Anything Auto Immune

The Institute of Egyptian Art Ft Archaeology, founded in 1984, is a component of the Department of Art of The University of Memphis, in Memphis, Tennessee (USA), and is a Tennessee Center of Excellence. It is dedicated to the study of the art and culture of ancient Egypt through teaching, research, exhibition, and community education. As part of its teaching and research, the Institute Conducts an epigraphic survey in the Great Hypostyle Hall of Kamak Temple in Luxor, Egypt. The Institute’s collection of antiquities resides in the Art Museum of The University of Memphis. Over 150 objects range in date from 3500 B.C.E. to 700 CL. There are mummies, religious and funerary items, jewelry and objects from everyday life. One unique item in the collection is nothing less than a 4000 year old loaf of bread, This loaf of bread placed with other objects under the foundation of Mentuhotep II’s mortuary temple at Deir el Bahari in Western Thebes. The objects placed in foundation deposits for ancient Egyptian temples were intended to symbolically stabilize and protect the four corners and the boundary walls of the temple, because the temple itself was believed to be a microcosm of the universe. One reward gained from a stable universe was food in abundance. The loaf of bread symbolizes that value. View the bread, and other artifacts, in a stunningly rendered online exhibit.

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