Understanding the news: Tutankhamun moving to the Grand Egyptian Museum

Understanding the news: Tutankhamun moving to the Grand Egyptian Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum or GEM will be the new home of the treasures of Tutankhamun when it soft opens in 2018. This week, the delicate and complex process of packing Tutankhamun's lion bier was undertaken.

After the problems with damage done to the beard of Tutankhamun's famous gold mask (2014) there has been much scrutiny of the handling of these irreplaceable precious objects. It will take many hours of careful stabilisation by conservators (note the tape on the bed pictured) and wrapping to move objects safely to their new home for display. The bed poses particular challenges, as it is made of mostly organic materials (timber and woven matting) which can become highly fragile and disintegrate easily if the proper environmental and handling conditions are not met.

These 'funerary beds' or biers were used to support and transport the mummy/coffins to the tomb and for rituals. They often feature lion head designs. Tutankhamun's tomb contained two similar pieces of furniture, one with a Hathor motif and the other appears to be Taweret (a hippopotamus). These motifs suggest the furniture may have had ritual associations with rebirth and protection.

The ambitious museum project will house around 100,000 objects and when complete will be one of the largest museums in the world when it opens in mid 2018. (According to Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany, on March 6, 2017)

The museum's large size is in part due to the need to house large statues.

References:
http://www.egyptindependent.com/grand-egyptian-museum-open-mid-2018-antiquities-minister-0
Further reading:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/furniture/index.html

http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/268957.aspx