Manchester Museum

And in the absence of such consent, the statement went on, "...we believe removing ancient Egyptian human remains from display is more respectful to the deceased individuals." How you're supposed to get consent from that person or their family for a thousands of years old Egyptian mummy, they don't say.

Manchester Museum took the mummy Osru off display in September after more than 200 years, saying the decision aligns most closely with what we understand about Osru's own wishes.

And Oxford's Pitt Rivers Museum took the human remains out of its displays, its shrunken heads among them back in 2020.

Glasgow Life has not said when the Kelvin Grove remains came down.

We're gonna set the record straight.

I'm joined by the expert, the great friend of History Hit, a best-selling author and curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum, European Museum of the Year, Dr. Campbell Price.

He's back on the podcast to sort out fact from fiction when it comes to the myths of mummification in ancient Egypt.

[dramatic music] Campbell, you're at the coalface.

Mm

... you can go into in which the body is placed in a coffin.

And so the body at this point is still potentially placed in a, a wooden coffin, which we have a, an example in Manchester Museum, I think we've looked at it together in the storeroom, uh, which is, is short, made of wood, and it's big enough for an adult to be still in this crouched position.

So there's the idea of the-

Something that explains why he has this like high, if not equal standing to the king in his title.

Like it's not normal for somebody to be like the same as the Pharaoh, the two brothers, right? Here is a quote about Imhotep for Mathis to read from Egypt at the Manchester Museum.

Special columnist, Matt Zafran.

Imhotep's reputation endured after his death with the development of a funerary cult, which venerated his literacy and his scribal and physician skills, something which must imply he was considerably talented in these areas.

We all end up accidentally doing backdoor trailers for each other's episodes.

There's also a museum named after him near the Pyramid of Djoser, which opened in 2006, who say all the same stuff about him that I just did, about his legend, about him being this like enlightened genius.

But then how did he end up in the movies as like a scary villain or whatever? And why was he the one to bring his lost love back to life? Like, why did that happen? So here's another quote from the Manchester Museum.

But this time it's for Jesse to read.

... we became good friends.

So what we thought we'd do today is talk about your new role at Manchester Museum and something about potentially your role at Arts Council England and the things in the region as well, 'cause the Northwest is going through a lot of changes over the last few years, so it'd be really interesting to hear your insights on that.

And in your new role, how that's gone in the last six months that you started there, and what have you been doing, and what's, what's going on? And are there any digital elements that you'd like to talk about and share with us as well?

Of course.

[laughs]

[laughs]

So, uh, I think we'll start with your new role then at Manchester Museum.

Yeah.

They tested 39 individual hair samples, and 12 of them tested positive for nicotine.

That same year, other researchers connected to the Manchester Museum, they tested seven samples from a separate collection of Egyptian remains.

Three out of the seven tested positive for nicotine.

And guess how many tested positive for cocaine? None of them.

And we paid them each the same amount to create work.

And that work, when it returns to the UK, will be the starting point for a major exhibition at Manchester Museum.

using their own objects to sort of contextualize the legacy of British colonialism in those four countries.

Wow.

sorry, when you say using their own objects, it's pieces, like artifacts from those countries that are being held? No, no, no, not

artifacts.

It's contemporary artwork and then artifacts that the Manchester Museum has to contextualize what they create.

Wow.