Animal Mummies Uncovered

Epping Forest District Museum is excited to have objects from the Egypt Centre on display in their new exhibition ‘Animal Mummies: Uncovered’. The exhibition is family friendly, with adventure trails, interactive displays, holograms, and the chance to learn more about the history of animal mummification through scientific techniques. To give you a taster, Ian Channell (Collections Officer), provides a summary of the museum and walks us through some of the key things visitors will see on their visit.

History of Museum

Epping Forest District Museum, managed by Epping Forest District Council, collects and preserves objects found within or linked to the Epping Forest District, one of the twelve local councils within the county of Essex. The Museum is currently based in two Tudor and Georgian buildings on Sun Street in Waltham Abbey (fig. 1). The Museum retains over 100,000 objects, covering archaeology, world culture, social history, fine and applied art, photography, oral history and costumes and textiles.

Figure 1: External view of Epping Forest District Museum on Sun Street in Waltham Abbey.

 

Exhibition Schedule

The Museum has an active exhibition schedule, showcasing three temporary exhibitions a year, each bringing a new and engaging story to the pre-existing displays and the council’s community programmes. To keep the exhibitions unique and dynamic, the museum regularly loans objects for fixed periods from external museums and institutions.

 

Introduction to current exhibition and why we have it

The Museum is fortunate this year to have an exciting exhibition entitled Animal Mummies: Uncovered on now until the 17th December 2022. The exhibition showcases newly remodelled exhibition components from a Natural History Museum Tring and Manchester Museum exhibition. The exhibition examines animal mummies given as gifts to the gods in ancient Egypt. Most mummies presented to the gods were known as votive offerings, like a prayer in the form of an object. To tell this story, we are extremely excited to have on display objects from Saffron Walden Museum (in the northwest of Essex) and the Egypt Centre in Swansea.  

 

Adventure Trails

In our exhibition, the museum visitor first encounters a hologram display which invites them to participate as one of three characters, each following a unique adventure trail around the exhibition and museum; an Explorer which is ‘easy’, Anubis which is ‘tricky’, and an Archaeologist which is ‘expert’ (fig. 2). Each thematic trail allows individuals, regardless of age or ability, to engage further with the topic and learn more about the fascinating history of animal mummies in ancient Egypt and the roles archaeologists and scientists play in helping researchers learn more.

Figure 2: The Anubis Adventure Trail. A talking hologram invites individuals to find amulets hidden around the museum.

Catacomb Entrance

Once a visitor has picked their character, individuals then enter the exhibition through a faux catacomb. With mudbrick and limestone walls, flickering storm lanterns, arched niches, and a small hole in a bricked-up door through which visitors can see a candlelit wall painting, the catacomb ‘sets the scene’ and creates an atmospheric start to the exhibition (fig. 3).

Figure 3: Catacomb entrance to the exhibition with an illuminated Anubis in the distance.

Room 1

In the first room, visitors explore the landscape and religion of ancient Egypt, with display cases dedicated to the stories of Horus and Bastet. Horus, one of the most important deities of ancient Egypt, was a god of many things, but most importantly kingship and the sky. He is associated with birds, most frequently the falcon and other birds of prey. Mummified birds of prey and statues of Horus are on display, including, from the Egypt Centre, a mummified bird in a wooden coffin (W535), which represents the god Horus as a crowned falcon (fig. 4). The coffin would have been covered with gesso and brightly painted.

Figure 4: The display case with Horus-related objects.

On the other side of the room, visitors can learn about the goddess Bastet, who was usually depicted as a cat or cat-headed woman and associated with fertility and pregnancy. To accompany this story, mummified cats and statues of Bastet are on display, including a beautifully painted cartonnage mask (W529) from the Egypt Centre, which would have been placed on the face of a mummified cat (fig. 5).

Figure 5: The display case with Bastet related objects.

Room 2

In the next room, the use of non-invasive scientific analysis to examine animal mummies is discussed. In hospitals, X-rays, and CT (computed tomography) scans are sometimes used to examine animal mummies in the same way as living patients. Scans show researchers if animal remains are inside the wrapping, their condition, and can indicate how the mummies were made. Mummies from the Egypt Centre, some of which have been analysed with Micro-3D Computed Tomography by Professor Richard Johnston and his team at Swansea University, are displayed (fig. 6).

Figure 6: Display case with mummies which have been analysed.

Interactives

Fun and engaging interactives on this side of the gallery invite visitors to smell, touch, and use magnification to investigate the materials the ancient Egyptians used to make mummies, as well as use CT scans to investigate the components of different animal mummies, such as a crocodile and cat (fig. 7).

Figure 7: Room 2 interactives.

Conclusion

We are very grateful to Dr Ken Griffin and the staff at the Egypt Centre for facilitating the loan; it’s a real joy to have them on display for our visitors! We are also grateful to the Wellcome Collection for allowing these objects to travel from Swansea to Essex for this exhibition. The objects bring to life the history of animal mummification and add to a story that has not been told at the museum before. The objects from the Egypt Centre can be viewed here. If you are visiting Essex, please do stop by the museum to uncover the story of animal mummies and see these amazing Egypt Centre objects in an entirely new setting for yourself!

 

To accompany the exhibition, we have organised two Zoom talks on animal mummies by Dr Ken Griffin and Prof. Paul Nicholson, which can be booked here:

https://eppingforestdc.bookinglive.com/book/add/p/596

https://eppingforestdc.bookinglive.com/book/add/p/597

 

And stay up to date with the museum’s exhibitions visit our website: Home - Epping Forest District Museum (eppingforestdc.gov.uk)) and social media channels:

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