Mummies
Through January 7, 2018
American Museum of Natural History
Discover when, how, and why ancient Egyptians and Peruvians were mummified in a new show featuring an up-close look at rarely-exhibited mummies as well as interactive touch tables, rare artifacts, and cutting-edge imaging.
For thousands of years, peoples around the world practiced mummification as a way of preserving and honoring their dead.
Mummies brings you face to face with some of these ancient individuals and reveals how scientists are using modern technology to glean stunning details about them and their cultures.
Discover when, how, and why ancient Egyptians and Peruvians were mummified and find out who they were in life. This show features an up-close look at rarely-exhibited mummies as well as interactive touch tables, rare artifacts, and cutting-edge imaging.
Mummies brings you face to face with some of these ancient individuals and reveals how scientists are using modern technology to glean stunning details about them and their cultures.
Discover when, how, and why ancient Egyptians and Peruvians were mummified and find out who they were in life. This show features an up-close look at rarely-exhibited mummies as well as interactive touch tables, rare artifacts, and cutting-edge imaging.
Exhibition Highlights
Mummification was practiced by numerous cultures in what is now Peru, beginning more than 7,000 years ago.
In our imagination, mummies are linked with ancient Egypt, and not without reason.ummification was practiced there for thousands of years.
New imaging technologies allow researchers to respectfully see inside these mummies.
Mummies is co-curated by David Hurst Thomas, curator of North American Archaeology in the Division of Anthropology and John J. Flynn, Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals in the Division of Paleontology.
Mummies was developed by The Field Museum, Chicago.
The Museum gratefully acknowledges the Richard and Karen LeFrak Exhibition and Education Fund.
Visit Mummies at the American Museum of Natural History from March 20, 2017 to January 7, 2018.
- Learn more at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mummies
- Mummies was developed by The Field Museum, Chicago.
- The Museum gratefully acknowledges the Richard and Karen LeFrak Exhibition and Education Fund.
- Mummies is proudly supported by Chase Private Client.
- Video AMNH /L. Stevens
The Field Revealed:
Gilded Lady, The Mummy
Using state of the art technology, Anthropologists from The Field Museum had the opportunity to examine Egyptian mummies for the first time. Check out the amazing images that can be produced with a medical CT scanner. These mummies have been part of the Museum collections for many years and thanks to proper conservation methods, researchers are now able to work with them without causing any damage.
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Mummies Revealed
Part of the Mummies exhibition.
As new technologies emerge, scientists reexamine museum collections, which often yield new information. Today, new imaging technologies are helping researchers to see inside these centuries-old specimens without damaging them. In Mummies, see the latest research and find out what cutting-edge science can tell us about these individuals—including mummy #30007, also known as the Gilded Lady.
Side horizontal view of upper body and head of mummy, covered in dark wrappings with a gilded face.
Ancient Egyptian mummy #30007. © 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_016A, photographer John Weinstein
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This beautifully preserved mummy with intricate linen bindings, a gilded headdress, and painted facial features is from Roman-era Egypt (30 BC–AD 646). Still never unwrapped since she was carefully preserved, this mummy's inner secrets remained hidden until examined by computerized tomography (CT) scanning in 2011.
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CT scanning of The Field Museum’s mummies rendered extremely detailed views of bones, muscles, and even the hair of the persons inside their wrappings and coffins. This image of mummy #30007’s skeleton was composed by putting together thousands of “slices” of images of only bones, no tissue.
Wrapped mummy on left and the skeleton that is revealed by CT scan on the right.
Intact form of mummy #30007; Skeleton of #30007 rendered from CT scan.
© 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_030A, photographer John Weinstein; CT scan composite © 2015 Field Museum, Katarina Kaspari
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The headdress is made of cartonnage, a papier-mâché like substance made from glued layers of papyrus or linen, then covered with gilding, a thin layer of gold. Ancient Egyptians believed the gold would enable the person’s eyes, nose, and mouth to stay intact for the afterlife. The golden skin was used to show divinity because after death, she would be transformed into the god Osiris, who had skin of gold.
Detail view of the layers of the headdress made from papyrus and linen, topped with a gold-painted face.
© 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_035B, photographer John Weinstein
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CT scanning of mummy #30007 revealed that she was a woman in her forties with curly hair and a slight overbite. It also uncovered evidence that she may have died from tuberculosis, a common and frequently deadly ailment in ancient Egypt.
Scan reveals skull and also the outlines of tissue and hair.
CT scan of mummy #30007. © The Field Museum
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This hyper-realistic sculpture, created by forensic artist Élisabeth Daynès, portrays the woman behind the gilded mask as she may have looked during her life in ancient Egypt.
Realistic sculpture of the head and shoulders of a woman, featuring kohl-rimmed eyes, shoulder length braided hair with bangs and a gold circlet.
Gilded Lady sculpture by Daynès. © 2012. Photo: E. Daynès–Reconstruction Élisabeth Daynès Paris
Side horizontal view of upper body and head of mummy, covered in dark wrappings with a gilded face.
Ancient Egyptian mummy #30007. © 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_016A, photographer John Weinstein
*******
This beautifully preserved mummy with intricate linen bindings, a gilded headdress, and painted facial features is from Roman-era Egypt (30 BC–AD 646). Still never unwrapped since she was carefully preserved, this mummy's inner secrets remained hidden until examined by computerized tomography (CT) scanning in 2011.
*******
CT scanning of The Field Museum’s mummies rendered extremely detailed views of bones, muscles, and even the hair of the persons inside their wrappings and coffins. This image of mummy #30007’s skeleton was composed by putting together thousands of “slices” of images of only bones, no tissue.
Wrapped mummy on left and the skeleton that is revealed by CT scan on the right.
Intact form of mummy #30007; Skeleton of #30007 rendered from CT scan.
© 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_030A, photographer John Weinstein; CT scan composite © 2015 Field Museum, Katarina Kaspari
*******
The headdress is made of cartonnage, a papier-mâché like substance made from glued layers of papyrus or linen, then covered with gilding, a thin layer of gold. Ancient Egyptians believed the gold would enable the person’s eyes, nose, and mouth to stay intact for the afterlife. The golden skin was used to show divinity because after death, she would be transformed into the god Osiris, who had skin of gold.
Detail view of the layers of the headdress made from papyrus and linen, topped with a gold-painted face.
© 2015 The Field Museum, A115214d_035B, photographer John Weinstein
*******
CT scanning of mummy #30007 revealed that she was a woman in her forties with curly hair and a slight overbite. It also uncovered evidence that she may have died from tuberculosis, a common and frequently deadly ailment in ancient Egypt.
Scan reveals skull and also the outlines of tissue and hair.
CT scan of mummy #30007. © The Field Museum
*******
This hyper-realistic sculpture, created by forensic artist Élisabeth Daynès, portrays the woman behind the gilded mask as she may have looked during her life in ancient Egypt.
Realistic sculpture of the head and shoulders of a woman, featuring kohl-rimmed eyes, shoulder length braided hair with bangs and a gold circlet.
Gilded Lady sculpture by Daynès. © 2012. Photo: E. Daynès–Reconstruction Élisabeth Daynès Paris
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