Yes, mummies! Lots of them. In fact, you will find the world’s largest collection of mummies ever assembled, now at the Cincinnati Museum Center.
The nationally acclaimed Mummies of the World: The Exhibition has been called “magical and mythical” by the New York Times. More than 1.2 million visitors have experienced the exhibition, which includes mummies and artifacts from different eras and cultures dating from millennia past. The exhibit features both naturally and intentionally preserved mummies
The collection includes more than 150 specimens and artifact objects associated with the preserved bodies, including 45 human and animal mummies. The exhibit delves into the scientific study of mummies and provides a window into the lives of ancient peoples who practiced the “art” of mummification. Mummies and artifacts from the burial process are from South America, Europe and ancient Egypt. Amulets, statuary and tools used for mummification are part of the exhibit.
Attendees will see advances made in the scientific methods used to study mummies, including computer tomography (CT), analysis of ancient DNA and radiocarbon dating. The exhibit explains what a mummy is, and how mummification occurs, both through intentional and natural processes. Mummies have been found in bogs, caves, cellars, deserts, crypts, pyramids, and in environments all over the globe.
The exhibition offers visitors state-of-the-art multimedia and hands-on interactive stations, along with 3D animations, providing opportunity to learn how bodies are preserved in natural environments and by human assistance. An interactive world map shows the locales and environments where mummies have been found.
Mummies of the World is an incredible glimpse into the fascinating mummification process that occurs in nature and the history of science, anatomy and medicine across the globe. Douglass W. McDonald, president and CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center states, “We are so happy to bring this top-notch traveling exhibition to our region inviting visitors to come face-to-face with mummies presented from so many distinctive parts of the world.”
Among specimens are: the Nes-Hor and Nes-Min priests, who lived in the Ptolemaic period (225-195 BC); animal mummies of Egypt, dating to 325 BC; the Vac Mummies, a mummified family from Hungary, believed to have died from tuberculosis; Baron Von Holz, a German noble found tucked away in a family crypt of a 14th century castle, he wearing fine leather boots for the occasion; and the MUMAB, aka the Maryland Mummy, a modern-day “ancient mummy,” created by scientists in 1994, using the same methods and techniques as Egyptians did more than 3,000 years ago.
“Most people think mummies come from Egypt and are wrapped, but mummies come from all over the world,” stated Marcus Corwin, of American Exhibitors, Inc. “The exhibition is…providing insight into the lives and cultures of these ancient peoples. Inside every mummy is a story waiting to be told, and Mummies of the World is here to tell those stories.”
Mummies of the World will be on display throughout December and into 2015. Cincinnati is the 11th stop on an American tour of the exhibit.
