For Immediate Release Contact: Nancy O'Shea (312) 665-7103 (For Media Use Only) Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs Exhibition Walk-Through Gallery 1 Introduction A 2-minute movie produced by National Geographic introduces the exhibition, and visitors are then introduced to a granite sculpture of Tutankhamun. It is the only artifact in the room and one wall is dedicated to a large mural, a landscape scene of Egypt. Gallery 2 Daily Life in Ancient Egypt This gallery concentrates on artifacts and models of objects that illustrate the daily life of the ancient Egyptians in the second half of the 18th dynasty. Since all of the tombs from which these items come belonged to wealthy individuals, the picture shown is primarily of the elite and royal classes. Gallery 3 Traditional Religion This gallery has artifacts that reflect the traditional religion of the ancient Egyptians that had developed from around 3300 BCE. Some of the objects deal with funerary beliefs and others with state religion and personal piety. A few illustrate some of the traditional deities. Gallery 4 Religious Revolution: The Focus on a Single God Here are images portraying the pharaoh Akhenaten (probably the father of Tutankhamun), some of his family, and the focus of his new god, the Aten - the disk of the sun. New imagery and new styles of representation are very obvious and reflect the new beliefs. Gallery 5 Death, Burial, and the Afterlife This gallery is a complement to Gallery 3. It concentrates on the type of items in an elite tomb, the preparation of the body, and the steps the Egyptians took to protect the body for the afterlife. Many of the artifacts derive from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuya, a non-royal couple who received permission to be buried in the royal Valley of the Kings. They may have been the great grand parents of Tutankhamun. Gallery 6 The Discovery of the Tomb This gallery is devoted to recording the history of the discovery. There are no artifacts. Continue>>