Monday, February 09, 2009

More re Manchester Museum survey

Manchester Evening News (Ben Rooth)

A MUSEUM is asking visitors whether they want an important collection of mummies to be covered up or left as they were originally intended.

The initiative is part of an on-going consultation at Manchester Museum to discover how people want the artefacts to be displayed in its ancient Egypt gallery.

Museum bosses launched the consultation last year after the venue, in Oxford Road, covered up three unwrapped mummies sparking accusations of 'political correctness'.

Two months after the cover-up bosses did a u-turn and left one of the exhibits partially unwrapped in its original display state, while another was left partially covered, leaving its head, hands and feet exposed.

Curator of archaeology Bryan Sitch said that the consultation is due to finish this summer.

He said: "We've been getting a whole spectrum of opinion about the mummies.

"Many people think that it's important to keep the ancient Egyptian mummies on full display in the state that they were originally left.

"Others think that they should be covered in some way as a mark of respect towards them.

"Whatever happens, it is important that people can enter the gallery and view all the various components of the Egyptian collection.


See the above for more.

Previous posts on the subject are at:
http://egyptology.blogspot.com/2008/08/covering-mummies-summary-of-discussion.html
http://egyptology.blogspot.com/2008/07/mummies-cover-up-reversed-at-manchester.html

The second of those two links contains links to other previous posts on the subject.

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