Mummies Across Borders: Global Connections and Multidisciplinary Insights from the Warsaw Mummy Project
Bios:
Wojciech Ejsmond – a graduate of the University of Warsaw and an assistant professor at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences, director of archaeological research at Gebelein (southern Egypt), and co-director of the Warsaw Mummy Project, member of the Mummy Research Center. His research interests include the beginnings of civilisation along the Nile and Egyptian mummies.
Marzena Ożarek Szilke – a graduate of archaeology at the University of Warsaw, director of the Mummy Research Center, and co-director of the Warsaw Mummy Project, a specialist in the field of modern mummy research techniques, physical anthropologist, palaeopathologist, archaeologist, member of the Polish Anthropological Association, Royal Anthropological Association of Great Britain and Ireland, and the International Association of Egyptologists. She is a physical anthropologist working in research projects at several sites and museums in Egypt and Poland.
Abstract:
Recent research has revealed the extent to which ancient Egyptian mummies interconnect various regions and cultures worldwide. For example, embalming materials were imported to Egypt even from Southeast Asia. The cultural exchange involving them is multidirectional in the long run. Mummies became used in Europe for medical purposes, as an ingredient of paint, for scientific inquiries, and other purposes, stimulating interest in ancient Egypt. Even in Japan, mummies became known as potent medicines via esteemed Dutch medical books recommending mummies as medicines.
Mummies also reached Poland, where we started our research project. Originally used as medicines, they became curiosities to finally be included in scientific collections. The Warsaw Mummy Project aims at a comprehensive and multidisciplinary examination of mummies preserved at the National Museum in Warsaw. This collection comprises approximately 40 specimens, entire human remains, their parts, and animal mummies. When the provenance of the human mummies is ascertainable, it is determined that they originated from Thebes and date back to the 1st millennium BCE. In many cases, they reached Poland in the 19th century. This collection provides new information on the funerary beliefs and practices of ancient Egyptians as well as the development of Egyptology in Poland.
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