Mummies - Tumblr Posts
Why have we as a society decided that it is perfectly alright to find and dig up the dead bodies of Ancient Egyptians, simply because its interesting.
Now I think that Ancient Egypt is interesting, infact, I have previously taken interest in the Ancient Egyptians beliefs, why they were buried the way they were, how they lived ect.
HOWEVER
I recently went to a museum as they had an Ancient Egypt exhibit, I enjoyed my experience but walked away with a dilemma. My dilemma had begun from about half way through exhibit, 2 entire rooms of the exhibit, filled with empty outter coffins, empty inner coffins and mummified human remains.
Why does anyone think it is alright to dig up dead bodies, take them from their tombs and leave their wrapped up dead bodies on display for anyone to see.
These were people, walking, talking, breathing human beings. They worked, the loved, they ate, they drank, hell they even wore makeup.
I don't think that many people would want their dead body to be placed in a museum after being dug up in an excavation.
These people have been separated from the things left in their coffins, such as prayers and heart scarabs, to protect them in the after life, their organs separated from them. Their bodies having been scanned to see what is beneath the wrappings.
One such mummy that I saw, was that of a girl, a mere 16 year old girl, who passed from disease. I stood there for a second, staring at the wrappings of her body through the glass, an unnamed, unknown girl. I tried to imagine how she would feel finding out that her body was on display, that anyone could see the her wrappings, her body not far beneath.
On the opposite side of the room, on a stand under glass was a scarab, taken from beneath wrappings, taken from the body of a person who likely believed that it could protect them in the afterlife.
On top of all of this. Many people around me were taking photos of the mummies. There is only one arguement that I have heard to "justify" taking pictures.
"Well history needs to be remembered"
History can be remembered without having to take apart someones grave, History can be remembered without having to put someones body on display, History can be remembered and taught about without disrespecting dead people.
I wish to hear what others think about about this topic.
SO
I will attach some pictures I took, no images of mummifued remains will be shown as I did not take any. However grainy filters have been added as my reflection is in many of them and I prefer to not expose my real face online.
The pictures consist of:
Organ Jars
A portrait of a man
Inner coffins (the smaller ones)
Outter coffins (the bigger ones)
A Heart scarab
A page from the book of the dead
The ironic thing about old conservatives is they have disposable income and are not fiscally conservative. So they don't give money to bums, but donate to politicians.
There be some mummies trending in the news today.
Mouse Mummies
Anoxic bogs are most often found in northwestern Europe. What makes these bogs special is their lack of oxygen- thus “anoxic-“ and their content of chemicals called tannins. When living creatures happen to fall into a bog, their tissue is preserved because tannins keep it static and all the little mites that cause decomposition can’t live without oxygen. (Bones, however, are often dissolved if the peat is too acidic.) Not only are bodies preserved, but clothing and trinkets as well. This is how big bodies are made! You might have heard of the Tollund Man or the Yde Girl, both famous examples of European mummies, from Denmark and the Netherlands respectively. These mummies can be preserved for thousands of years.
This is the Tollund Man, probably the most famous bog body
Now, marshes and bogs aren’t exactly the same thing, but for the prevalence of marshland in Mossflower country I’m sure that some of that could be a peat bog.
Slegg, Dirig, Gruntan Kurdly, the victims of the wytes… countless named and unnamed woodlanders have found themselves sinking in the swamp. Countless bodies under the surface.
I recently discussed in this post that “the 22 [Redwall] books cover hundreds and hundreds of seasons, their stories spreading farther than memory can reach.”
That is all to say, imagine what tales are hidden inside Mossflower wood. Imagine what relics of long-gone eras are preserved in the bodies of those who wandered through Mossflower and found themselves an unfortunate end. Imagine (accounting for the fact that not all muggy water is a bog) what the Maudie, Barbowla, and Log-a-Log Luglug were blissfully unaware of when running from the Brownrats. Just one of the thousands of stories Redwall has to tell.
