly contain objects from the Oriental Institute Museum, many of which have never been exhibited, such as the legs for a folding stool that are beautifully inlaid with ivory in imitation of duck heads, the mummy of an eagle with remains of gilding, and a small bronze coffin topped with a figure of a falcon wearing a crown. The exhibit also includes treasures from other museums. From the Art Institute of Chicago is a bronze statue of the falcon-headed god Re-Horakhty, an exquisite carving of a quail chick, and a cosmetic dish in the form of a bird gliding on the surface of water. The Brooklyn Museum has sent a spectacular coffin for an ibis mummy decorated with gold, silver, and rock crystal, while the Field Museum of Natural History loaned a stone monument incised with an image of the enthroned king in the form of a falcon. The exhibit and catalogue are curated by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, a doctoral candidate in Egyptology at the University of Chicago and a life-long “birder.” A fully illustrated catalog, edited by Bailleul-LeSuer, accompanies the exhibit. REVIEW: TABLE OF CONTENTS: Foreword by Gil J by Stein by Preface by Jack Green by Introduction by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer. Map of Principal Areas and Sites. From Kitchen to Temple: The Practical Role of Birds by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer. The Role of Birds within the Religious Landscape of Ancient Egypt by Foy Scalf. An Eternal Aviary: Bird Mummies from Ancient Egypt by Salima Ikram. Sheltering Wings: Birds as Symbols of Protection in Ancient Egypt by Randy Shonkwiler. Pharaoh Was a Good Egg, but Whose Egg Was He? by Arielle Kozloff. Birds in the Ancient Egyptian and Coptic Alphabets by Francois Gaudard. Birds and Bird Imagery in the Book of Thoth by Richard Jasnow. Birds in Late Antique Egypt by Susan H. Auth. Bird Identification from Art, Artifacts, and Hieroglyphs: An Ornithologist’s Viewpoint by John Wyatt. Bird Behavior in Ancient Egyptian Art by Linda Evans. Studying Avian Mummies at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, University of Manchester: Past, Present, and Future Work by Lidija M. McKnight. Medical CT Scanning of Ancient Bird Mummies by Bin Jiang, MD, and Michael Vannier, MD. Challenges in CT Scanning of Avian Mummies by Charles A by Pelizzari, Chad R by Haney, Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, J by P by Brown, and Christian Wietholt. Terahertz Pulse Imaging of an Egyptian Bird Mummy by J by Bianca Jackson, Gérard Mourou, Julien Labaune, and Michel Menu. The Avifauna of the Egyptian Nile Valley: Changing Times by Sherif Baha el Din. Catalog of Artifacts 1-40. 210 illustrations (most in color). REVIEW: Issued in conjunction with an exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, this is the first comprehensive study of birds in ancient Egyptian society, economy, art, and religion. REVIEW: Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer is a Ph.D. candidate in Egyptology at the University of Chicago, a life-long birder, and, most recently, the curator of the special exhibit Between Heaven & Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt at the Oriental Institute Museum. After studying chemical engineering in France, as well as Greek and Latin in Vermont, she is now able to combine her passion for birds and her academic interest in Egypt. Her dissertation research tackles the economic impact of birds on Egyptian society, as they were used as offerings for the gods and the dead, and food for the living. PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: REVIEW: REVIEW: The Nile river, the lifeblood of ancient Egypt, turned a strip of the Sahara into an oasis, enabling agriculture to thrive and creating a habitat for birds. Bird imagery, overflowing with symbolism, permeated all levels of society in Egypt. With colorful illustrations of Egyptian paintings, pottery and wall carvings depicting birds—as well as photographs of birds and bird mummies—Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, edited by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, brings this avifauna of ancient Egypt to life. Bridging the worlds of this life and the next—earth and heaven—birds were viewed as special beings that could transverse between these realms. Not only were they regarded as messengers of the divine, but it was believed that they also housed the souls of the blessed dead, thus becoming a symbol of hope for the afterlife. The Pharaoh himself was depicted as Horus, the falcon god. Other gods were portrayed as birds, too—like Thoth represented with the head of an ibis. On a more pragmatic level, birds were a valuable food source. There are many scenes of fowling on tomb walls, such as the image from Menna’s tomb that shows Menna and his family hunting birds with throwsticks. In addition to Egyptian iconography, this catalog examines bird mummies using CT scanning and Terahertz pulse imaging, which give new insight into the role of birds in Egyptian society. Finally, the catalog addresses the avian population in Egypt today and environmental changes to the landscape. Summarizing the beautiful exhibit that appeared last year at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, this detailed catalog gives an excellent picture of how birds functioned and were viewed in ancient Egypt. REVIEW: I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of seeing an exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago for a second time. It is called Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, and it displays artifacts from the Oriental Institute with a few select items borrowed from other Chicago museums and one coffin for an ibis from the Brooklyn Museum. Everything in the show which ends at the end of this month relates to the role of birds in Ancient Egypt culture. Among the items are bird mummies, statues, reproductions of wall paintings, vases and other pottery, furniture, and a 5000 year old ostrich egg. I was so impressed at my first viewing of the special exhibit that I bought the catalog, "Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt" edited by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer. The first half of this attractive publication is a collection of short papers about the roles of birds along the Nile River. The last half shows and explains all the items in the exhibit. One role of birds in Ancient Egypt was as food, as the river attracted great flocks of water fowl. After fish, birds were the second most popular source of protein in the Egyptian diet. In the collection is a wall painting of a royal person hunting birds with a throwstick, an actual 3500 year old throwstick, and another painting showing ducks and geese being herded and caged for sale. Eating was not, however, the Egyptians only concern. They were interested in nature, and everywhere they looked there were birds, especially every spring and fall during the great migrations between Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. Many of these birds whose species can still be identified were depicted in Egyptian art works. But there is more. Egyptians believed their gods took the forms of birds and some birds, because they could fly, served as messengers between earth and heaven. Falcons, ibises, storks, vultures, and owls figure in myths and even lend their shapes to hieroglyphs. There are 54 recognized bird hieroglyphs and another 8 of bird parts, such as feathers and eggs. There is so much more to say, but I should let you discover it through the catalog which is so beautifully illustrated. It is worth seeking out. REVIEW: Thanks to the University of Chicago Medicine’s Department of Radiology, computed tomography (CT) scans show a mummified goose was plucked and cleaned as neatly as a Thanksgiving turkey. The cook even left giblets inside “and a bundle of linen to keep its shape,” guest curator Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer said. The 3,500-year-old entrée is part of “Between Heaven & Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt,” an exhibit and accompanying catalogue which pairs five bird mummies with CT scans produced at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Visitors and readers can view the mummies along with 2- and 3-D images that re-imagine the birds in their prime. The noninvasive CT technology yielded critical data. “We were able to identify species, ages and conditions of the birds,” said chief curator Jack Green, PhD. Millions of migrating birds that visited the Nile Valley left an impact on Egyptian culture. The Egyptians domesticated geese, worshipped bird deities, and mummified birds en masse to carry prayers to the gods. Venerated species included the falcon and ibis. Hawks, kestrels, owls, quails and waterfowl are recurring figures in reliefs and objects of daily life. The 40 artifacts on display include bird-motif amulets, a duck-shaped vase and a boomerang-like “throwstick” for hunting waterfowls. Doctoral candidate Bailleul-LeSuer, researching the socio-economic aspects of birds in Egypt, was planning the show when she spied a cache of 29 bird mummies in the museum’s collection. Most were wrapped, prompting Bailleul-LeSuer to ask if the contents could be scanned at the Medical Center. Michael W. Vannier, MD, professor of Radiology, who supervised the scan of a 3,000-year-old mummy for a 2009 exhibit, spearheaded this foray into avian anatomy. Members of his team practiced on specimens loaned by the Field Museum of Natural History before tackling the artifacts. On the plus side, deceased birds don’t squirm and radiation dosage is irrelevant. “You can take all the time you need,” said team member Charles Pelizzari, PhD, associate professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology. Yet there were challenges. CT scanners are designed for human-sized subjects. Adjusting a 256-slice scanner on a tiny sparrow “is very tricky,” said Pelizzari, director of the Section of Medical Physics. “We scanned the little guys over and over again until we found the right protocol.” Curators gingerly brought the mummies for their checkups during patient lulls on August 19 and October 25, 2011. The specialists deployed a clinical CT scanner and a micro-CT scanner for finer resolution. It took minutes to acquire hundreds of images, and weeks to process and analyze the data. The radiologists optimized scanning parameters, effectively restoring desiccated organs and skeletal remains to produce 3-D images. Among their findings: A rare gilt adult eagle was found to have a compressed neck, giving rise to speculation that the bird of prey was damaged during embalming or killed as a sacrifice. “A bird that size would put up a fight,” Bailleul-LeSuer said. Scans of an ibis revealed a packet of snail shells in its abdominal cavity, evidence this sacred bird merited food in the afterlife. An elaborate mummy contained a jumble of broken bones and reeds. Among the possibilities: A merchant palmed it off as the real McCoy or Egyptians believed that even “road kill” could serve as a courier to the gods. The Oriental Institute will submit its findings to a database that tracks animal remains and the civilizations that preserved them. Meanwhile, Pelizzari is game for more projects that merge art, history, science and forensics. The birds-eye view into the past “was really cool,” he said. REVIEW: Exhibit and accompanying catalogue published by the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute. Entering the special exhibit at the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, you will immediately feel transported into the ancient Nile delta marshlands with its lush green flora. The combination of colors, video footage, bird songs, and ancient artifacts will give you the impression that you have just traveled through time and space. At the start of the exhibit, you will find one of their most impressive artifacts, an empty shell of an ostrich egg from 3100 B.C. With its perfect shape and marbleized shell, it appears as if it has just been carved out of stone. These ostrich eggs have not only been used in ancient Egypt as containers for liquids and raw material for bead carving, but also symbolize the deep integration of avian life into ancient Egypt's spirituality. All life is at times described as entering and leaving the world through the egg as a vessel, and that birds are messengers that can travel between the realms of men and their gods. Many of the Egyptian gods are portrayed as birds, and even their people have been symbolized by different bird species. Such information about ancient cultures has been extracted from many sources such as ancient texts and drawings, exploration of burial sites, and with the help of X-ray CT imaging from mummified bird specimens. As shown impressively by Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, the reconstructed 3D X-ray images can be examined with Amira to extract the desired information and sometimes even discover surprises. Rozenn and her team of imaging scientists worked on several specimens, of which we would like to highlight two. Information about the remaining specimens and artifacts exhibited at the Oriental Institute can be found in the catalogue that complements this exhibit. "Between Heaven & Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt" is an exciting exhibit combining traditional archeological and anthropological methods with modern imaging techniques to inform the interested visitor about the role of birds in routine daily life as well as spirituality of ancient Egypt. The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute, a part of the University of Chicago, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations. READER REVIEWS: REVIEW: The illustrations and history of this type of art is most interesting. I haven't finished the book yet, it’s a long read one you can pick up now and then and read through a section at a time. A good quality book, beautifully illustrated. Whether you have an interest in birds, religious art and the history attached to it, you will enjoy this book. To give you some chapter titles that might spark your interest ... The revered and the hunted: the role of birds in ancient Egyptian Society, Birds and Modern Science - bird identification from art, artifact, and hieroglyphs, bird behavior in Ancient Egyptian Art, Avian Mummies, Medical CT scanning of bird mummies. The Catalog has good explanations, photographs, and history. Great book. I've enjoyed it. REVIEW: Highly recommended! The next time you come across an ancient Egyptian mummy in a museum, rather than thinking of looming pyramids and cursed tomb robbers, consider this: that mummy was probably a better birder than you are. Okay, I don’t know if the ancient Egyptians would have considered it “birding” – I doubt they maintained life lists. But they certainly knew their birds to a degree that I doubt many in the modern era could equal. The Oriental Institute’s catalogue “Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt” showcases just how thoroughly birds permeated every aspect of ancient Egyptian life. They painted birds and sculpted them, drew them in their writing as hieroglyphs, raised and shepherded and ate them, and saw their gods embodied in their forms. REVIEW: I saw this fascinating exhibit and purchased the accompanying catalogue at the Oriental Institute in Chicago and would highly recommend it. It is the first American exhibit/catalogue book devoted to birds of the Nile Valley. It explores the impact and importance of birds on the ancient Egyptian culture and includes 40 artifacts. I learned that some Egyptian gods took the form of the falcon (Horus) or the ibis (Thoth). Birds were a key part of the life-and-death cycle of Ancient Egypt and I spotted a mummified eagle and a coffin for an Ibis mummy (below) in wood, gesso, silver, gold, rock crystal. I always ship books Media Mail in a padded mailer. 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Location: Lummi Island, Washington

End Time: 2024-11-16T21:40:36.000Z

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