It also forms part of general discussions and exhibitions on the subject of colonialism in Egyptology and museums in general.
This discussion has been reflected in books like Christina Riggs’ Unwrapping Ancient Egypt, the British Museum’s Regarding the Dead, and Angela Stienne’s Mummified. Nevertheless, it does reflect changing attitudes toward mummified people and discussions about the propriety of displaying human remains in general. Subsequent fact-checking by Reuters demonstrated that this was something of an exaggeration, undoubtedly to bolster the ‘culture wars’ theme underlying so many of the Mail’s more huffy stories. In January (presumably on a slow news day) the Daily Mail trumpeted that ‘woke museum chiefs’ have stopped using the word ‘mummy’ and instead refer to ‘mummified people’ or ‘mummified remains’. Although this exhibition has been touring for several years and in development for even longer, its return to the UK in early 2023 was highly topical. In my previous post I reviewed Manchester Museum’s recent Golden Mummies exhibition. Highly decorated mask for a mummified ancient Egyptian with the skin highlighted in gold leaf hinting at the divinity of the deceased (Author photograph at the Golden Mummies exhibition).
