Mummies: Secrets and Science features human and animal mummies, tomb artifacts, and funerary objects and materials used in the mummification process. It explains the ancient Egyptian beliefs in an afterlife, and the complex funerary practices they developed over thousands of years.

The gallery is arranged in a chronological fashion. You will see an example of a 5,500 year old natural mummy as well as about a half dozen “artificial” mummies, preserved by natron*, a type of salt, and then wrapped in linen bandages.

At first, the earliest Egyptian mummies occurred naturally. Bodies were placed in shallow graves in the low desert. The combination of the hot sun, dry climate and the sand-filled graves caused the bodies to dry out and become preserved. The ancient Egyptians noticed this natural preservation and over many centuries developed artificial ways of improving upon the same effect.