Mummies are a staple in Halloween movies. I remember a particular episode of Are You Are of the Dark? (a spooky kids’ show in the 90’s) that featured a centuries-old mummy accidentally brought back to life! The concept was never particularly frightening for me, and I wasn’t riveted (as some kids are) by adventure tales of exploring ancient tombs, pyramids, and the like. Though of course I saw the Indiana Jones movies and The Mummy (1999), for some reason it didn’t ignite that spark of imagination inside me. However I was still curious, when we recently visited Bordeaux, France, to check out an exhibition at a local museum: Living and Dying in Egypt. Apparently, they had real mummies to see!

And what I found wasn’t a spooky experience but more of a spiritual one. I really enjoyed learning about death rituals in ancient Egypt and getting to see a mummy up close wasn’t scary, but oddly moving.

I confess that much of the exhibition was a bit tricky for me to follow, partly because I don’t have a strong grounding in Egyptian history and partly because I don’t speak very good French! Most things were translated into English, but not everything. Overall though I got the general gyst. The exhibition’s ‘life’ section was about how Greek and Egyptian cultures were blended together in the region in creative ways for example on coins or even through things like hairstyles. It was about cultural cross pollination.

What I remember most from the visit was seeing the sarcophagus and the mummy. When you arrive to the ‘Death’ section of the exhibition, you’re greeted with red walls and a big sarcophagus. (There was also a black and white film playing above in the background. I think it was about Cleopatra!)

The sarcophagus was made for Dioscurides. This man had probably a Greco-Egyptian background (linking it back to the first part of the exhibition) and they can tell from the writings on his sarcophagus that he was a high ranking official during the reign of Ptolemy VI. It says that he is a ‘planner’ which means he was like a minister for the economy and finance. He was also close to the king and brave in combat, it says.

He sarcophagus is also decorated with scenes from the Book of the Dead. On his torso is the ‘ba’ (soul) of the deceased, which was thought to be a bird. The lining of the sarcophagus featured a lady, the goddess of the necropolis, who welcomes the deceased. The bottom of the lid featured another lady: the goddess of the heavens (you can see her below). There was so much information and stories to see both inside and outside – a big contrast to a modern Western coffin.

And here you can see the ‘ba’ (soul) bird on the chest.

If I understood correctly, it was believed that the ‘ba’ (soul) basically flew around after you died. It flew through feasts and ceremonies, and sometimes it came back to the body. According to this encyclopedia entry, the ‘ba’ is actually just a main part of the soul (but not the whole soul), depicted as a bird to show the soul’s ‘mobility’. Apparently it was depicted hovering over the mummies of kings and commoners alike. I found this article from a museum in Cambridge that further explains how:

The ancient Egyptians believed that what we think of as a soul consisted of more than one concept, perhaps because they saw it as something too complex to be expressed simply by a single word. The most common types of soul were the ka and the ba.

So it seems like the ‘ba’ was the ‘soul’ but one only one part. How interesting that ‘soul’ was not a singular unified thing to Ancient Egyptians.

My favorite thing that I got to see at the museum I sadly don’t have any photographs of. You’ll just have to trust me that I got to see a real mummy though of a man who lived towards the end of the Ptolemaic era. There was a warning outside the ‘mummy room’ which raised some ethical considerations about displaying human remains for the public and the museum’s assurances that they tried to display the mummy with respect for the deceased and the visitors. The room was dimly lit ‘to preserve the tranquility’ of the deceased and we were asked to remain silent inside.

When I entered the room, I was the only one there. The walls were painted black. I read one or two of the plaques on the walls but I confess the information basically slid out of my brain because I couldn’t ignore the mummy in the glass case in the middle of the room. It looked smaller than I expected. You could call it ‘spooky’ but it was more spiritual and a little sad. I was kind of grateful when other folks entered the room with me and it wasn’t just ‘the two of us’ in there anymore.

One more thing I remember learning at the exhibition, which my partner and I joked about to bring some levity after we’d both had a chance to see the mummy, was how apparently statues were often placed with the deceased. It was believed these statues could be called up to do farming chores in the afterlife…instead of the dead person. So essentially these statues were called on to ‘take your place’ for the chores haha! That concept really delighted me for some reason. Probably because I’d love a little statue to do my chores. It also suggests to me how very ‘real’ the afterlife seemed to be for these people: they figured they’d be doing chores!!

I left the exhibition with some new ideas and new questions too. Sometimes it’s nice to explore topics we don’t really know much about. It’s important, I think, to be comfortable in a place of ‘not knowing’ and to being open to learning. If there’s one piece of advice I can give to people that feel a lack of confidence going into places like museums it would be to find one or two takeaways for yourself. They don’t have to be big things, but just things that you particularly found interesting. That makes the whole experience less overwhelming and more fun.

Thanks for reading this post and sorry that it came a bit later than I usually post! I have recently started my teaching semester and folks who follow me on Twitter/X will have seen that I also signed with a literary agent in the US a couple of weeks ago and we are currently editing my science fiction novel together, preparing it to go out on submission to editors. Balancing this with my ‘day job’ has been tricky and that’s why this is going up a bit ‘late’!

You can sign up for my quarterly author newsletter here if you want to hear the story of how I found my agent and where we’re at in the process of finding a publisher. I’ll be sending out my autumn newsletter in the next few weeks.

This exhibition is on in Bordeaux until November 2024 I believe, at the Musee d’Aquitaine!

Madeira Mondays are posted on the first Monday of every month and explore history and historical fiction. If you enjoyed this post please share it, subscribe to the blog, or you can support the blog by buying me a coffee on Kofi! There are many more historical adventures and journeys to share, and I thank you so much for reading! 🙂