With Halloween just around the corner it is the perfect time for me to tell you about an exciting and educational exhibit opportunity for you to immerse yourself or your family in. “Mummies Of The World Exhibition” the nationally recognized exhibit is now being featured at the Maryland Science Center (MSC), in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The exhibition presents a never-before seen collection of rare mummies from across the world — including South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Egypt — that spans eons of time and transcends history. This astonishing collection of mummies and related artifacts includes a 6,420-year-old child mummy from Peru (“Detmold Child”) dating 3,000 years before King Tut.
Some of the most fascinating aspects of Mummies of the World include (photo credits by Darryl Moran):
- The Detmold Child, a Peruvian child mummy in a remarkable state of preservation, radiocarbon dated back 6,420 years – about 3,000 years before the birth of King Tut
- The Orlovits family, Michael, Veronica and their son Johannes – who are part of a group of 18th-century mummies discovered in a long-forgotten church crypt in Vác, Hungary in 1994;
- Baron von Holz, a 17th-century nobleman believed to have died in or near Sommersdorf, Germany during the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), discovered by descendants of his relatives in the crypt of the family’s late 14th-century castle
- The sarcophagus and mummy of an Egyptian man named Nes-pa-qa-shuti, dating back to about 650 B.C., found in a necropolis at Akhmim, an important site in Egypt with ties to the royal families
- South American mummies including a Pre-Columbian woman found in the Peruvian desert, dating to about 1400 A.D.
- Complete and partial Egyptian mummies, illustrating both how people were mummified and how the dead were treated
- Animal mummies including a howler monkey from Argentina; a lizard mummified in the Sahara desert; and bird, dog, fish and reptile mummies
- Artifacts including South American burial objects; Egyptian salts and resins used in the mummification process; fragments of an Egyptian Book of the Dead; and more.
Mummies of the World is the largest exhibit of Mummies and related artifacts ever assembled. The exhibition includes a never-before-seen collection of 150 objects and specimens including real human and animal mummies and related artifacts from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania and Egypt. Artifacts include Egyptian and South American burial objects including amulets, statues and fragments from the Book of the Dead. Here are 4 interesting Facts bout the exhibit:
1. The breathtaking exhibition offers visitors state-of-the-art multimedia and hands-on interactive stations, along with cutting-edge 3D animation that gives audiences the opportunity to learn how mummies are created, where they come from and who they were.
2. Using state-of-the-art scientific methods including Computer Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), DNA analysis, and radiocarbon dating, researchers provide insight into people from ancient civilizations and cultures of every major region of the world.
3. The exhibition explains what a mummy is, how mummification occurs both through intentional and natural processes, and that mummies come from all over the world – found in bogs, caves, cellars, deserts and environments all over the globe.
4. The exhibition was derived from the research of the Germany Mummy Project, led and curated by the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, Germany, which worked with an international team of scientists from many disciplines to study the mummies. The research is presented in Mummies of the World, and was made possible through the collaboration of 21 world-renowned museums, organizations and collections from seven countries.
Mummies of the World will be on display at The Maryland Science Center from September 28, 2013 through January 20, 2014. For more information, please visit http://www.mdsci.org/ or www.mummiesoftheworld.com or visit the Maryland Science Center on Facebook and Twitter.
