June 13, 2003
                   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                   MEDIA CONTACT: Pamela Higgins
                   (410) 516-8337
                   pamela.higgins@jhu.edu

THE JOURNEY: LIFE AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT

It is a misconception that the Ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death. In reality they were a people consumed by a passion for life. The Egyptians believed that their journey through life and past death paralleled the journey of the sun. Birth and death could be equated to sunrise and sunset. Both the sun and the soul of the deceased needed to traverse the dangers of the Underworld in order to be reborn again.
 
The Journey: Life and Death in Ancient Egypt is an exhibition at the Johns Hopkins University Sheridan Libraries.  The exhibit is free and open to the public through September in the Special Collections Department on A Level in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, located on the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus at 3400 North Charles St.
 
The world of the Ancient Egyptians will be illustrated through artifacts, photographs and excerpts from ancient texts. The artifacts are from the Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Collection and include bronze figurines, faience shabtis, alabaster vessels and more. The artifacts, combined with photographs of Egyptian art and architecture, will help to create a picture of Ancient Egypt that includes windows into daily life, kingship, worship of the gods and preparations for the journey into the Afterlife.
 
The exhibition echoes the recent reinstallation of the galleries in the Johns Hopkins University Archaeological Collection, located in Gilman 129/131. The collection established through the efforts of University President Daniel Coit Gilman and it includes Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greco-Roman, Byzantine and Islamic artifacts. Important contributors to the collection included: Helen Tanzer, James Teackle Dennis and Mendes Israel Cohen.

The Sheridan Libraries encompass the Milton S. Eisenhower Library and its collections at the Hutzler Reading Room, Garrett Library and the George Peabody Library.

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