Gods of the Ancient Egypt - opening of permanent exhibition
The Archaeological Museum in Krakow, one of the oldest establishment of this type in Poland, prepared a collection of Egyptian works of art connected with the cult of death.
Exceptionally precious, is the coffin of a priestess of Isis, together with the mummy from about 2300 years ago. Iset Iri-Hetes died due to fracture of bone in her leg and loss of blood caused by haemorrhage of the popliteal artery. This precise diagnosis is the result of three years’ research conducted by a team of specialists.
The exhibition will be accompanied by presentation of CAT scanner images of the mummy, and video documentation of unprecedented process of removing the bandages from the mummy, its preservation, and re-binding with the 300-metre-long bandages.
Apart from the mummies, the collection consists of, shrouds, steles, and ushabti: altogether about 1500 exhibits dating back to the Old Kingdom (1500 BC) to the Coptic Period (6th century AD). In the keeping of the Museum, there is also a world-unique collection of grain mummies. These pseudo-mummies were filled with a mixture of soil and barley grain which, provided with moisture, sprouted. That is why those mummies were to symbolise the life-giving powers of Osiris an the rebirthing powers of nature. For the first time the four-meter-long Senkowski Papyrus, a deposit of the Jagiellonian Library, will be made accessible to the public.
Supported financially by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage