As a curator I have always wanted our visitors to have access to more information about the collection than is usually available. I’ve long been frustrated that the 100-word label provides only the briefest introduction to an object. So when Shelley suggested that there was a way to bring in-depth information into the gallery for those who want it, I was happy to help find appropriate material. For example, the code on the label for the Museum’s statue of Senwosret III will take you to an article about the king’s reign. There you will find information on his building projects, his appointment of his son as co-regent—a sort of co-king-in-training—and his pyramid. All of this information is drawn from the latest scientific studies of the reign. The QR code with the faience shabti called “The Lady Sati” leads you to an article describing the process of making this material drawn from a basic Egyptology source—Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw’s Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology.

Senwosret III, on view in Egypt Reborn (now with QR code), was one of the most powerful kings of the Twelfth Dynasty.

All of the articles linked to the Museum’s objects have been vetted by curators. When we read an article, we could see from the footnotes whether or not it was based on standard interpretations by professional, scientific scholars. Ancient Egyptian art is the object of interest for both scientific scholars and a wide variety of other researchers using non-scientific means. The Museum adheres to scientific standards, so curators insured that all the linked articles are part of our interpretive tradition.

QR code in the gallery links to Senwosret III's Wikipedia page.

Wikipedia’s reputation with scholars and teachers is a mixed bag. Many teachers forbid its use because students are not always ready to read the articles found there critically. I was also wary about linking the Museum’s objects to a source that varies greatly in quality. But with proper vetting, Wikipedia offers additional background about the Museum’s objects based on the best information. I hope that this experiment with QR codes will help enhance the visitor’s experience in visiting the Egyptian and Ancient Near East collections.

Mummy and Portrait of Demetris, Hawara, Egypt, Painted cloth, gold, human remains, wood, encaustic, gilding (13 3/8 x 15 3/8 x 74 13/16 inches), 50—100 C.E., Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 11.600.

Demetris entered the Brooklyn Museum collection in 1911. He lived in the first century C.E. when many Egyptians had Greek names, the result of Alexander the Great’s conquest in the fourth century B.C.E. Demetris was thought to be a woman because his name—written on his linen wrappings—ended in “is,” a feminine grammatical ending in classical Greek. Scholars early in the twentieth century thought that a man could only be named “Demetrius.” One early curator commented that Demetris’ portrait represented a particularly “homely” woman. Later x-rays proved that he was anatomically male and showed he was an example of a particular Egyptian custom of Greek, male names ending in “is.”

Coffin and Mummy of Thothirdes, Saqqara, Egypt, Wood, paint, linen, human remains, (7 x 10 x 56 inches), Dynasty 26 (664-525 B.C.E.), Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1521E.

Thothirdes’ masculinity was questioned because of bad x-rays. In spite of the beard of Osiris on his coffin, in spite of his red face—a trait traditionally associated with portrayals of Egyptian men—an x-ray very early in the twentieth century suggested to an early curator that he was “clearly female.” The most recent CT-scan showed, on the contrary, that Thothirdes is unquestionably anatomically male. This is a particular relief since it means that his beard and red face make better sense.

Cartonnage of Hor, Thebes, Egypt, painted linen, gesso, human remains, (69 3/4 x 18 1/16 inches) Late Dynasty 25 (712-656 B.C.E.), Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.50E.

Finally, “The Lady Hor” was identified as female because of her lovely face, “clearly feminine” in the judgment of an early curator. Again the face was red, but the lack of a beard on the cartonnage coffin and the face’s delicacy was taken as proof that Hor was a woman.

CT-scan of Hor at North Shore University Hospital.  Photo by Adam Husted.

The CT-scan, however, left no doubt that he was a man. Sometimes judgment alone is too subjective to make this determination.

As a curator, I now miss the opportunity to compare male and female mummification practices in Brooklyn’s galleries. But I hope that we have now settled this issue for good.

The mummy of Demetrios raises a large number of questions that can only be answered with the help of a team of scholars. Each of the team members brings a particular kind of knowledge to answer these questions. Their specialties include medicine, culture, language, and materials. I want to try to tie together some of the contributions made by all of the team members here.

I chose the mummy of Demetrios to include in the exhibition “To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum” from Brooklyn’s nine human mummies. Demetrios was one of two mummies never unwrapped in modern times, a prime consideration for presenting him to the public in a respectful way. His wrappings were also in better condition than the wrappings of the other candidate, a woman named Thothirdes who is on view in the galleries in Brooklyn. So Demetrios’ mummy could travel more safely than Thothirdes. But Demetrios posed certain problems for me in explaining to visitors who he was.

Demetrios most likely died in the first century of this era (called both A.D. and C.E.) Carbon-14 testing suggests he died in the year 39. He was an Egyptian, but perhaps he had a Greek ethnic background. He lived in the time when Greek was the language of government in Egypt, following Alexander the Great’s conquest about 300 years earlier. He probably was born during the time of Cleopatra the Great and thus witnessed the change of Egypt from an independent Hellenistic kingdom to the property of the Roman Emperor.

Demetrios’ mummy was prepared in the manner called a “red shroud portrait mummy.” This means that over his mummy bandages priests wrapped a linen shroud painted red. In addition he had a portrait in the Greek style placed over his face rather than an Egyptian-style mummy mask. Also, the inscription on the shroud was in Greek rather than Egyptian hieroglyphs as was typical for most of Egyptian history.

The CT scan performed by Dr. Larry Boxt’s team at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York in 2007 revealed some of Demetrios’ medical history. Dr. David Minenberg recognized the gall stone preserved in Demetrios’ gall bladder, a feature of the scan I initially thought was a scarab! Dr. Boxt was the first to suggest that Demetrios had to have died in his 50’s rather than living to the age of 89 as scholars had first suggested in 1911 based on a reading of the inscription. Dr. Boxt based his estimate on the condition of Demetrios’ spine.

Dr. Boxt’s observation led me to ask Dr. Paul O’Rourke, an expert in both the ancient Egyptian and the ancient Greek languages, to look again at the inscription on Demetrios’ shroud. He explained that the inscription recorded Demetrios’ name followed by a sign that resembles the letter “L.” The “L”-like sign indicated that the following letters should be read as numbers. In this case the first sign intended to represent a number was partially erased. The inscription showed two parallel lines that look like this: ІІ. Originally scholars interpreted these lines as the letter Π meaning “8” with the top missing. The following letter, Θ is complete and slightly raised from the line and means “9.” Together, scholars read his age as 89. But, Dr. O’Rourke pointed out, if the two parallel lines were understood to be the remains of Ν with the diagonal line missing, it would be the Greek writing of “5.” Thus Demetrios’ age could correctly be understood as 59, bringing it into line with Dr. Boxt’s observations of the spine. Knowledge of the aging of the spine helped determine how to restore the Greek inscription properly!

If you want to see Demetrios’ spine and his other bones for yourself, look at:

These web pages were prepared by Ed Bachta at the Indianapolis Museum of Art as part of the “To Live Forever” website. You can see Demetrios himself in Indianapolis beginning Saturday, July 12, 2008. Check with the Indianapolis Museum of Art for the details.

A team from the Indianapolis Museum of Art including curator Theodore Celenko, designer Tim Hilldebrand, director of new media Daniel Incandela, and new media project administrator Despi Mayes, Gregory Smith, Technical Designer, and Naeema Jackson, formerly in the Education Department visited me in Brooklyn last week to prepare for the opening of the exhibition, To Live Forever on July 13, 2008 at their museum. At lunch we talked about progress on preparing the labels, the layout of the exhibition, and details of mounts and casework. Then we went to the Egyptian galleries where Daniel and Despi (pictured above) filmed me talking about the exhibition for the web site they are preparing.

Daniel and Despi were also able to film Brooklyn conservators Lisa Bruno and Carolyn Tomkiewicz as they worked on preparing the mummy of Demetris and the painted shroud of Neferhotep for the exhibition. These two objects show two options for portraits that Egyptians had during the period when the Romans ruled the country. A panel painting on wood could be wrapped in the mummy wrappings as in the case of Demetrius’ mummy. Or the portrait could be painted directly on to the linen shroud that covers the mummy as Neferhotep did, eliminating the expense of the wood panel. The exhibition looks at the choices Egyptians had in planning their funerals. The visit was a great success.

Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire opens September 21 at the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio. I curated this exhibition for the Brooklyn Museum in 2005–2006 and I’m excited about the beginning of its three city tour. On September 30 at 2 PM, I’ll be at the Dayton Art Institute to talk about the exhibition. If you can’t make it to Dayton, I recorded a podcast which is available on their website.

Twenty-one mosaic panels from an ancient Roman-period synagogue floor are traveling to Dayton from Brooklyn, leaving New York for the first time since 1905. The French army captain Ernest de Prudhomme discovered these mosaics in 1883, making it the first ancient synagogue uncovered in modern times. Approximately twenty works of art from the Brooklyn Museum Roman art collection, including gold jewelry, luxurious textiles, and fine marble statues will also travel with the mosaics.

If you can’t make it to Dayton, look for the exhibition in Boston at the McMullen Museum at Boston College from February 15 to June 8, 2008 or in Miami at the Lowe Art Museum from October 31, 2009 to January 24, 2010.

Mosaic of a Date Palm Tree (Tree of Paradise). Hammam Lif, Tunisia, Sixth Century CE, Stone, 70 9/16 x 31 in. (179.3 x 78.8 cm), 05.14, Museum Collection Fund.