Exhibition: The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt
“The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt,” focuses on the life of a priestess-musician around 800 BC. The exhibit’s centerpiece is the coffin and mummy of Meresamun, who probably lived in Thebes.
The exhibit illustrates the duties of a temple singer and explores what her life was like inside, as well as outside, the temple. Her temple duties are illustrated by a selection of objects she would have used including a sistrum, an ivory clapper, a harp, and cult vessels. Other objects document ritual activities that she would have participated in, such as animal cults and the consultation of divine oracles.
The section of the exhibit on her life outside the temple includes an examination of the social and legal rights of women in ancient Egypt and what professions were open to them. Examples of dishes, jewelry and cosmetic vessels show what sort of objects would have been in her home. Religious rituals enacted within the home are illustrated by objects related to ancestor cults and others that sought to promote fertility.
In preparation for the exhibit, the mummy of Meresamun was examined by CT scans at the University of Chicago Hospital with the newest generation of Philips scanners. A video in the exhibit reports on the examination of mummy, her health, and offers a virtual unwrapping and 3-dimenations reconstructions of her face and body.
The Oriental Institute Museum
From February 10 - October 18, 2009
Members’ Preview February 9, 2009
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A tomb tour of Egypt in Canada
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Most people will never get to see the inside of an ancient Egyptian tomb, the president and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization said yesterday.
That’s where the museum’s newest exhibit —Tombs of Eternity, which opens Friday — comes in. The exhibit — which includes about 200 rare and authentic artifacts unearthed by archaeologists in the early 20th century — includes three human mummies, mummified remains of animals, including a snake, mouse, crocodile, kitten and falcon, canopic jars and relics buried alongside the dead in Egyptian tombs.
The design of the exhibit itself mimics the layout of an actual Egyptian tomb, said Dr. Matthew Betts, the exhibit’s curator. The museum has also “listed the names of the Egyptian men and women” whose objects or bodies are included in the exhibit, Betts said. By reciting an offering prayer, visitors can help them live on.
Other parts of the exhibit includes a section on cosmetics and jewels that ancient Egyptians wore, as well as a section explaining the mummification process.
Tombs of Eternity, which is accompanied by the IMAX film Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs, runs through Aug. 16, 2009.
Virtual autopsy of mummy at Walter Arts Museum
The Walters Art Museum and the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Diagnostic Radiology department joined forces to perform a virtual autopsy of the mummy of a woman who is the centerpiece of the museum’s exhibit “Mummified,” running from Nov. 15 through Nov. 8, 2009. The computerized tomography (CT) scan enables scholars and scientists to learn about the subject non-invasively and in a respectful manner.
Meri (meaning “Beloved”), the name given given to the lady whose real name remains unknown, was a petite woman living almost 3,000 years ago in Thebes. Her height is only 57 3/8 inches, short even for those distant days. Her mummy didn’t even fill her brightly-painted linen and plaster cartonnage (casing) and wooden coffin. She suffered from osteoarthritis and severe dental disease, which may in fact have led to her death somewhere between the ages of 50 and 60. Meri’s teeth were worn flat and she suffered from at least 16 abscesses (then incurable infections); her death may have resulted from the septicemia they caused.
