Instead, they’re beginning to undertake phrases similar to “mummified person” or to make use of the person’s title to stress that they have been as soon as residing folks.
Using completely different language to explain these human stays can even distance them from the depiction of mummies in fashionable tradition, which has tended to “undermine their humanity” by way of “legends about the mummy’s curse” and by portraying them as “supernatural monsters,” Jo Anderson, assistant keeper of archaeology on the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle, northeast England, wrote in a weblog posted in May 2021 that outlined her museum’s language change.
Although the sector “has been looking at the most appropriate way of displaying human remains for about 30 years…in terms of the use of the word ‘mummy,’ I think that’s been more recent,” Daniel Antoine, keeper of the division for Egypt and Sudan at London’s British Museum, advised CNN.
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“We have human remains from around the world, and we may vary the terminology we use depending on, how they’ve been preserved,” he mentioned.
“We have natural mummies from pre-dynastic Egypt, so we’ll refer to them as natural mummies because they haven’t been artificially mummified.”
Using the time period “mummified remains” can encourage guests to consider the person who as soon as lived, the museums advised CNN.
Initial findings from customer analysis into the Great North Museum: Hancock’s show of the mummified Egyptian lady often known as Irtyru discovered that many guests “did not recognise that she was a real person,” museum supervisor Adam Goldwater advised CNN in an announcement.
By “displaying her more sensitively,” Goldwater added, “we hope our visitors will see her remains for what they really are, not an object of curiosity, but a real human who was once alive and had a very specific belief about how her body should be treated after death.”
The museums fluctuate of their strategy to the phrase “mummy.”
The British Museum advised CNN in an announcement that it “hasn’t banned the use of the term ‘mummy’ and it is still in use across our galleries.”
However, it added, “our recent displays used the term ‘mummified remains of…’ and include the name (when known) of the person who has been mummified…[to emphasise] that mummified remains are of people who once lived.”
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Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh advised CNN that the “term ‘mummy’ is modern, rather than ancient,” and that it makes use of it extra as a “descriptive adjective for objects; the terms ‘mummy mask,’ ‘mummy case’ and ‘mummy bandage’ are all used on our labels.”
“Like many museums, important aspects of our collections and the way that we display them have been shaped by imperial and colonial thinking and actions that were based on racial and racist understandings of the world,” the spokesperson added.
“In response, we are reflecting on how we represent imperial and colonial pasts to our audiences. In our galleries, we are making changes to displays and labels to address historical bias.”
For instance, the spokesperson mentioned, the museum is altering the panel accompanying a mummified man to give attention to “how ancient Egypt was co-opted into the idea of ‘Western civilisation,’ disconnecting Egypt’s ancient heritage from modern Egypt.”
The panel beforehand described how British colonial official Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff introduced the stays again after engaged on dam-building initiatives on the Nile.
