Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum

Last updated
Karnak-style entrance to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, with statue of Tawaret Rc egyptian museum.jpg
Karnak-style entrance to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, with statue of Tawaret

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM) is devoted to ancient Egypt, located at Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California, United States.

Contents

It was founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC). The Rosicrucian order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities. The museum holds the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western United States, [1] and is located next to the AMORC headquarters. [2]

History

The founder of AMORC, Harvey Spencer Lewis, was a collector of various artifacts with mystical symbolism, some of them from the East. His very first artifact was a small Sekhmet statue. In 1921 he contributed financially to the archaeological excavations at Tel el Amarna (Akhetaten, the capital city of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten) of the Egypt Explorations Society of Boston by receiving donations from AMORC members. In return, the Egypt Explorations Society donated several Egyptian antiquities to AMORC.

In 1928, he presented to the public a collection named "The Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum", located at the administration buildings of AMORC at San Jose, California. Supposedly, the San Jose location was chosen because of the affordability of the land back then. [1] After Lewis' tour in Egypt in 1929, AMORC received many more artifacts and donations, and as a result the collection grew significantly, with more than 2000 exhibits.

The second Imperator of AMORC, Ralph Maxwell Lewis, son of H. Spencer Lewis, built new buildings for the museum, which opened in November 1966. [3]

By that time the museum was unique in:

In 1995, Julie Scott, M.A., S.R.C., who is a practicing Rosicrucian, [1] became director of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum.

In 2017, the museum was claiming 110,000 visitors per year, including 26,000 sixth-graders. The building is also used by the Rosicrucians for meditation and group discussions. [1] In 2018, the museum became a zero-energy building. [4]

Notable exhibits

A notable activity took place in 1999 when the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum started the traveling exhibition "Women of the Nile" accompanied by many lectures. "Women of the Nile" travelled across the United States of America and Canada, and continued until 2001. In 2000–2002, a stone figure of Cleopatra VII from the collection was displayed in Rome, London, and Chicago in similar exhibitions.

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum's child mummy traveled to Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto on May 6, 2005 to be studied under CT scans and other high-resolution methods of remote sensing, in a collaboration between the museum, Silicon Graphics, and Stanford University Hospital and the NASA Biocomputational Lab. The results were released at the 75th Anniversary of the Museum on August 6, 2005, with detailed scans. [5] One of the scanning images won the Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2006 co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Science . [6] In November 2017, x-ray images of the mummy were released that provide a 3D visualization of the girl's remains. [7]

A statue of Taweret, the ancient Egyptian hippopotamus-like goddess of pregnant women and childbirth, once stood at the entrance, but has been moved to the side. Since 2004, the Museum has been completely renovated, with the following Gallery themes:

The museum also holds a 1.5 million year old stone hand ax, but it is not exhibited to the public. [8]

Rock-cut tomb replica

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum contains a composite replica of an ancient Egyptian rock-cut tomb, based on photos and sketches taken by Rosicrucian expeditions to tombs at Beni Hasan, in order to give the guests the experience of being in such an excavation. Below are photographs of the interior of the replica tomb, largely containing scenes from the Book of the Dead . The dark interior of the tomb replica is evident.

The Rosicrucian Alchemy Exhibit

Beginning in 2015, for the 100th Anniversary of the incorporation of AMORC in America, which owns and operates the Museum, the museum's Rotating Exhibits Gallery became The Rosicrucian Alchemy Exhibit. The highlights of the collection were put on display in this exhibit.

This exhibit, curated by the alchemist Dennis William Hauck, features a journey through the seven stages of the alchemical process, a meditation chamber featuring the Azoth of the Philosophers and a recorded guided meditation, and a full-size reproduction of an alchemist’s workshop. There is also a reproduction of the Ripley Scroll with illustrative commentary.

The Exhibit forms the kernel of what will be the first alchemy museum in the United States, and the largest in the world. It will be housed in the present "Rose-Croix University International" building at Rosicrucian Park. The RCUI Building also contains a working alchemy lab.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tutankhamun</span> Pharaoh of ancient Egypt (18th Dynasty)

Tutankhamun, Tutankhamon or Tutankhamen, also known as Tutankhaten, was the antepenultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt. His death marked the cessation of the dynasty's royal line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akhenaten</span> 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh

Akhenaten, also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nefertiti</span> Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten

Nefertiti was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. Some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female king Neferneferuaten after her husband's death and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiye</span> Queen consort of Egypt

Tiye was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010, DNA analysis confirmed her as the mummy known as "The Elder Lady" found in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in 1898.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egyptian Museum</span> History museum in Cairo, Egypt

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, commonly known as the Egyptian Museum, located in Cairo, Egypt, houses the largest collection of Egyptian antiquities in the world. It houses over 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display. Located in Tahrir Square in a building built in 1901, it is the largest museum in Africa. Among its masterpieces are Pharaoh Tutankhamun's treasure, including its iconic gold burial mask, widely considered one of the best-known works of art in the world and a prominent symbol of ancient Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amenhotep III</span> Ninth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

Amenhotep III, also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep was Thutmose's son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KV55</span> Egyptian tomb possibly of Pharoah Akhenaten

KV55 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered by Edward R. Ayrton in 1907 while he was working in the Valley for Theodore M. Davis. It has long been speculated, as well as much disputed, that the body found in this tomb was that of the famous king, Akhenaten, who moved the capital to Akhetaten. The results of genetic and other scientific tests published in February 2010 have confirmed that the person buried there was both the son of Amenhotep III and the father of Tutankhamun. Furthermore, the study established that the age of this person at the time of his death was consistent with that of Akhenaten, thereby making it almost certain that it is Akhenaten's body. However, a growing body of work soon began to appear to dispute the assessment of the age of the mummy and the identification of KV55 as Akhenaten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smenkhkare</span> Egyptian pharaoh

Smenkhkare was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of unknown background who lived and ruled during the Amarna Period of the 18th Dynasty. Smenkhkare was husband to Meritaten, the daughter of his likely co-regent, Akhenaten. Since the Amarna period was subject to a large-scale condemnation of memory by later Pharaohs, very little can be said of Smenkhkare with certainty, and he has hence been subject to immense speculation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of Tutankhamun</span> Ancient Egyptian tomb

The tomb of Tutankhamun, also known by its tomb number, KV62, is the burial place of Tutankhamun, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb consists of four chambers and an entrance staircase and corridor. It is smaller and less extensively decorated than other Egyptian royal tombs of its time, and it probably originated as a tomb for a non-royal individual that was adapted for Tutankhamun's use after his premature death. Like other pharaohs, Tutankhamun was buried with a wide variety of funerary objects and personal possessions, such as coffins, furniture, clothing and jewelry, though in the unusually limited space these goods had to be densely packed. Robbers entered the tomb twice in the years immediately following the burial, but Tutankhamun's mummy and most of the burial goods remained intact. The tomb's low position, dug into the floor of the valley, allowed its entrance to be hidden by debris deposited by flooding and tomb construction. Thus, unlike other tombs in the valley, it was not stripped of its valuables during the Third Intermediate Period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiya</span> Queen consort of Egypt

Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's ‘Great royal wife’, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni princess. Surviving evidence demonstrates that Kiya was an important figure at Akhenaten's court during the middle years of his reign, when she had a daughter with him. She disappears from history a few years before her royal husband's death. In previous years, she was thought to be mother of Tutankhamun, but recent DNA evidence suggests this is unlikely.

Thutmose, also known as "The King's Favourite and Master of Works, the Sculptor Thutmose", was an Ancient Egyptian sculptor in the Amarna style. He flourished around 1350 BC, and is thought to have been the official court sculptor of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten in the latter part of his reign. A German archaeological expedition digging in Akhenaten's deserted city of Akhetaten, known today as Amarna, found a ruined house and studio complex in early December 1912; the building was identified as that of Thutmose based on an ivory horse blinker found in a rubbish pit in the courtyard inscribed with his name and job title. Since it gave his occupation as "sculptor" and the building was clearly a sculpture workshop, the determination seemed logical and has proven to be accurate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis</span> Largest Rosicrucian organization in the world

The Ancient and Mystical Order Rosæ Crucis (AMORC), also known as the Rosicrucian Order, is the largest Rosicrucian organization in the world. It has various lodges, chapters and other affiliated bodies throughout the globe, operating in 19 different languages. It operates as a fraternal order in the mystical Western Esoteric Tradition

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Spencer Lewis</span> American Rosicrucian and occultist

Harvey Spencer Lewis F.R.C., S:::I:::I:::, 33° 66° 95°,, a noted Rosicrucian author, occultist, and mystic, was the founder in the US and the first Imperator of the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (AMORC), from 1915 until 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egyptian Museum of Berlin</span> Collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts

The Egyptian Museum of Berlin is home to one of the world's most important collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts, including the iconic Nefertiti Bust. Since 1855, the collection is a part of the Neues Museum on Berlin's Museum Island, which reopened after renovations in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luxor Museum</span> Egyptology, history museum, archaeological museum in Luxor, Egypt

Luxor Museum is an archaeological museum in Luxor, Egypt. It stands on the corniche, overlooking the east bank of the River Nile.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosicrucian Park</span> Headquarters of the English Grand Lodge for the Americas of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis

Rosicrucian Park is the headquarters of the English Grand Lodge for the Americas of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, located in San Jose, California.

Carl Nicholas Reeves, FSA, is a British Egyptologist, archaeologist and museum curator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exhibitions of artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun</span>

Exhibitions of artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun have been held at museums in several countries, notably the United Kingdom, Soviet Union, United States, Canada, Japan, and France.

This page list topics related to ancient Egypt.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rachael Myrow, What Is the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Why Is It in San Jose?, Kqed.org, 13 July 2017
  2. 1 2 Black, Annetta. "San Jose, California, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  3. Adrienne Blaine, San Jose’s Egyptian Museum Vibes off its Secret Society Roots, Kqed.org, 30 June 2015
  4. Andrea Bertoli, Mynt Systems’ Cost Effective Net Zero Carbon Retrofit, Cleantechnica.com, 7 March 2018
  5. Michael D. Lemonick, Secrets of a 2,000-Year-Old Child, Time.com, 8 August 2005
  6. 2006 Winners, Nsf.gov, 2006
  7. Kristin Hugo, 2,000-year-old ancient child mummy revealed in incredible detail through 3D scanning technology, Newsweek.com, 3 November 2017
  8. Jessica Yadegaran, Date Night: Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose, Mercurynews.com, 21 February 2014

37°20′03″N121°55′24″W / 37.3342°N 121.9233°W / 37.3342; -121.9233