“This coffin is a product of a long tradition,” Troy says.
Tentkhonsu-a female human mummy on display in the gallery-and the sarcophagus in which she was buried are covered with inscriptions and images that convey details of the Egyptians’ beliefs about life after death. These mummies and associated artifacts, says curator Lana Troy of Uppsala University in Sweden, can serve as a valuable portal into the Egyptian belief system. The Natural History Museum‘s new exhibition, “ Eternal Life in Ancient Egypt,” reveals that Egyptians made mummies of loved ones, exotic animals and even pets as a means of communicating with the gods-and preserving the body to journey through the afterlife and reunite with the soul.
The truth is quite different and no less fascinating. You probably imagine a lurching horror-movie villain, lumbering out of a tomb with fraying cloth straps trailing behind.
