Yesterday (Oct 5 2019) was the opening of the exhibition at the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Library (Simi Valley, CA) of
Egyptian artifacts ,mostly from the undersea excavations off of
Alexandria organized by Franck Goddio. Pretty cool with some objects not exhibited before. There are also some objects loaned from various museums mixed in but
plenty of amazing things that came up from Herakleion (
aka Thonis) and Canopus, small cities near
Alexandria that sank into the ocean about 800AD. A lot of the material is from
Ptolemaic and
Roman periods. Only a few coins, but they are interesting ones - small gold chryson fraction coins of
Ptolemy I in terrific condition. Some gold
jewelry objects also. Lots of statuary, some of which is huge - 20 to 30 feet tall - that were hauled up from the ocean floor some kilometers off the modern shores of
Alexandria. Temples sank into the sea along with everything else so
plenty of religious devotional objects are on display, too. Recommended and the RR presidential
library has its own attractions to add to your visit including
his Air Force One airplane hanging in its own separate building. Beautiful views from a spectacular hilltop location were
enhanced yesterday by the clear cloudless skies on an 85-degree sunny day.
Topping off my own experience was getting to meet Franck Goddio and talk about coins and some mutual friends who are doing numismatic
work on the thousands of coins that have come up from the excavations. One small
hoard of
Ptolemaic bronzes from Herakleion has been published - but there likely be more. Goddio
had been there for a week or so supervising the installations and then left today so my spur of the moment decision to see the exhibit on opening day was fortuitous.
I'll post some pictures when I pull them from my camera.
The exhibit will be at the RR
library until April so if you're in the LA
area make the short drive out to Simi and take it in. You won't be disappointed. They have a web site and you do need to purchase tickets but it's all reasonable and you can visit the Reagan
Library and
Egypt exhibits on one ticket,
good for all day.
PtolemAE