Filed under: Construction News | Tags: artifacts, Brooklyn Museum, pictures, stele
Author: Josh
We just received some pictures of the artifacts that are going to be featured in the exhibit, and they look gorgeous! A big thanks to the Brooklyn Museum, both for loaning us the artifacts for Lost Egypt and for the beautiful pictures.
One of the aspects of this show that I’m most excited about is how these artifacts are being used as a part of the show. For example, be sure to check out the image of the stele. At our hieroglyphics station guests will have the opportunity to both translate a portion of the text and to hear what it may have sounded like in ancient Egyptian. We’ll also have x-rays of some animal mummies and CT scans that encourage guests to search for amulets such as those included in the show. It’s a really unique way for guests to interact with these objects as both pieces of art and scientific tools. Plus, I just think it’s really cool.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Columbus City Schools, Dr. Brad Lepper, friezes, Ohio Historical Society
Author: Doug Buchanan, COSI Education Programs Marketing Manager
COSI is inviting Columbus City School sixth grade classrooms to participate in COSI’s Lost Egypt student artwork contest! Sixth-graders in the twenty-four Columbus public middle schools are being invited to create their own piece of Egyptian artwork. Each sixth grade classroom is invited to create a tomb frieze on butcher paper provided by COSI – similar to the amazing art that ancient Egyptians created for many of the tombs uncovered by archaeologists.
In ancient tomb friezes, Egyptians were shown carrying objects of great value to them; accordingly, students are being invited to draw themselves carrying objects that they value. The contest’s grand prize is a visit to the winning school by a real archaeologist: Dr. Brad Lepper of the Ohio Historical Society! Dr. Lepper will present an assembly about the archaeological profession to the entire sixth grade of the winning school, and will spend additional time speaking directly with the students of the winning classroom. The winning entry will also be displayed at COSI!
All entries must be received at COSI by 5:00 pm on Friday, May 1, 2009. Judging will take place at COSI in early May. For details, please contact Doug Buchanan at dbuchanan@mail.cosi.org.
You can also check out Dr. Brad Lepper’s recent OHS blog entry about Egypt, mummies, and ways to experience them right here in Columbus!
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: AERA, Ana TAvares, Giza Plateau Mapping Project, Lost City of the Pyramid Builders, Mark Lehner, Mary Anne Murray, Wall of the Crow
Author: Kate
Our Lost Egypt project advisers from Ancient Egypt Research Associates have entered another field season in Egypt.
Lost City Excavation (1 of 2)
Lost City Excavation (2 of 2)
Their goals at the Lost City of the Pyramid Builders’ site this season are:
- Excavate House Unit 1, a large high-status house in the western section of the town.
- Investigate an area we call the Chute to better understand its function.
- Investigate remote sensing anomalies detected by Glen Dash’s team in the Western Extension of the town to determine the type and date of buildings that may lie in this area.
- Investigate the construction of the Lost City enclosure wall.
- Excavate Late Period burials in the Western Extension and train the field school osteology group.
Wall of the Crow
Students and teachers have just started arriving for the Giza Field School, in which students will learn advanced skills in Ceramics, Illustration, Survey, and Osteology. Some of the Egyptian graduates will be teaching the classes to the next group, and eventually the school will be an Egyptian-run operation.
We’re very excited to see what they discover in their research this season. Check out the blog for their 2009 season – which is the 20th field season of the Giza Plateau Mapping Project under Mark Lehner. You’ll see postings from some of our advisors – Ana Tavares and Mary Anne Murray!
http://aerablog.wordpress.com/category/2009-field-season/
Ana Tavares
Mary Anne Murray
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Erik Burdock, science museum of minnesota, Steve Langsdorf
Author: Carli
I went to the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) last week to check out the exhibit components for Lost Egypt, accompanied by our VP of Experiences, Steve Langsdorf, and Senior Director of Design, Erik Burdock. While COSI is the official “producer” of the exhibit, we have tremendous help from our partners at SMM in building the actual experiences, creating the large structures, and putting all the pieces together.
Mummy reflective room
It’s been almost a year since this blog began with our trip to Egypt to collect the information, take photos and video, and conduct interviews. So the anticipation of walking into the warehouse at SMM to see the exhibit components come to life was really a thrill. As we entered the warehouse, we could see the giant canopy tents, and I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed. One of my favorite pictures from the trip was of the young niece and nephew of our Egyptologist guide wandering among the towering pillars of Karnak Temple; their tiny hands tightly gripped together, and anxious faces staring up at the columns. It was a beautiful juxtaposition of modern-day children consumed by the power of these ancient structures. My heart nearly skipped a beat, when I saw the picture again. Only now, it was a life-size canvas mural, built into the walls of the exhibit, that would allow the entire world to experience what we saw.
Exhibit wall with murals
The SMM team lead us through each component of the exhibit, and we tried out a few of the interactives including the rock challenge, where guests will be able to test the technologies that may have been used to move the enormous stones used to the build the pyramids. We also tested the Sands of Time Aeolian Landscape, showing how sites in Egypt are lost under the changing sands. And tried the pottery re-construction, which was a 3-dimensional pottery puzzle that made my head spin! The most exciting structure we saw was the pseudo-tomb hallway with reconstructions of artwork and hieroglyphics, dimly lit to reflect the actual insides of the tombs.
Art & heiroglyphics on the 'tomb wall'
And I couldn’t help but be in awe of the engineers who were working on what will eventually be the climate-controlled display cases for the artifacts, animal mummies, and human mummy. The intricacy of design, material specifications, and other rules and regulations for construction in order to put these priceless artifacts on display was mind boggling.
Future Mummy case
All in all, it was a fascinating trip, and I really think the city of Columbus will have something to be proud of when the exhibit finally arrives and opens this summer!
Filed under: Trip to Egypt, Trips & Travels | Tags: Brad Feinknopf, Canon, Egypt, photography, SanDisk, Valley of the Kings
This story was shared with us by our photographer for our Egypt trip, Brad Feinknopf. We thought you might find it interesting too, so we’re sharing it here:
I am a commercial photographer located in Columbus, OH and I was recently hired by COSI, the local science center, which was in the process of creating an exhibit which will open the Summer of 2009 entitled Lost Egypt: Ancient Secrets. Modern Science to travel to Egypt on a photographic expedition to create imagery for this exhibit. This exhibit will premier in Columbus, OH and then travel the United States. All the photography on this trip was shot with a Canon Mark II 1Ds on SanDisk Extreme III 4 GB cards.
Now to the story.
We were on Day 9 of this incredible expedition and we had been granted special access from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities to photograph three of the tombs at the Valley of the Kings. There are not many photographs of the tombs at the Valley of the Kings because photography is strictly forbidden and they rarely grant access. When we arrived at the Valley of the Kings, our Egyptologist knew the head guard, and he agreed to actually close each of the tombs we were to see for one hour apiece so we could photograph them. Keeping in mind that there are thousands of people who come to the Valley of the Kings every day, so to close the tombs for an hour was incredible and out of the ordinary.
The first tomb we visited was KV 9, the Tomb of Rameses VI. This tomb has been uncovered for a very long time – there’s even Greek and Roman graffiti on the walls in some places. It is filled with incredibly brilliant color decorations of religious iconography including the gods and goddesses. We were very excited about this – the photos were beautiful. At one point we asked if the color had been restored since it seemed impossible for it to have survived intact for so long, but our guide Ehab said this was all original and just very well preserved. At the end of the long ramp down, there was an enormous stone sarcophagus – truly worthy of a king.
The second tomb we saw was a surprise. We had intended to visit Rameses III next, but it was so swamped with people that we could barely move through it. The temperature inside was probably 95 degrees Fahrenheit (you’d think the tombs would be cooler inside, but with all the people going through and the lack of air circulation, it’s like a sauna). Ehab suggested that instead we visit KV14, the tomb of Tausert, the royal wife of Sety II who became regent of Siptah and eventually the last ruler of the 19th Dynasty.
The last tomb we saw was KV 34, the tomb of Thutmes III. Now the story gets interesting. After shooting for 3 hours on a SanDisk Extreme III 4 GB card, I did the final shot of the day. I was standing on a bridge which connected the shaft to the burial chamber over a 50-foot drop. I was bracketing my exposures to make certain I had the correct exposure and my Canon knocked out 2 of the 3 shot bracket, filling up the 4 GB card. My initial thought was that the 2 captures would be fine, so lets wrap up and go. I then thought to myself that I had traveled all the way to Egypt to do this photography, so why risk any chance of not getting the shot? I had extra cards, so let’s switch out the cards. I opened the back of the camera and pressed the eject button (maybe a bit too hard) and the card shot out and fell 50 feet into the dark precipice with all the images from my entire time at the Valley of the Kings stored on it! I was frantic. I informed the group, and we shined a light borrowed from the videographer on the expedition into the precipice and could see the card. We immediately informed the guard at the tomb and were told, “In Egypt, whatever the problem, we will find a solution!” About 15 dreadful minutes passed, and then several men came back with a long rope which one of them wrapped several times around his waist. The others stood as if playing tug-of-war and carefully lowered him to the bottom. I watched fearfully as he wandered around the bottom of the pit, stepping with inches of the card several times. Despite the language barrier, he found our lost card, and they pulled him back up. Their generosity was overwhelming and deeply appreciated.
I now had my card back but had no idea if the 50 foot drop to the rocks would have affected its contents. The next few hours were arduous as we left the Valley of the Kings with no idea whether we had anything to show for our efforts. We traveled back to our hotel where I raced to my laptop to download the images (if they were even there). I am sure that it didn’t take long although it seemed like an eternity while the images downloaded from the card and I opened them up. After several grueling hours, I discovered that the SanDisk had held up and the images were intact!
I am eternally indebted to SanDisk for a fine product. One of the most incredible days of my life would have been lost to eternity had it not been for some very kind Egyptian guards at the Valley of the Kings and one very durable Sandisk Extreme III 4 GB card!
Filed under: Partnerships
We are delighted to announce that WesBanco will partner with COSI to be the Supporting Sponsor of Lost Egypt! We will be putting our heads together this January to develop some creative promotional ideas and customized perks for WesBanco customers. Stay tuned to learn how to enter to win WesBanco’s Egypt Trip giveaway!
We want to thank WesBanco for their generous sponsorship and promotional support, which will help COSI ensure that Lost Egypt will be one of the most exciting experiences coming to Central Ohio in 2009!
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: ASTC, camel, Indianapolis Children's Museum, Minotaur Mazes, Thinkwell Design & Production
Author: Kate
Josh, John, and Kate on Camel
Recently Josh Kessler, John Shaw (our Traveling Exhibits Manager) and I attended the annual ASTC conference (ASTC is the Association of Science-Technology Centers) in Philadelphia. We had a great time attending sessions, working at our booth in the Exhibit Hall and being involved in some unconventional networking with our colleagues – we played a mega-game of Assassins, and all three of us were eliminated by noon on the first day! Well played Minotaur Mazes and Indianapolis Children’s Museum (Indy took out both John and Josh…) and a big thank you to Cynthia Sharpe of Thinkwell Design & Production for organizing the game (they’re the folks who designed our current Sesame Street traveling exhibition).
Here’s our booth at the conference. We included the prototype of the pyramid puzzle we’ll have in Lost Egypt, as well as Sarah the Camel and another traveling exhibit we manage – Zula Patrol: Mission Weather.
ASTC Booth
The biggest highlight for me was when a family visited the Exhibit Hall (it’s mostly adults, and for some reason most of them didn’t take us up on the offer to ride the camel). There were two little girls, ages 2 ¾, from Philadelphia. One of them wasn’t so sure about the camel, but the other one, Aurelia Browning, became the first kid to ride on the camel! She got a lift up, but once there, seemed perfectly content to sit in the saddle and look around.
Aurelia on the Camel
We joked with her and asked “Is this your first time on a camel?”
She replied “No.”
Uh, okay. Not the answer we expected. It turned out that Aurelia and her sister had recently visited the zoo, and got to ride on a camel there. So while we didn’t give Aurelia her first camel ride, she’ll always be remembered by us as the first kid to ride Sarah the Camel. Thanks to Aurelia and her family for letting us take the picture and tell the story. We can’t wait to share the camel with more kids in Lost Egypt!
Filed under: The Big Picture | Tags: pyramid, Saqqara, Sarah Parcak, Zahi Hawass
Author: Josh
Another big announcement out of Egypt: Dr. Zahi Hawass has just announced that a team of archaeologists has discovered the remains of a previously unknown pyramid at Saqqara, the 118th pyramid that we know of in Egypt.
Djoser Pyramid Complex
You may recall that one of the stops we made in Egypt was in Saqqara, and it’s an amazing place. It’s the location of the first Egyptian pyramid, the pyramid of Djoser, and a great deal of Old Kingdom mastabas. You may also remember that this is the second pyramid to be uncovered at Saqqara this year, which seems unreal until you consider how much Egyptian history remains buried in the sand.
Consider this from Dr. Sarah Parcak, one of the Egyptologists whom we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing… Her work uses satellite imagery and other remote sensing methods to locate new archaeological sites in Egypt. When she compares the size and number of the new sites that she has discovered to the size and number of all current and previous Egyptian archaeological digs, she estimates that only 0.01% of the archaeological sites in Egypt have been examined!
There’s truly a lot of Lost Egypt left to find. Here’s another link that gives a taste of some of what’s left to be uncovered.
I know I’m going to keep an eye on Dr. Hawass’s website…
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, Jonathan Elias, mummy, rapid prototyping, Robert Hoppa, University of Manitoba, Z Corporation
Author: Kate
Here are the photos of the first life-sized rapid prototype of a mummy!!! If you’ve never seen a rapid prototype, they’re very cool. It starts with CAD or other digital data, which is sent to a 3D printer. In our case, we are using a CT scan that was taken of the mummy that will be on display in the Lost Egypt exhibition. The printer works like your home or office printer, but with bondable powder in place of paper, and adhesive in place of ink. The printer spreads out a layer of powder on the forward swing and sprays glue on the reverse swing. The bonding adhesive (a material resembling super glue) is sprayed out according to the information in an individual scan layer. This is repeated layer by layer until the entire object is produced in full volume (a model of a human skull can take several hours). This project was led by Dr. Jonathan Elias, Director of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, and Dr. Robert Hoppa, University of Manitoba. The printer was manufactured by Z Corporation.
This is the first of three prints we’re making for Lost Egypt. This is a totally new way to see a mummy, allowing us to show a three-dimensional view of a mummy unwrapped. Until this time, the only options to see inside a mummy would be through CT scans, which are 2D images representing 3D data, or to actually unwrap a mummy, destroying it in the process. In the next two sculptures, we’ll go underneath the bandages to reveal the mummy, first with skin, and then at a more skeletal level. We think this will provide a fascinating new view of scientific data.
Filed under: Mummy Restoration | Tags: Academy of Natural Sciences, CAT Scan, Jonathan Elias, Mimi Leveque, mummy, restoration, sarcophagus, University of Pennsylvania
Author: Katie, The Academy of Natural Sciences
The mummy was removed from its case on Friday, October 24, a rare treat for that day’s visitors. Second graders from the Broad Street School in Bridgeton, N.J. were amazed and had so many questions.
Broad Street School Kids
All of the Academy’s visitors, now through November 1, can experience this once in a lifetime opportunity and get within feet of one of the Academy’s treasures. The conservators are hard at work but eager to answer questions from visitors who wander over to the work area.
Visitor's View
Akhmim mummy expert Jonathan Elias has a slide show running throughout the day featuring photos of a CAT Scan performed on the mummy several years ago at the Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. The images allow the viewer to see beyond the wrappings and almost into the eyes of the young girl. It’s quite a sight, especially since we are so close to Halloween.
Mummy CAT Scan
Today, October 27, the group is focusing on the repair and stabilization of the sarcophagus. They are filling in gaps and losses that have occurred over time with various materials including a polyester, open-cell foam, pieces of balsa wood and a pasty, caulk-like material called glass micro balloons, which is a lightweight, inert, cellular filler. All of the materials that are being used for this project are removable, reversible and are causing no damage to the mummy or sarcophagus.
Sara works on the Sarcophagus
“Because the mummy is going to be on the road for so long, I’m doing more stabilization than I normally would because I want it to come back [to the Academy) completely unharmed,” said the Peabody Essex Museum’s Mimi Leveque, lead conservator on the mummy.
Mimi works on the Sarcophagus
Filed under: Construction News
The Mummy's Cartonnage Mask
Author: Kate
This week we begin conservation on the mummy that will be on display in Lost Egypt, on loan to us by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The mummy is of a girl approximately 14-18 years old, who lived in Egypt 2,300 years ago.
John Shaw, COSI’s Traveling Exhibit Manager, Josh, and I visited the Academy last week while we were in Philadelphia for the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) conference. We saw the mummy on display – she has a beautiful cartonnage mask.
We will be posting regular updates in the next few weeks as the conservation progresses!
Filed under: Construction News | Tags: Aaron Dysart, Association of Science Technology Centers, ASTC, Blue Rhino, camel, COSI, Dan Miller, Dave Leak, Dick Leerhoff, Jeff Nelson, Jim Burt, Lost Egypt, Nikkia Vredenburg, Philadelphia, Ryan Dahl, Sarah, science museum of minnesota, Tim Quady
Author: Kate
Our camel, Sarah, is finished! She will be joining us at the Association of Science-Technology Centers conference in Philadelphia in a couple of weeks before coming to live at COSI until Lost Egypt opens. I’m hoping I can get a luggage strap and some wheels and pull her through the Philadelphia airport as my carry-on item (although I’m guessing she won’t fit under the seat in front of me…).
We want to give a huge thank you to the Blue Rhino Studio folks who created our delightful dromedary – Jim Burt (left) is the main sculptor at Blue Rhino Studio – he sculpted Sarah. Also shown are Jeff Nelson, Aaron Dysart, Nikkia Vredenburg and Ryan Dahl. Not pictured are Dave Leak and Tim Quady. We all enjoyed working with them, checking on Sarah’s progress, and visiting Blue Rhino Studio!
We’re also grateful to our partners at the Science Museum of Minnesota who worked on Sarah, including Dan Miller and Dick Leerhoff, who are pictured here.
Thank you!
Filed under: Partnerships | Tags: American Electric Power, COSI, Einstein, Extreme Screen, Lost Egypt, Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, Sesame Street presents: The Body
We are thrilled to share that Lost Egypt officially has its first sponsor! American Electric Power, a long-time friend and supporter of COSI, recently agreed to be the Presenting Sponsor of Lost Egypt.
American Electric Power’s sponsorship supports COSI’s annual fund, which will enable COSI to provide COSI guests, members, and donors of all ages dozens of special events and programs to complement the Lost Egypt exhibition, including:
- Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs film on COSI’s 7-Story Extreme Screen
- Member and Donor Lost Egypt preview events
- Special events or lectures featuring archaeological or ancient Egypt experts
- Educational programs like camps and workshops for students of all ages
Over the past 18 years, American Electric Power has remained one of COSI’s greatest supporters and closest friends. American Electric Power’s sponsorship of popular exhibitions like Einstein (spring of 2007) and Sesame Street Presents: The Body (open October 4, 2008 to January 4, 2009) makes it possible to bring unique, quality educational experiences to our community that create meaningful, lasting memories for all COSI visitors, both young and old.
COSI's Lost Egypt Exhibition 