Pre-Columbian woman mummy from Peru

The Egyptian funeral rite of mummification dating back to 2.400 BC in ancient Egypt has always triggered interest in the public worldwide fueling on people’s fascination for death and ancient Egypt. However, a new exhibition of more than 40 mummies, Mummies of the World, opening this summer in Los Angeles and traveling for three years in the USA, shows that this rite is not limited to Egypt nor to pharaohs.

As New Yorkers can still visit Tutankhamun’s Funeral exhibition in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art until September 6 with artifacts that trace the life, death and mummification of Tutankhamun, American Exhibition is putting together what they call “the largest exhibition of mummies ever assembled”, to open on July 1, in Los Angeles California Science Center.

In the LA exhibition premiere that will later travel for three years in North America, visitors will be able to see more than 90 funeral artifacts along with 40 partial and complete human and animal mummies from Egypt, of course, but also from Oceania, Asia, Europe and South America.

One of the unusual traits of this exhibit is the fact that most mortal remains are not wrapped, adding a scientific or even an anatomical component to the historic dimension of such presentation.

This survey presenting, for instance, one of the oldest mummified infants ever discovered, a complete mummified family or even a German nobleman, was made possible by a consortium of 15 museums from seven countries that have loaned mummies and objects for this exhibition, from Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, the Netherlands…

Looking at the photos of the exhibition, one can’t help thinking about recent exhibitions that made the headlines worldwide of plastinated bodies, a more recent technique to preserve corpses invented by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens.

Exhibitions such as Our Body or Body Worlds are currently touring the world and are crowding North America. Gunther von Hagens’ Body Worlds can be seen in Denver and Calgary while Bodies, the American declination of the concept is currently on view in Las Vegas, Dallas, NYC, Cleveland… maybe a sign that Mummies of the World could be a potential hit in North America.
Mummies of the World
On view in Californian Science Center (Los Angeles) from July 1 (other museums to be announced in the fall)
Tickets can be purchased from June 6 on http://www.californiasciencecenter.org