Tram Town
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
| Category: Egypt The Mummies - Ancient Egypt and the Afterlife exhibition at the Melbourne Museum was a bit wet and didn't seem to have much in the way of direction. The supposed theme was the death of a daughter of a high ranking official and her mummification and progression into the afterlife. It didn't really work for mine. As a "member" of the museum it was $5 entry, just worth it, as a mug punter off the street, $16 would be stupid. Just One Guy's Opinion. Oh and by the way... The use of BCE and CE as modern, more "correct" names for BC and AD is shoved down our throats frequently. Get over it! No matter how you do it you are basing things on the life of Jesus regardless of his importance! As a matter of interest, I asked my sons to try to find out the origin of the word "mummy" and we found it on about the 4th or 5th display in the exhibition. I had assumed either a modern source or an ancient source and I was wrong on both counts. The word comes from the Arab invasion of the 8th century. Mummiya means pitch or tar because most of the mummies were black when discovered by Arab invaders. Mummification is a back formation from there. |
