All 130 objects in this show come from the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, which means they came from the ground, from tombs, from the actual civilization rather than from a century of Western collecting. That distinction matters. The de Young is presenting gilded coffins, stone statues, jewelry, furniture, and ritual objects spanning 3,000 years of Egyptian history. The show is organized around the pharaoh as both king and god, and then radiates outward to the people and the Egyptian belief system. A special draw is the North American debut of objects from the Golden City, discovered in 2020. A workers’ settlement near Luxor that dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, the Golden City was abandoned so suddenly—due to Akhenaten’s shift from polytheism to monotheism—that it has been compared to Pompeii. —Elena Clavarino