Montreal Museum of Fine Arts – Following its tremendous success in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, the exhibition Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives will continue its world tour at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), making its North American premiere. The British Museum production reconstructs the lives of six individuals who lived along the Nile from about 900 BC to AD 180. Using an innovative approach combining art and cutting-edge technology, it paints a picture of who these people were. Age, beliefs and the diseases they suffered from – each mummy has a story to tell.
“Coinciding with the opening of the Museum’s new pavilion of archaeology and world cultures, this fascinating and touching exhibition demonstrates the technological and scientific advances that have revolutionized the discipline of archaeology, giving us a more intimate understanding of the lives led by people thousands of years ago – distant, yet not so very different from us,” explains Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator of the MMFA.
Egyptian Mummies will reveal the many facets of these diverse individuals: a young man, two priestess singers, a priest, a little boy and a homemaker. Together with 3D digital images, interactive visual display units and more than 200 items from the British Museum’s renowned Egyptian collection, these encounters will offer a unique view of the way in which people lived and died in this period of history.
Artifacts from various sites – tombs and settlements – round out the paleopathological analysis of these human remains, providing a fuller understanding of the beliefs and practices of the ancient Egyptians: mummification techniques, their magical conception of diseases and cures, their eating habits, the hierarchical organization of the temple, the application of complex systems of societal rituals, the importance of music in certain ceremonies, the use of headdresses as identity markers (status, sex and age) and the value place on children, family and motherhood.
There’s a captivating world in store for the public this fall. “We are proud to partner with the Museum of Fine Arts to help present this amazing exhibition”, said Paul Allison, Chairman and CEO of investment dealer Raymond James Ltd. “We look forward to being part of this fascinating journey into the mysteries of Mummies.”
