There are three ancient cultures whose images – we tend to call it art – have captured my imagination from an early age. The first to thrill me was that of ancient China, when I was very, very young. Later came fascination with the images of the ancient world of pre-Columbian Central America and the art of the Northwest Coast Haida, who are not really related, but I group in my mind as art of the Americas. The third, by no means the least, culture to catch my interest was that of ancient Egypt.

I read many books about Egypt and always wanted to visit the sites where so many treasures have been unearthed over the past two centuries. It is a world that is intrinsically interwoven with our own through the ancient Greco-Romans, and biblical tales. Sadly, unlike China, Central and North America, Egypt and its pyramids, and all they entail, have eluded me. Instead, I have had to satisfy my interest in ancient Egypt by going to museums. And right now, for Canadians, there is no better place to get a good dose of the world of the pharaohs than at the ROM.

The reason that these treasures from a very different world than ours have come to Toronto has its origins in two events an ocean apart. The TBM is undergoing considerable renovations and so needed a way to clear space. This is where the American Federation of Arts (AFA) came in. It put together a traveling exhibition across North America of some of the very best of the TBM's Egyptian collection to travel across the USA, curated by Brooklyn Museum of Art's Edna R. Russmann. Its main title, Eternal Egypt, explains that it covers not just a specific era or Egyptian dynasty, but encompasses all of the various periods of early Egyptian history.

As it turned out this was just what the ROM needed. It is the scene of the other event, because it too is currently undergoing major reconstruction. The museum's officials realized they needed to keep the public coming while this is going on and yet, they needed an exhibit that can fit into the still available space. Eternal Egypt proved the answer. Especially, as it follows up on an exhibition the ROM carried in 2000: Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. It was the ROM's most successful single exhibit ever.

In Toronto, Eternal Egypt is presented with the combined efforts of the ROM's curators Krzysztof Grzymski and Roberta Shaw. They worked with the AFA and Russmann to give the show its local flavor, and therefore it contains a few of the ROM's own objects.

This current exhibit should be just as successful as the 2000 show because it is such a comprehensive view of an ancient world that Plato [c. 428-c. 347 BC] claimed was already 10,000 years old. He may have been out a few thousand years, but it can be said that when this ancient Greek philosopher spoke of Egypt it was already very old, indeed. Eternal Egypt travels a period from its pre-dynastic beginnings [about 3100 B.C.] to the time it had been absorbed into the Roman Empire [A.D. 170].

While we look at the sculptures, papyrus scrolls and artifacts as objects of art, we have to take into consideration that the Egyptians had no word for art. To them all of this beauty was created for utilitarian and religious reasons. The Egyptians were very much concerned with finding an easy, pleasant way into the afterlife, although what we get to see is not – for the most part – intended for ordinary people. I doubt very much the lower classes could have afforded the cosmetic jars, the gold earrings, and papyrus paintings that have survived into our own time. Nor could they have afforded the stone carvings, or those made from wood – a rare commodity in Egypt even thousands of years ago – that are in this exhibit.

Old Plato most likely would have seen nothing wrong with not having a word for art. He had quite an antagonistic view of art and artists, and approved only of such objects for religious and moralistic uses. The Egyptians, however, revered their artists and scribes as professionals. This respect arose because most people could not write. Painters and sculptors invariably were also scribes, but scribes were not necessarily artists.

The exhibit features some of the tools of the trade of the scribes, which even today will fascinate anyone interested in the history and the tools of communication. The Egyptians eventually raised the stature of one of their most famous artists and scribes to that of a god. The architect of the first pyramid, Imhetep, who also has been recognized as the world's first great doctor, and who was also a priest, scribe, sage, poet and astrologer alongside his duties of being a vizier and chief minister to his pharaoh, Djoser or Zoser, was made a medical demigod about 100 years after his death. About 2,000 years later the Egyptians made him a full god.

Only one other mortal Egyptian reached the status of god, namely Amenhotep III, who was made god of fertility, linked to agriculture. He is represented in this exhibition by a huge quartzite head with a Mona Lisa smile, and a red granite lion, which had been re-inscribed for Tutankhamun.

Ancient Egypt's culture is important even today because of the high development it reached long before that of Greece and Rome. Sir William Osler [1849-1919], Canada's great physician, who contributed so much to the development of internal medicine, described Imhotep as the ". . . first figure of a physician to stand out clearly from the mists of antiquity." Among Imhotep's medical accomplishments were the identification and treatment of over 200 diseases. He treated tuberculosis, gallstones, and appendicitis among many other illnesses. What is so amazing is that he understood the functions of the vital organs and circulation of the blood system, something that was later lost and rediscovered only in the 1700s by the English physician, William Harvey [1578-1657].

While today Egypt is an Arab nation, it must be remembered that the ancient Egyptians were not Arabs, and their language, although now extinct, has the longest recorded history of any language, namely 5,000 years. A branch of the Hamito-Semitic language group, it changed over millennia and ended in Coptic, which became the language of the Christians of Egypt. Coptic is now only a liturgical language because after the conquest of Egypt by the Muslim Arabs in the late 7^th Century A.D., it gave way to Arabic as the spoken language of the country, becoming completely eliminated by the 14^th Century.

So, when we walk through Eternal Egypt's displays, we should feel a sense of awe for the people who created these objects, which to us is art, pure and simple. Their world is lost, but not what they created. And what wonders they are.

While the large sculptures are imposing, including a granite fragment of Tutankhamun presenting an offering, one must not pass by the small wooden sculptures, showing males and females in the nude. One, in particular, shows such extraordinary animation, it is almost startling among the usually very static representation of humans in stone. These figures are from around 2400 B.C.

One of my favourite pieces in stone is the head from a statue of Thutmosis III [c.1479-1425 B.C.] Sculpted from fine-grained graywacke (a dark sandstone with an admixture of clay) that has been polished to a high finish, it is quite extraordinary. There is some controversy about this head. Thutmosis II, son of a minor wife of Thutmosis I, married the princess Hatshepsut (his half-sister) to strengthen his claim to the throne. When he died within a few years of taking over the reins, Hatshepsut governed for his young son, Thutmosis III, born to the commoner Isis, and within two years had herself crowned pharaoh. Hatshepsut, to quell the fears of her people, became a "pharaoh" in all statuary and relief work during her reign. She even dressed in the traditional garb of male rulers.

In the 15 years of her rule she commissioned considerable art works, including the construction of the fabulous temple in the Valley of the Kings, against the tall plateau at Deir-el-Bahri, across the Nile from Thebes. Within 20 years of her death Thutmosis III attempted to eradicate all memory of her by adding his own name or that of his forebears on her monuments; it is believed he is also responsible for the destruction of her tomb, including the theft of her mummy. Some archeologists and curators, including the ROM's own Roberta Shaw, believe that this graceful graywacke head is actually of Hatshepsut.

Another favorite is a papyrus from the Middle Kingdom that is clearly social satire. It depicts animals doing things that are usually done by humans, and associating with animals that are usually their enemies or their prey. There is a gazelle playing chess with a lion, a fox and hyena shepherding antelopes, and a cat tending a flock of geese among other scenes.

Part of the Funerary Arts section are sections of the Book of the Dead, a papyrus originally 78 feet long. It had to be cut into sections for the purpose of preservation. Here we are shown how various individuals are prepared for entry into the afterlife. They depict not only daily Egyptian life, but also their religious beliefs in a way that statues cannot do.

When Rome began to rule Egypt, its influences slowly crept into daily life, but Egyptian burial customs continued. One of the most fascinating for us is the Panel Portrait of a Woman [c. A.D. 160-170]. It had been incorporated into her mummy wrappings. She has a Greco-Roman hairstyle and wears a necklace containing emeralds, a stone not known in pharaonic Egypt. But, most of all, it is so lifelike, that one begins to realize that at that time the Egyptians, and the Romans, of course, had the capability to paint realistic images that northern Europe did not achieve until the arrival of the Renaissance.

There are several ways to enjoy this show. The most important one is to take plenty of time to go through and read what the curators have written about each piece. An enhancement is to take the audio tour along. It explains in greater detail a number of the works using MP3 technology. Not only does well-known actor John Rhys-Davies narrate, but sounds have been added that place the works into the perspective of their own time. And, if you really want to enlarge your knowledge, there is an excellent illustrated catalogue with enlightening essays. It is costly, though, at $65.00.

[Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum at the ROM until June 6, 2004]