Exhibition: The Life of Meresamun

Oriental Institute, Chicago

February 10 - October 18, 2009

"The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt," focuses on the life of a priestess-musician in Egypt in about the year 800 BC. The exhibit’s centerpiece is the coffin and mummy of Meresamun who probably lived in Thebes.

The exhibit illustrates the duties of a temple singer and explores what her life was like inside, as well as outside, the temple. Her temple duties are illustrated by a selection of objects she would have used including a sistrum, an ivory clapper, a harp, and cult vessels. Other objects document ritual activities that she would have participated in, such animal cults and the consultation of divine oracles.

The section of the exhibit on her life outside the temple includes an examination of the social and legal rights of women in ancient Egypt and what professions were open to them. Examples of dishes, jewelry and cosmetic vessels show what sort of objects would have been in her home. Religious rituals enacted within the home are illustrated by objects related to ancestor cults and others that sought to promote fertility.

In preparation for the exhibit, the mummy of Meresamun was examined by CT scans at the University of Chicago Hospital with the newest generation of Philips scanners. A video in the exhibit reports on the examination of mummy, her health, and offers a virtual unwrapping and 3-dimenations reconstructions of her face and body.