A team of Egyptologists and other specialists from around the country collaborated with Michele Koons, curator of archaeology, to find out how today’s leading technologies could shed more light on the lives and deaths of two female mummies on display in the Egyptian Mummies gallery.
The results are in! Findings from CT scans, radiocarbon dating, isotope analysis, and other tests show that the mummies’ distinctions are less likely based on their economic status, as previously thought, and more on when they lived during the history of Egyptian mummification.
Exhibits reveal new storylines for the two ancient women, highlighted by an interactive touch table that digitally unwraps the mummies and allows you to focus on key features. You will also see an exhibit about animal mummies, including a baby crocodile mummy once presumed to be empty.
Tomb artifacts, a model of an Egyptian temple, and a facial reconstruction of one of the women’s skulls round out the exhibition.
These mummies began their journey to Colorado in 1905 when entrepreneur Andrew McClelland visited Egypt as a tourist. It was fashionable at the time for wealthy tourists to purchase mummies to bring home, for “unwrapping parties” and to display in local museums. The mummies ended up in the Rosemount Museum in Pueblo and are now on permanent loan to our Museum.