SUMMERTIME STUDY: ‘ALL ABOUT MUMMIFICATION’

Classic scene of mummification in the tomb of Sennedjem c.1270 BC (public domain)

This month here at Immortal Egypt we’ve been focusing on a brand new event, an entire day all about mummification, its history and the science behind it. Supported by the Egypt Exploration Society and the University of York, the event highlights the work we’ve been doing within the university’s Mummy Research Group since 1999, much of which has been carried out on Bolton Museum’s world class collection. 

Starting our day school in Bolton Museum’s lecture theatre (courtesy Ian Trumble)

And with the day’s talks, handling sessions, experimental archaeology and microscope studies bringing in a total of 180 people, their feedback reflects the fact they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did, and certainly appreciated having such an event so close to home.

For having done numerous talks and lectures at day schools back in the 1980s and 90s almost entirely held in London, we always felt the same kind of events should be available elsewhere too to make them accessible for far more people, especially in the days well before online lectures. So in 1997 with the help of a small group of friends, we launched ‘NILE’ (aka ‘Northern Illustrated Lectures in Egyptology’), our first day school held in the lecture theatre of Leeds Museum and Art Gallery on the subject of - surprise surprise - mummification and the so-called ‘Leeds Mummy’ Nesyamun (whose vocal sound we recently recreated at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56316-y).

Our first NILE event in 1997 with the 3rd issue of our ‘NILE Offerings’ magazine accompanying our Tut-themed day school

Bringing in 200 people – including a certain Stephen Buckley then doing his PhD on embalming resins (the rest is history) - there was clearly demand for Egyptology in the North. So with subsequent events focusing on subjects ranging from everyday life to Tutankhamun, we brought in such expert speakers as Lucia Gahlin, Robert Morkot and Bolton’s then curator Angela Thomas, the much-missed George Hart, Geoffrey Martin and Dominic Montserrat plus a special contribution from the 7th Lord Carnarvon who kindly agreed to be interviewed. 

With such a wealth of expertise allowing us to sell out every time, including our NILE tour of Egypt accompanied by colleague Alan Fildes, the sheer amount of work involved in doing pretty much everything ourselves, from speaking at each event to producing our themed magazine ‘NILE Offerings’ (above), organising the lecturers, the venue and even the catering(!), we eventually had to put them on hold or keel over from sheer exhaustion! 

Yet the idea never really went away, and as we continued with our talks and exhibitions across the North and more recently began to publish online here on the Immortal Egypt site, the concept of an entire day focused on a single subject was something we often chatted about with our Bolton Museum colleague Ian Trumble. And thanks to his ideas and passion for the same subjects, we’ve been able to resurrect the spirit of NILE with our first study day ‘All About Mummification’, which this time – thanks to Ian - wasn’t just the usual series of lectures but a wide range of hands-on activities.

Ian introducing the day & Jo highlighting work by the University of York (courtesy Wigan Tours)

Allowing participants to handle and examine a whole range of artefacts and take part in experimental archaeology, textiles were examined via hand-held microscopes, very much following in the footsteps of Bolton’s first curator William Midgley whose own pioneering microscopic studies of ancient textiles made Bolton the centre of ancient textile analysis as early as the 1890s (see: https://www.boltonlams.co.uk/w-w-midgely-son). 

Examining ancient linen & mixing embalming mixtures (courtesy: J.Howkins & M.Nightingale)

And since such textiles were used to wrap Egyptian bodies as early as c.4300 BC when they were already being coated in the imported conifer resin identified by Stephen Embalming study ‘rewrites’ key chapter in Egyptian history - News and events, University of York, his experimental sessions allowed people to create the same embalming recipes while gaining an understanding of how each of them worked to preserve and protect the body. 

And of course we had the very artefacts themselves in our handling sessions. Beginning with the ‘holy grail’, the world’s oldest evidence for Egyptian mummification identified by Stephen and his colleagues back in 2014, these resin-coated scraps of linen wrappings may not compete with Tutankhamun’s golden mask in terms of their aesthetic quality, but their historical importance is perhaps even greater. 

Fragmentary linen wrappings coated in imported conifer resin (courtesy Bolton Museum)

Then with objects relating to the use of natron salt which dried out bodies prior to wrapping, and vessels containing embalming mixtures, we also had the canopic jars in which the viscera were placed. Some of our objects even came from the royal tombs themselves, both at Abydos and in the Valley of the Kings, including the very linen in which pharaoh Tuthmosis III was once wrapped for interment within his superb burial chamber (see our blog https://www.immortalegypt.co.uk/post/ancient-egypt-in-the-north-the-valley-of-the-kings-in-bolton and film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOvwWxVblgo&t=60s & https://www.boltonlams.co.uk/homepage/78/egyptology). 

Tuthmosis III’s linen wrappings & burial chamber both in Bolton (image R: courtesy FrontRowLive)

Bolton’s beautiful replica head of Nefertiti allowed us to discuss our work identifying the body of the so-called ‘Younger Woman’ back in 2003, and with more objects relating to the way embalming mixtures evolved over time, we closed with objects from Bolton’s Graeco-Roman collection, examining golden studs, red shrouds and gilded mummy masks, in a single session covering almost 5000 years of mummy-making in Egypt.

Gilded studs from Roman mummy wrappings (courtesy L: BM & R: Bolton Museum)

Then after many book signings, selfies and a showing of our BAFTA-winning film ‘Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret’ pulling together so many of the things we’d been discussing throughout the day, a well-deserved wine or three at the evening reception held in the Egypt galleries was a wonderful way to end a very tiring yet very special day. 

Our film ‘Mummifying Alan’ at the end of the day school (courtesy Channel 4/Blink Films)

All made possible by the amazing staff and volunteers at Bolton Museum with plans already in place for a whole series of themes in the months (and years) to come, we’re repeating our ‘All About Mummification’ day school again soon in September, to allow all those on the waiting list to attend - and maybe seeing you there too?   

For details about the 7th September day school and to book one of the places still available please visit: https://www.boltonlams.co.uk/downloads/file/86/Bolton_s_Egypt_Study_Day_2024_Brochure_FINAL.pdf