Win! Tickets to see Fascinating Mummies in Edinburgh

 
The first major exhibition in the National Museum of Scotland’s new purpose-built exhibition space will be Fascinating Mummies, featuring treasures from two of the world’s great ancient Egyptian collections. Objects dating back as far as 4000BC will guide visitors through the complex rituals surrounding death and afterlife in ancient Egypt, including mummification and burial.

The National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, the Netherlands, has one of the world’s leading ancient Egyptian collections, with an extraordinary range of material including human and animal mummies. This material will be complemented by a small selection from National Museums Scotland’s own collections. These feature thousands of objects from ancient Egypt, including mummies and coffins collected in the mid-19th century by Scottish archaeologist Alexander Henry Rhind.

For many, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these internationally significant exhibits as the National Museum of Scotland will be the only UK venue for Fascinating Mummies.

Ancient Egypt has intrigued and fascinated travellers and scholars for centuries. The first part of the exhibition explores the complex rituals surrounding death and afterlife in this ancient civilization, with a spectacular array of painted coffins, amulets, jewellery, papyri, embalming equipment and mummy ornaments to show how mummification changed across the centuries.

The second part of the exhibition looks at how over time scholars, archaeologists and scientists have set about obtaining information on the Egyptian way of death, from early attempts at deciphering hieroglyphics on sarcophagi and unwrapping mummified bodies, to the state-of-the-art visualisation technology of today which shows how modern science has been able to provide new discoveries through the use of non-invasive x-rays and now CT (computerized tomography) scanning. Facial reconstructions literally bring the visitor face to face with great Egyptians of the past.

The exhibition will also explore recent DNA investigation of one of the most important groups in the permanent collection of the National Museums Scotland, the burial group from Qurneh, excavated by the archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1908.

One of the stars of the exhibition will be the mummy of Ankhhor, a priest serving in the temple of the god Montu in Thebes (modern Luxor) around 650 BC. Unlike many mummies, Ankhhor was never unwrapped and scientists in the Netherlands discovered from a CT scan information about his anatomy, age, health, how he was mummified, and the amulets concealed between his wrappings.

Fascinating Mummies opens at the National Museum of Scotland on February 11 and is on show until May 27.

Tickets are priced £9 for adults, £6 for children and £26 for families (two adults, two children). For opening hours and more details see: www.nms.ac.uk

We have 10 pairs of full-price tickets to be won. To be in with a chance, answer this question:

What is the name of Fascinating Mummies’ star mummy, who was a priest in Thebes in 650BC?

Send answers marked FASCINATING MUMMIES to: competitions@bigissue.com or post them to Competitions, The Big Issue, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW.

Closing date is January 24.