Egyptian mummies, long an object of modern fascination, seem to link us with the ancient past by preserving distinct human form.
However, this was not the reason for the intricate process, a major new exhibition in Manchester, England, is to make the case for.
The technique was instead a way of transforming dead dignitaries into a shape that the gods would accept.
Photo: EPA-EFE
So, far from ensuring the survival of individual features, mummification aimed to make the occupant of a tomb match a divine formula.
“The idea that we inherited from the Victorians, that it was all done to keep a dead body just as it was in life, is not right,” said Campbell Price, a leading Egyptologist whose book is to accompany the exhibition. “It is flawed, and we now believe it was intended to steer them towards divinity.”
Price and a team of curators are to invite the public to examine the evidence themselves next year, when “Golden Mummies of Egypt” comes to the newly refurbished Manchester Museum, which is reopening on Feb. 18.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The display, which is to feature eight mummies and more than 100 other ancient objects, has already toured internationally during the museum’s closure and is to be freshly staged for Manchester, to emphasize Price’s interpretation of the ancient purification, anointing and wrapping process.
“We have to imagine a time when, not only were there obviously no photographic images, but also very few mirrors, so people didn’t know what they looked like. The whole question of individual facial features was not so important,” Price said.
“The ideas behind ancient portraiture and statuary were also very different as a result,” he added.
The strength of the mistaken belief that Price now hopes to turn on its golden head is down to the colonial attitudes of early British archeologists, supported today by our heightened interest in personal appearance, he said.
“When people look at a face inside a mummy and say: ‘Oh, they looked just like us,’ it is just an illusion,” he said.
Price is a member of the Egypt Exploration Society, which, although founded in 1882, now challenges the outdated, colonial, celebratory approach.
More up-to-date interpretations stem in part from the work of Egyptologist Christina Riggs, whose book Treasured: How Tutankhamun Shaped a Century was published in paperback this month to coincide with the centenary of the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun, the probably best known pharaoh, whose grave was discovered by a team led by British archeologist Howard Carter in February 1923.
In recognition of the spiritual significance of the mummies and other contents of Egyptian tombs, no computed tomography scan nor facial recognition imagery are to appear in the exhibition.
“All the more recent scanning harks back to the Edwardian archeologist Flinders Petrie, who was interested in measuring the skulls inside the mummies to see if they matched British ideas of what a human should be,” Price said. “It is the rather sinister background to Egyptology we are moving away from.”
Displayed diary entries from eminent British archeologists of the 19th and early 20th centuries are also to presented to reveal how priorities were once driven by Victorian values concerning race, gender, status and death.
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on Sunday announced a deal with the chief of Kurdish-led forces that includes a ceasefire, after government troops advanced across Kurdish-held areas of the country’s north and east. Syrian Kurdish leader Mazloum Abdi said he had agreed to the deal to avoid a broader war. He made the decision after deadly clashes in the Syrian city of Raqa on Sunday between Kurdish-led forces and local fighters loyal to Damascus, and fighting this month between the Kurds and government forces. The agreement would also see the Kurdish administration and forces integrate into the state after months of stalled negotiations on
‘MOBILIZED’: While protesters countered ICE agents, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz activated the state’s National Guard to ‘support the rights of Minnesotans’ to assemble Hundreds of counterprotesters drowned out a far-right activist’s attempt to hold a small rally in support of US President Donald Trump’s latest immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday, as the governor’s office announced that National Guard troops were mobilized and ready to assist law enforcement, although not yet deployed to city streets. There have been protests every day since the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ramped up immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul by bringing in more than 2,000 federal officers. Conservative influencer Jake Lang organized an anti-Islam, anti-Somali and pro-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
RSS