first of my top 10 about ancient
Egyptian art and architecture is to tell
you that it does not all look the same
that's a common preconception I think
that people have that it's all a bit
yeah we kind of know what it looks like
it's the bangles walk like an Egyptian
everybody looks a bit funny because they
didn't really know how to draw that's
not true there's tremendous diversity
we're talking about a culture that had
some kind of continuity for nearly 4,000
years in terms of its political
structure to language its cultural
institutions but at the same time it was
also hugely diverse different regions
and centers different time periods you
know what materials were available for
people to use what the interests for
instance of the of the ruling powers
were at that time that all changes quite
a lot so there's an incredible diversity
more than you would think
well Egyptian oh it does all look the
same it's for a reason we've got a
modern idea that art is all about
innovation and the great artists do
things in new way and a fresh way but
art is far too powerful to leave to that
kind of chance in most cultures around
the world and throughout history art is
part of a social institution it's really
fundamental to how the power for
instance in society is maintained how
you regulate people and how you express
things that can't otherwise be expressed
religious ideas for instance and so you
can't leave that to chance and it's
important instead to have a body of
artists a group of artists who are
trained up in the appropriate ways to do
things and while there might very well
be innovation a new technique and new
material that you can use a slightly
better way of doing something if you've
got underlying principles that mean
things look consistent that actually can
be a really powerful cultural message
about continuity and endurance and that
was certainly the case in ancient Egypt
number three all those artists we hardly
know who any of them are or architects
as well all these amazing pyramids and
temples that are built in Egypt we don't
actually have the names and that we can
link to who we might think of as being
an architect or being an artist or a
designer there are a few exceptions and
I talked about those in the book and
that I think we
helps us get into the mindset number
four of my top ten thumb forms of art
were sacred we're dealing with religious
art and some things that weren't meant
to be seen or some things that were so
magical and powerful that only
particular people would have been able
to use them and that's important to keep
in mind I think when we're looking at
things in a museum they weren't made to
be in a museum they've got a very
different purpose number five in keeping
with the fact that a lot of works of
Arts were for a sacred purpose or for a
magical purpose there was something
secret about them as well that they
weren't really meant to be seen by by
normal people so where we can go in and
look at coffins and masks and statues
all of these things were actually
designed to be hidden away and they were
too powerful to be seen by us that's
really important to keep in mind
similarly that's going to be my number
six of my top ten a lot of the buildings
that you could visit if you've been to
Egypt you can see go and walk through
these amazing temples you can visit the
innermost reaches of tombs you can climb
up the pyramids if you're so inclined
and to go inside them nobody was meant
to do that again these are spaces that
were completely off limits thinking
about the secret and we're thinking
about the sacred we need to talk about
mummies we've got this idea that mummies
are there to be unwrapped that mummies
are about dead bodies and the kind of
gruesome or their medical we can probe
them we can scan them we can reanimate
them stop right there
let's question that assumption mummies
are also sacred objects only a very few
people would ever been mummified in
ancient Egypt and that's because they
were such special people to begin with
that they needed to be treated in that
way and the process of mummification is
about completing the process of turning
them in to gods and again a mummy was
never going to be seen by anybody except
a very few people the priests who were
responsible for making it and then it
was meant to be hidden away completely
wrapped up in meters and meters and
meters of linen in coffins in a tomb
that's it
not on a CT scan screen not on a mummy
not reanimated and reconstructed for a
TV program so let's think about that
number eight lives on from my point
about mummies the reason we started
thinking about them in in Europe as
medical objects or objects for
scientists to study
goes back to the 19th century invention
and development of the idea of race and
racial difference ancient Egyptians if
they had been alive and say the 1950s
American South would not have been
allowed to sit at the front of a bus and
it's a big problem I think if we don't
start to have more intelligent
conversations about the kinds of racial
bias that gets built into thinking about
different ancient cultures or having
them us and them mentality again in the
19th century a lot of that was away
trying to claim ancient Egypt for Europe
while presenting modern Egypt has this
really backwards place you know they
couldn't possibly govern themselves and
that's a real problem I think still
today in the way that we think about
Egypt and the relationship between
ancient and modern Egypt number nine in
my top 10 may come as a surprise because
I'm somebody who clearly does find
action Egypt was really interesting but
ancient Egypt isn't inherently
interesting there's nothing
fundamentally that makes it more
interesting than say ancient Greece are
ancient and Assyria or the ancient Maya
ancient Aztecs they're all potentially
interesting so why do we today still
think that ancient Egypt is so so
fascinating for Europeans interest in
the 19th century coincides with colonial
expansion with the British occupation of
Egypt with the exploitation of Egypt to
build the Suez Canal and to grow cotton
and for instance it was was and remains
a really pivotal geographic location so
those things are how we've discovered
quote-unquote and filtered ancient
Egyptian archaeology and its art and its
architecture down to the present day we
have to keep that history in mind it's
so important because otherwise those
assumptions go unchallenged last but not
least is that you'll find it everywhere
you can be walking down a street in many
European countries and American cities
as well and you'll see it might be an
actual ancient Egyptian obelisk like in
London or in Rome or it might be a
building inspired by ancient Egyptian
architecture again we can see plenty of
these in London and also works of art
lots of museums hundreds justin in the
UK alone have some kind of ancient
egyptian art and in their collection so
it's been easy to just pop in and have a
look for yourself
