<a href="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/mummies-1221.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3145" src="http://jeanatacc.com/2011/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/mummies-1221-205x300.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="300" /></a>      This mummy is the oldest mummy we have knowledge of and is 6,500 years older than King Tu

I went to The Witte Museum to see the “Mummies of The World” exhibition on my two day stay in San Antonio for Thanksgiving with my family.  Born and raised here, I try to make it down to the different museums when they have some interesting exhibitions and themes going on.  I was immediately interested in the Mummies exhibition because it was creepy and eerie.  Seeing a baby that was mummified 6,500 years ago is pretty awesome and I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I thought about several things while walking through the dark and deadly exhibit: the different burial process we have now and how they compare, how the Peruvian mummies were much more preserved than the Egyptian, and how these mummies are a way to learn about cultures of the past.

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The way we bury someone when they pass seems completely normal to anyone that has lived in the past 500 years.  Probably way longer but I am not an expert of the history of the burial process.  It was really interesting me the amount of respect these people had for their dead.  I think we also have a lot of respect today but, we bury people and know they will eventually decompose into the earth.  These cultures found ways to preserve bodies to keep them forever.  In older and less modern cultures, the ancestors played a big role in people’s everyday lives.  They brought wellness, prosperity, and peace to cultures.  I think this is possibly why they were mummified to keep a direct link, their body, to the society.  Only the rich and people with a lot of power were mummified.  Throughout this Humanities class we have studied the creativity of human beings.  It has been through artwork, literature, religion, philosophy, film, and many other ways.  You can learn a lot of information about a culture through the way they treat their dead.  You can identify traditions and values at that time period.  I think this is important when learning about the history of human creativity to not only look at obvious art produced but the dead as well.  A lot of creativity is expressed through traditions and values because a lot of people identify themselves with that more than anything else.  Looking at the dead you can see the culture that lived.  A lot of times artifacts were mummified with the humans like pottery, toys, hair brushes, and clothes.  Mummifying is a creative way humans were preserved (or buried) and their spirit continued to have a huge effect on the culture.

When you hear the word “mummies” it is most often associated with the Egyptians and King Tut.  Growing up I always thought mummies were of Egyptian descent and found in giant tombs.  This is not true!  Cultures all over the world mummified.  The oldest mummy in the exhibit was a Peruvian baby.  The Egyptian mummies were very brittle and there wasn’t a lot to them.  The Peruvian mummies had teeth still intact.  The Peruvian ladies had long beautiful hair and were buried in fetal positions.  Some of them still had brain matter inside the skulls.  The Egyptians were more worn and were all bones.  I’m sure the atmosphere in which the humans were mummified is the reason for this.  It is drier in Egypt than in Peru, and most likely those mummies decayed faster. There were a lot more babies in the Peruvian part of the exhibit.  Egyptian mummies were high ranking officials and rich people.  I guess they didn’t seek to preserve their children like the Peruvian culture did.  The Peruvians also were mummified with artifacts and belongings.  If I recall correctly, most of the Egyptian mummies were single.  Some of them had pottery marking the amount of power they held. It was interesting to compare and contrast the different cultures.

With all the belongings and tests ran on the mummies, were able to learn about the culture they lived in.  One mummy’s intestines had been studied and they were able to recognize that her last meal consisted of grains, berries, and other local crops.  Scientists can study the diet people lived off of and what their daily nutritional intake was.  The mummified babies had a lot of birth defects or diseases.  There were a lot of toys and clothes to see how children played and what they wore.  There were mummified fetuses at 28 weeks and 30 weeks.  Yes, mummified fetuses.  Obviously, these babies were important and there was a lot of grief associated with them.  There was an Asian man that was much smaller than the Peruvian and Egyptian mummies.  You were able to see what the life expectancy was (about 50 years) and how tall people were.

I really enjoyed the exhibit.  It was interesting to learn about cultures through their dead rather than in a book or because someone recorded it at some time.  It was a different way to see the way these cultures lived and their values, traditions, and attitudes.  I had a lot of respect for the cultures viewing their dead and learning how they respected them.  We may bury someone and put a stone that says their name while they preserve their body and keep it for eternity.  I think it is important these are forever preserved as window into the past of the history and culture of human beings.

Works Cited:

Mummies of the World Exhibition." <em>Mummies of the World Exhibition</em>. Witte Museum, 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2012. &lt;http://mow2.studiobanks.us/&gt;.
<div>I used this website for background information about the exhibit.</div>
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<div>Image Credits:</div>
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<div>http://www.2pix.net/2012/08/Mummies-of-the-World.html</div>