Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine at Legion of Honor
By STAN PARCHIN
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| Sarah Hegmann. Visualization of the Mummy of Irethorrou Using Osirix Software (2009). Photograph courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. |
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| Sarah Hegmann. Visualization of the Inner Wrappings of the Mummy Irethorrou (2009). Photograph courtesy of Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. |
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| The Mummy of Akhmin Priest Irethorrou CT-scanned at Stanford Medical School (2009). Photograph courtesy of Stanford Medical School Department of Radiology. |
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| Robert Cheng. Visualization of the Head of Irethorrou Showing Placement of the Two Amulets Discovered Inside His Wrappings Using VG Studio Max by Volume Graphics (2009). Photograoh courtesy of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. |
September 9, 2009
Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine in Gallery 1 of the Legion of Honor (October 31, 2009-July 4, 2010) uses detailed images from three-dimensional computed tomography (CT) scans to explain the ancient Egyptian practice of mummification. The exhibition's subject is the Mummy of Irethorrou (ca. 500 B.C.), on long-term loan from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) to the Haggin Museum for the last 65 years.
Also on view are: a beaded mummy mask (Dynasty 26, 7th Century B.C.); an anthropoid coffin (Dynasty 30, 4th Century B.C.); a burial shroud (ca. 350 A.D.); assorted funerary furnishings; and historical prints that illustrate Western Civilization's enduring fascination with Egyptian mummies.
Mummification of Irethorrou
In ancient Egypt, mummification was intended to preserve the human body as an eternal receptacle for one's ka or life force, thus insuring an afterlife. In the event of the body's corruption, stone or wooden images of the deceased, placed within a tomb, served as substitutes for the ka to inhabit.
Irethorrou, a prominent priest from Akhmin, Egypt, died at a very early age. His mummy was one of many discovered at a single archaeological site. During the 19th Century, a number of them were exported to various locations as "curiosities."
The Stanford Medical School's Department of Radiology, in collaboration with the Akhmin Mummy Studies Consortium, used state-of-the-art technology to create Irethorrou's reconstructed forensic portrait. Using high-resolution images, the exhibition's three-dimensional fly-through (animation) vividly describes how the cleric's remains were prepared for embalming and interment, including the placement of more than a dozen talismanic or magical protective amulets atop Irethorrou's remains. At the Legion of Honor, the priest's mummy is displayed within its decorated sarcophagus (coffin).
Family Reunion
Very Postmortem... reunites Irethorrou with Ankh-Wennefer, a close family relative whose mummified remains are in the Washington State History Museum, through computer-generated models of their skulls.
Dr. Renée Dreyfus, the FAMSF's Curator of Ancient Art and Interpretation, said, “What we’re trying to do is merge science, culture, history, medicine and art. This exhibition gives us an opportunity to incorporate modern techniques and procedures with one of the oldest objects in our permanent collection.
Sources
Bleiberg, Edward and Kathlyn M. Cooney. To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum (exh. cat.). Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.
D'Auria, Sue, Peter Lacovara and Catharine H. Roehrig. Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (exh. cat.). Boston and Dallas: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Dallas Museum of Art, 1988.
Taylor, John H. and Nigel C. Strudwick. Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (exh. cat.). Santa Ana: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2005.
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