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Posted: 06/20/2011 11:10 AM
By Christopher Yasiejko
For The Inquirer
The Tattooed Woman is seated for eternity in a loosely fetal posture, her head tilted to the right. Locks of her long black hair curl about her cheek and past her mouth, below which is a small, tattooed oval with a dot inside - a mystery.
We know she is from Chile, where before 1550 A.D. her burial posture was typical. In the desert air, her body naturally dried and mummified. The fabric that once tightly wrapped her has left impressions on her chin and cheeks.
As part of the latest blockbuster exhibition to visit the Franklin Institute, the Tattooed Woman is sure to prove as alluring as she was in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. "Mummies of the World," which runs from Saturday through Oct. 23, is the largest exhibition of mummies - 45 - and related artifacts ever assembled, including naturally and artificially preserved remains of humans and animals from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, and, yes, Egypt.
But while Egypt is well represented - the 2,650-year-old mummy and sarcophagus of an Egyptian priest are prominent, and the mummy and sarcophagus of an Egyptian cat are equally fascinating - the focus of "Mummies" is on the rich variety of geography, environment, materials, and people who long ago produced what is seen here.
A sense of veneration suffuses the exhibition space, and that's no accident. James A. Delay of American Exhibitions Inc., which assembled the traveling show, says, "I always wanted people to kind of feel like they were entering a church, with that reverence. But I didn't want to tell them to do that, because it's still good to have kids running around."
And kids will have plenty to do. Within reach, they'll find on a wall samples of replica skin and bone that simulate the feel of various types of mummification. Five interactive touch-screen kiosks provide a wealth of animations and explanations of topics that range from radiocarbon dating to studying mummies for insight into tuberculosis.
Animals abound: The Howler Monkey, naturally preserved in Argentina, stands wearing a feather skirt and a fluffy feather ruff around its head and throat. Less flashy are a mummified rat, weasel, squirrel, falcon, lizard, mountain snow hare, hyena, dog, and some cats.
The sounds in the exhibition rooms are gentle, meditative, even ethereal. The spaces are dim; the lighting splashes many of the specimens with a dramatic glow. Perhaps most impressive (or jarring, depending on one's stomach for anatomy) is the placement, at the back of one room, of three mummified Egyptian heads, perched on stands, each with its own spotlight. They are in such remarkable condition that it's easy to imagine how they might have looked in life.
"These are human beings who have gone before," Delay said. "We didn't want this to be scary or a sideshow. We wanted it to be a learning experience."
Connecting with the personalities behind the mummies is paramount to appreciating the exhibition. In a room near the end of the show visitors will find the Orlovits family - Michael, Veronica, and their year-old son Johannes, all of whom died in Hungary after the turn of the 19th century. They were discovered along with scores of others in 1994, in a forgotten church crypt, their corpses protected by cool, dry air and oil from their coffins' pine boards. And that's but a snippet of their story.
Elsewhere, a very tall 17th-century baron and a baroness from southern Germany were naturally preserved in the crypt of their castle. Commoners are even more plentiful. There's a Peruvian man of about 30 who 1,000 years ago was laid in an extended position, unusual for the time. One of the show's most important mummies, the 8- to 10-month-old Detmold Child, was preserved in the Peruvian fetal-style posture after dying 6,420 years ago - twice as long ago as the immortal King Tut.
Heather Gill-Frerking, who researches mummies and interprets related data, is part of the Germany Mummy Project, which in 2004 rediscovered 20 specimens inside the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums of Mannheim, Germany (a discovery that inspired this show). Scientists use DNA analysis, MRI and CT scans, and radiocarbon dating, among other methods, to probe the layers of information that once required a scalpel to reveal.
Gill-Frerking's forte is bog mummies, which are preserved in peat and whose skin blackens deeply. Though she initially wasn't interested in math or chemistry, these made her shift course.
"Somebody showed me the head of a bog body when I was in my third year of undergrad," she said. "And I said, 'That's really cool. How does that work? How do the bog mummies mummify?' And they made the mistake of saying, 'We don't know.'
"Don't ever tell me we don't know something - then I've got to go find it out. So I literally spent 15, 18 years working on bog mummies."
Mummies and their ilk sell. The Franklin Institute in recent years has played host to preserved bodies and to shows about Egyptian culture - the immensely popular "Body Worlds," "King Tut," and "Cleopatra." And this winter at the Penn Museum, despite a dispute with Chinese officials that shortened their appearance, several mummies drew big crowds.
The stars of "Mummies of the World" arrived from Milwaukee about two weeks ago under tight security. Trained handlers removed them from their crates, inspected them, and took photos to ensure that nothing had shifted during transfer.
Later, once the modest hum of preparation had subsided, Delay found himself not quite alone with his thoughts.
"When you're sitting in a room with all these mummies just sitting out on crates, waiting for the show to place them, personally, you can't help but think with some kind of reverence," he said. "I want to make sure I treat these people like I would like to be treated."
That carried until the moment he left the room.
"You can't help but at night say, 'OK, good night,' before you turn the lights out."
Mummies of the World
Through Oct. 23 at the Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St.
Monday to Sunday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last exhibition admission at 3:30). Adults, $26.50; seniors (62 and over), $24.50; children 4 to 11, $19.50.
Thursday to Sunday evenings 5 to 8:30 p.m. (last exhibition admission at 7). Evening tickets give admission to "Mummies of the World" only. Adults, $19.50; seniors (62 and over), $17.50; children 4 to 11, $14.50.
1-877-834-8497 or www.fi.edu/mummies/.
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