Tamut tells of life and death
The intricacies of an ancient civilisation are scanned and laid bare in a Sydney exhibition, writes Dionne Christian
When Sir Godfrey Hounsfield invented one of the first CT scanners — it’s the scarylooking machine that takes multiple x-rays from different angles all at once — I doubt he expected anyone like Tamut to use it. For starters, no amount of x-raying and diagnosing of her ills could save Tamut; she died nearly 3000 years ago.
But death hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of the stars in a surprisingly lively exhibition at Sydney’s Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, better known as the Powerhouse. It’s called Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives.
Thanks to those who, like Sir Godfrey, dreamed up CT scanning, museum experts and scientists are now using the technology to scan Egyptian mummies to discover what lies far beneath their wrappings.
It’s far less intrusive than a 19th century pastime of public “unwrappings” where crowds gathered to see mummies unwrapped, dissected and not-very-scientific-theories expounded.
This stopped years ago, replaced by x-raying mummies. However, x-raying doesn’t provide as much information as a CT scan and British Museum staff, unsure even of the gender of some mummies in its collection, wanted to know more.
Were they sick during their lives? With what? How were bodies mummified to grant the deceased eternal life in the netherworld? How did things change over time?
Tamut is one of six who underwent the 3D CT scanning then travelled from the British Museum to Australia for Exploring Ancient Lives.
The mummified remains of the six, who lived and died in Egypt between 1800 and 3000 years ago, are displayed alongside their scans and what these revealed about each one’s age, gender, health and how they were mummified.
All have been identified as having a different job or role in Egyptian society so different objects relevant to each one are grouped close by. The exhibition includes about 200 objects associated with funerary practices and daily life.
It’s ordered chronologically, so you move from Nestawedjat, a married woman who lived circa 700-680BC, to a nameless young man from Roman