Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Snake-bird gods fascinated both Aztecs and pharaohs
Ancient Mexicans and Egyptians who never met and lived centuries and thousands of miles apart both worshiped feathered-serpent deities, built pyramids and developed a 365-day calendar, a new exhibition shows.

Billed as the world's largest temporary archeological showcase, Mexican archeologists have brought treasures from ancient Egypt to display alongside the great indigenous civilizations of Mexico for the first time.

The exhibition, which boasts a five-tonne, 3,000-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and stone carvings from Mexican pyramid Chichen Itza, aims to show many of the similarities of two complex worlds both conquered by Europeans in invasions 1,500 years apart.


There's a bit of stretching going on. I think the only vaguely "feathered serpent" is maybe the Wadjet cobra that is very occasionally pictured as winged. Not that there aren't interesting parallels . . . .