Egypt

Exhibition: Meresamun opens in Chicago this week

There have been lots of articles about the opening of at The Life of Meresamun at the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago this week. The following are the best of the bunch from the last couple of days.

CBBC Newsround

There's an excellent 7-photograph slide show of the mummy from the exhibition at the above page.

Daily Mail (David Derbyshire)

With photographs

Meresamun is thought to have worked and lived in the temple of Thebes around 800BC. Her name, shown in an inscription on the casket, means ‘She Lives for Amun’ – an Egyptian god.

According to the inscription she was a priestess-musician who served as a ‘Singer in the Interior of the Temple of Amun’. The scans suggest she was about 5ft 5in and in her late 20s or early 30s when she died.

The cause of Meresamun’s death is unknown and all the more mysterious since she
appears to have been in good health.

The state of her bones shows she had a nutritious diet and an active lifestyle.

Although she bore no signs of dental decay, her teeth were worn down by the grit in Egyptian bread, which was made from stone-ground flour.

The Guardian, UK (Matthew Weaver)

Dr Michael Vannier, professor of radiology at the University of Chicago, who examined the scans, said they reveal "no convincing evidence of child bearing". He added: "There is no evidence of pre-mortem bony trauma."

In the first ever use of a 256-slice scanner on a mummy, the scans show that Meresamun's eyes were decorated with jewels or pottery. They also reveal that her teeth, though worn down, show no sign of decay. "Remarkably all the teeth are present. [There is] no evidence of tooth decay or periodontal disease (the principal cause of tooth loss in modern humans)," Vannier wrote.

Earlier attempts to carry out scans of Meresamun's caskets in 1989 and 1991 produced only blurry images. It was thought they showed what could have been a tumour on her throat that may have killed her. The new images suggest that swelling around the neck was resin used by the funeral embalmers.

Oriental Institute Museum exhibition page

February 10 - December 6, 2009
Members' Preview February 9, 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.

A fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibit.

- Reconstructing The Face Of Meresamun
Archaeology Magazine (Eti Bonn-Muller) With photographs/illustrations She was more than just a pretty face. The ancient Egyptian Meresamun, who lived around 800 B.C., was a working girl, a priestess-musician who served Amun, the preeminent deity of Thebes....

- Video: Meresamun
Discovery News See the above page for the video. The face of Meresamun, a priestess who sang in the temples of Ancient Egypt hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, has been revealed to the world for the first time thanks to a X-ray with a light...

- Special Online Feature: Priestess Of Amun
Archaeology Magazine (Eti Bonn-Muller) There is a great online feature about Meresamun on the Archaeology Magazine website. See the above page for a number of different sections which look at different aspects of Meresamun. ARCHAEOLOGY's March/April...

- New Book: The Life Of Meresamun - A Temple Singer In Ancient Egypt
Oriental Institute This companion volume and catalog to the exhibit that opens on February 9, 2009, traces the life of Meresamun whose mummy, dating to about 800 B.C., is one of the highlights of the Oriental Institute’s Museum. The text introduces...

- Exhibition: Life Of Meresamun Exhibit At Oriental Institute
Suite 101 (Stan Parchin) "The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt" at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum reconstructs the world of the religious performer. Exhibited from February 10 to December 6, 2009 are the results...

Egypt