The Missus and I went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts today to see the Treasures of Ancient Egypt: Sunken Cities exhibit.
Destroyed by natural catastrophes in the 8th century AD, Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus were once large, powerful centers of trade and religion. Egyptian and Greek cultures merged art, worship, and everyday life in these cities.
In the late 90s, these two significant ancient Egyptian cities, swallowed up by the Mediterranean and long forgotten, were rediscovered in the Bay of Abu Qir. An enormous amount of submerged archeological treasure was discovered, much of it almost completely intact. So much was recovered that an almost complete picture of life in those cities was pieced together.
This is a near-pristine statue of Osiris, the Egyptian god of rebirth and regeneration. It is displayed as it would have appeared in a temple, with flickering votives. The picture is spectacular on black.
