JUST AS AUSTRALIA declares war on cats, with the release of the federal government’s draft feral-cat management program (see Geobits, page 15), a blockbuster exhibition venerating these mammals arrives in New South Wales. The much-anticipated Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs opens at the Australian Museum (AM) in Sydney in November, representing the largest cultural exhibition Australia has received in more than a decade. Among the 4500- to 2000-year-old ancient Egyptian artefacts are funerary masks and sacred amulets, a menagerie of mummified animals, collars and bracelets festooned with semiprecious gemstones, painted limestone reliefs and faience tiles, diadems, and a gold uraeus – the rearing cobra on a pharaoh’s headdress – inlaid with lapis lazuli and amazonite. The objects range from the Old Kingdom (2686BCE–2181BCE) through to Roman times, with a strong focus on Egypt’s New Kingdom period (roughly 1550BCE–1069BCE).
The exhibition’s namesake, Ramses II, was a pharaoh typical of the New Kingdom, a golden age characterised by military expansion, lucrative trade and spectacular art and architecture. Ramses ascended the throne in 1279BCE, when he was about 25, and quickly proved his ability as a ruler
