Rooms
62 and 63 present the bulk of
the British Museum's collection of Egyptian mummies. These rooms include:
a
side-by-side comparison of two skulls. The one on the left has not had its brain
removed. The one on the right has had its brain removed by mummymakers who broke
through the ethmoid bone. The darker area near the back of the nasal cavity
shows where the bone was broken...now you can see all the way up into the inside
of the skull.
The
(female) mummy of Katebet (18th Dynasty), still wrapped but with a beautiful
gilded mummy mask complete with a wig and pierced earrings. Her own braided hair
was displayed nearby as well. It was ready for use in a wig or as extensions.
The
mummy of Kleopatra (Greek Period), not the queen but a 17-year-old girl. If you
happened to see this mummy in the old displays, it looked rather plain. Now,
Kleopatra has been cleaned and stored. And her delicate, beautifully-painted
shroud is on display along with her coffins. You can easily tell that (1) her
parents loved her very much and (2) they also were quite wealthy.
There
are also many mummies of cats and other animals, to give you a broader view of
Egyptian mummification. To the left are two quite
elaborately wrapped cat mummies as well as the mummies of two fish.
The
mummy of Kleopatra (Greek Period), not the queen but a 17-year-old girl. If you
happened to see this mummy in the old displays, it looked rather plain. Now,
Kleopatra has been cleaned and stored. And her delicate, beautifully-painted
shroud is on display along with her coffins. You can easily tell that (1) her
parents loved her very much and (2) they also were quite wealthy.
There
are also many mummies of cats and other animals, to give you a broader view of
Egyptian mummification. To the left are two quite
elaborately wrapped cat mummies as well as the mummies of two fish.