1996 VHS • Splendors of Ancient Egypt 60 FPS

About

Splendors of Ancient Egypt is a documentary produced in conjunction with the traveling exhibition of 175 artifacts from the Roemer und Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, which toured the United States beginning in 1996. The exhibition's curator, Egyptologist Dr. Robert Bianchi, is the primary on-camera guide throughout. Bianchi opens by explaining the exhibition's central interpretive goal: teaching viewers to read the coded visual language of ancient Egyptian elite art, in which color, form, and composition carried specific symbolic meaning accessible to the educated class. The program surveys the Great Pyramids of Giza, a 150-foot cedar boat, bronze weights, and mummification artifacts.

Subsequent segments cover the seated scribe figure Hety, the role of amulets as protective charms, Egyptian astronomical knowledge, the symbolic importance of baboons, Nile flood cycles, and examples of high-water-mark stone carving in bas-relief. Bianchi concludes with a historical overview tracing Egypt's dynastic continuity through Greek and Roman conquest until the fall of the last pharaoh in 31 AD. The program closes with reflections on the enduring cultural influence of ancient Egyptian civilization.

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

Licence or status

The Internet Archive states none for this item.

Credit

The Vista Group®

Language

English

Subtitles

English (automatic)

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed