Saturday, June 6, 2009

Workshop Highlight: Ancient Egyptian Mummies

This new addition to our weekend workshop series is all about mummies! The workshop was created to take full advantage of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum’s four resident human mummies, who provide us with a wealth of information about ancient Egypt.

Part archaeology and part CSI, the workshop currently focuses on all of the information that can be derived from the scientific study of mummies. Participants will be led on a walking tour of our mummy collection, which will illustrate the many techniques that have been used to study these mummies, including forensic anthropology, x-ray and CT scanning, digital imaging, and chemical analysis.

You will get to know all of these four human mummies and exactly what we have learned about each of them. Their stories are fascinating, from the suspicious bone fractures on a 28-year-old woman to the mysterious mummy that arrived at the museum, unwrapped and quite unexpected, in a coffin that did not belong to him.

You will hear about how cutting-edge imaging technology allowed us to see inside the mummy of a 4 ½ year old girl without even touching her, and how these images were used to create an accurate facial reconstruction of the child. The workshop will also cover the process of mummification, why it can preserve bodies for thousands of years, and what visible traces of the process can be seen on the mummies in the museum.


The Ancient Egyptian Mummies Workshop is held on the first Saturday of every month at 12:30 pm, and is free with museum admission. New topics may be added to this workshop in the future, so check the Scribe online for updates!