Pre-Columbian woman mummy from Peru dating back to 1400 A.D. ©American Exhibitions, Inc.

A 6,420-year-old child mummy from Peru, one the oldest mummies ever discovered, joins an astonishing collection of mummies and related artifacts in the extraordinary exhibition Mummies of the World, which makes its world premiere at the California Science Center in Los Angeles on July 1, 2010.
Mummies of the World is the largest traveling exhibition ever assembled of mummies and artifacts, featuring 150 never-before-seen real human and animal mummies and objects from South America, Europe, Asia, Oceana, and Egypt.

The Orlovits family (here Michael Orlovitz) was part of a group of 18th-century mummies discovered in a long-forgotten church crypt in Vác, Hungary in 1994. ©American Exhibitions, Inc.

Its treasures include one of the oldest mummified infants ever discovered; the presentation of a complete mummified family; a German nobleman discovered by his own descendants; and Egyptian animal mummies, ritually preserved to accompany royals for eternity.

This adult male Chilean mummy is from the Atacama desert ©American Exhibitions, Inc.

It demonstrates that mummification – both through natural processes and intentional practices – has taken place all over the globe, from the hot desert sands of South America to remote European moors and bogs.
The concept for the exhibit began after the German Mummy Project discovered 19 specimens within the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums in Mannheim, Germany. After researching and learning about mummies and the process of mummification, both accidental (natural) and intentional (artificial), it was obvious the collection had a story to tell. The exhibit's broad scope of human and animal mummies gives patrons a chance to see real mummies in-person, an event that is extremely uncommon in today's museum practices.
Tickets will go on sale June 6 for Mummies of the World, which makes its world premiere July 1 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles for a limited time only. The exhibition will travel in six other prominent cities in the United States.

Published 03.06.2010