[MSN] Exhibit from British Museum reveals Egypt's secrets, but courts controversy.

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'Mummy: The Inside Story' 
Exhibit from British Museum reveals Egypt's secrets, but courts controversy 
 
Sianturi Dinah Roma (DinahRS)      
 
I first read about the Rosetta Stone in Edward Said's groundbreaking
Orientalism (1978), in which he mentions how Napoleon Bonaparte's 1798
campaign in Egypt led to the stone's "discovery" the following year by the
young engineer Pierre-Francois Bouchard. As soon as the event was announced,
it sparked the interest of hundreds of archaeologists, collectors and
investigators into Egypt's ancient civilization. 

Among the scholars who had tried decoding the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta
Stone, the most significant achievement is credited to Jean-Francois
Champollion. However, an article in the weekly Al-Ahram in November 2005
offers a contrary opinion. The article quotes London-based Egyptian
Egyptologist Okasha El-Dali as claiming that Arab scholars in fact decoded
the hieroglyphs 1,000 years earlier than Champollion.

It is interesting that the discovery of the Rosetta Stone is only one of the
many layers of mysteries surrounding the exploration of ancient Egypt
itself. But how the stone ended up in the collection of the British Museum
as its valued centerpiece since 1802 is another story that highlights the
power struggles among European countries over the creation and possession of
knowledge. 

The British Museum's "Mummy: The Inside Story" has given me an insight into
the long and often controversial history that shrouds the collection. As a
popular exhibit, it has attracted thousands of visitors in its run in the
U.K. and U.S. It finally made its first visit in Asia at The National
Science Museum of Tokyo (Oct. 7, 2006 to Feb. 2, 2007) and is now drawing to
a close at the Kobe City Museum (March 3 to June 17). In Kobe alone, the
exhibit has already attracted more than 10,000 viewers.

Thematically, the 125 artifacts are divided into five sections:
"Introduction to the World of Ancient Egypt", "Serving the Gods",
"Nesperennub the Priest", "Desire for Rebirth and Eternal Life" and
"Departure to the Afterlife." The Rosetta Stone leads the entire collection.


It is overwhelming to walk through the rows of glass casings, inside of
which sit many gold and bronze statuettes of gods and goddesses, chalices,
jars, miniature shrines, intricately hand-designed gold jewelries, pendants
and amulets. An inner area in the exhibit is devoted to the artifacts of
Nesperrennub the Priest while a reconstructed head of his is displayed
opposite the glass casing that contains a body-length diagram of where the
tabs and pendants were placed throughout the priest's body during his
mummification nearly 3,000 years ago. 

Nesperrennub, who has resided in the British Museum since 1899, also takes
the limelight in a 20-minute 3D film projected onto a 12 foot tall and 42
foot wide curved screen that travels with the exhibit. The film boasts of
the Silicon Graphics Inc.'s (SGI) scanning technology that has distinguished
"The Inside Story" from ordinary exhibits. A project that was conducted over
a two-year period, the mummy was initially scanned at a London hospital and
a follow up scan was done in Scotland using a 3D laser. The film uses high
visualization technology that puts together 1,500 computed tomography (CT)
non-invasive scans of the priest's wrappings and casings into a single data
set. The fly-through effect was an impressive virtual reconstruction of the
priest's face, his life, his environment in Karknak, Egypt and the very
culture he was thought to have lived in. 

What the film is able to reveal as well, without the need to "invade" the
priest's remains, is the tedious mummification process that attests to
ancient Egypt's sophisticated method of preserving the human body. Yet as
all humans are bound to make mistakes, the film through the help of forensic
experts makes guesses on what the embalmers neglected during the process. A
small plate attached to Nesperrennub's skull, for example, is assumed to
have been left there after the clay had hardened.

I left the exhibit thrilled at the discovery of technology in making the
past so alive for the individual nowadays. I have never thought that the
wonders of antiquity can be stored in bits and images and played over and
over again just like another song. Never before has it been so accessible.

Yet another great significance of the exhibit centers on the issue of the
artifacts' possession itself. As I searched for relevant articles on the
issue, a close friend told me to look up the name Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's
Secretary General of the Surpreme Council of Antiquities, who is now a
staunch advocate for the return and protection of the country's "lost
treasures," particularly the Rosetta Stone.

Dr. Hawass's oft-quoted statement that aggressively asks the British to
return the Rosetta Stone "if they want to restore their reputation" was
dismissed by Vivian Davies, keeper of Egypt and Sudanese Antiquities of the
British Museum, by saying that the Rosetta Stone is an important part of
their mission to showcase not only Egyptian antiquity, but its being part of
the world's civilization. 

It is expected that Dr. Hawass will continue to pursue ownership over
Egypt's civilization, but whether and when the Rosetta Stone will be
returned only time can tell.  

http://english.ohmynews.com/

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