CAZENOVIA — On Saturday, Nov. 5, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, the Cazenovia Public Library & Museum (CPL) will hold a family event in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tut.
Children and their parents are invited to the Reference/Museum Room to learn about the famed pharaoh, get creative, and connect with CPL’s impressive collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
During the free-form event, participants will have the opportunity to decorate a pharaoh’s headdress, create large collar-style necklaces reminiscent of those worn by wealthy Egyptians, use hieroglyphic stamps, make amulets and a folded pyramid, and get ancient Egyptian-themed temporary tattoos.
The activities are geared toward children ages 8-12, but families are invited to participate together.
While working on their projects, participants can step into the library’s Egyptian Room to get inspired or make comparisons between King Tut and CPL’s own Egyptian mummy.
Youth Services Coordinator Jenna Wright-Martin, Museum Educator Julia Shotzberger, and Debora Millson, CPL’s new youth services assistant and assistant museum educator, will be on hand to answer questions and provide information.
According to National Geographic, King Tutankhamen — commonly referred to as King Tut today — was born around 1341 B.C.E. and ascended to power when he was just eight or nine years old. The “boy king” ruled for less than a decade; he died when he was just 18 to 20 years old.
Tutankhamen was nearly lost to history until November 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter and his crew discovered the pharaoh’s nearly intact tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.
It took Carter and his team almost 10 years to catalog the contents of the tomb, which held more than 5,000 artifacts, including a sarcophagus containing Tutankhamen’s mummy, and a solid gold face mask.
The discovery received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt.
“[It] took the world by storm,” said Shotzberger. “Reporters camped outside the tomb waiting for glimpses of the treasures as they were slowly and carefully brought out into the light. This find reignited worldwide Egyptomania, the fascination with ancient Egyptian culture. . . For a hundred years, the world has been fascinated with what was discovered in Tutankhamen’s tomb. The magnificence of the objects, artwork, his incredible sarcophagus, coffins, and gold mummy mask are still objects of wonder.”
In 1894, nearly three decades prior to the discovery of King Tut, CPL benefactor Robert James Hubbard traveled extensively in Egypt and purchased his own collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including a complete mummy and its case, several masks, breastplates, sandals, ushabtis (figurines), and scarabs.
He acquired the material during a nine-month Grand Tour with his son with the intention of creating a museum upstairs in the original CPL building.
“At the time that most of the world was waiting for glimpses of ancient Egypt via newspaper reports, Cazenovians were able to [experience] their own slice of ancient Egyptian culture here,” said Shotzberger.
Hubbard’s museum has since been moved to a specially designed room on the ground floor, which has been updated to include an electronic touch-screen presentation on his trip down the Nile.
The focal point of CPL’s Egyptian collection is the 2,000-year-old mummy named Hen.
“Howard Carter and his team not only opened [Tutankhamen’s] coffin, but they also unwrapped the pharaoh’s body,” said Shotzberger. “Unlike our Hen, Tutankhamen was not well preserved; his body was badly degraded, possibly from the rich oils that were used instead of the traditional embalming process. Our Hen is so well preserved that after a recent CAT scan, we know so much about his life and even what he looked like.”
CPL’s King Tut event is free and open to the public thanks to the support of the Friends of the Library.
The library staff will present an adult open house on Wednesday, Nov 9 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for community members to view the Egyptian collection and learn about King Tut.
To learn more about CPL and its “Exploring Egypt” exhibit, visit cazenoviapubliclibrary.org.
