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.

A sample of linen near the feet was taken for C14 dating.

Marc will send this sample to the NSF Arizona AMS Facility at The University of Arizona. This will give us a ballpark date of how old the linens are, and by association, how old the mummy may be. While we know stylistically it is between 30 B.C. and 395 A.D., we may be able to get a narrower date with C14 dating. We also wanted to find out more about the mummy itself. Is Demetrios really a man? Across the linens, in gilding just under his name is written 89 years. Does that mean he was 89 years old when he died? What did he die of? Is there anything else wrapped up with him in the linens? In order to answer some of these questions, we decided to have Demetrios CT scanned. CT scanning, or computed tomography, is another non-destructive technique that allows us to see beyond the linen wrappings, without having to un-wrap Demetrios. A three-dimensional image is generated using X-rays. This was carried out at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset New York.

Lisa, a BM objects conservator, makes sure Demetrios is securely packed before his big trip. Photo by Adam Husted.

Before Demetrios could travel to Long Island, we needed to make sure he was stable enough to withstand the truck ride. One of our art handlers, Jason, constructed a custom made box with foam padding so that Demetrios wouldn’t shift in transit. We used a special art packing and shipping company, Marshall Fine Arts, to transport Demetrios to the hospital. Their tucks are climate controlled and have “air ride” suspension to give the mummy a nice, smooth, cool ride. This was also an opportunity for us to give Demetrios a “trial run” to see if any damage will occur during transit. While we take every possible precaution to avoid damage to our objects, sometimes there are unforeseen problems. Demetrios hasn’t left the BM since he arrived in 1911, and while he was only going to Long Island for this trip, he will be traveling to 11 different museums across the US as part of the exhibition To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum. If any problems occur during this quick trip, we can address them before he goes out on the road for over 3 years of travel. Check back next week to read about our adventures in CT scanning!

Lisa and the guys from Marshall Fine Arts load Demetrios into the truck. Photo by Adam Husted.

On July 5, Marc Walton, a scientist with the Getty Conservation Institute came to examine one of our mummies, knows as Demetrios. He brought a portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) machine with him. With this non-destructive technique, he can take readings of different inorganic materials on the surface of our mummy, which will tell us the chemical make-up. Marc wanted to compare both the red lead and gilding found on our mummy, Demetrios, to the red lead found on the Getty mummy, Herakleides. It turns out that the red lead and gold are very similar – they have similar trace elements. The Getty is continuing their research to find out what that all means, but it is possible that these all came from the same workshop. There is also evidence to suggest that the lead used to make the red lead pigment may have come from a silver mine in Spain. When silver is smelted from the ore, lead is a common by-product. The lead would have been used to make the red lead paint. The Getty is also researching this further to determine whether the red lead pigment was made in Spain then traded to Egypt, or if the raw lead was traded to Egypt and the pigment made there. It is also unclear why the color red was chosen. Perhaps it was because the color red was thought to ward off danger. Sometimes, the more we find out, the more questions we have – there is still a lot to learn about our mummies! Check back next week to find out what other techniques we are using to learn more about Demetrios.

 I would like to introduce you to Demetrios. Demetrios is a mummy in the Brooklyn Museum collection that will be traveling across the country starting summer 2008 along with over 100 Egyptian artifacts from our collection in an exhibition entitled “To Live Forever, Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum“. Demetrios was excavated from a Roman cemetery in Hawara, Egypt in 1911, and is believed to date between 30 B.C. and 395 A.D. After its excavation, it came directly to the Brooklyn Museum. We know the mummy is that of a man named Demetrios, due to the style of the wrapping, and that his name is gilded across the linen wrappings. Also, Demetrios’ portrait was painted on a wooden panel, and inserted into the linens over his face. This is very typical of these Roman Period mummies. What is not very typical of the Roman Period mummies is that the surface of Demetrios’ linens has been covered with red lead paint. There are less than a dozen of these so-called “red shroud mummies” known to exist in the world. The J. Paul Getty Museum in California also has one of these red-shroud mummies, named Herakleides.

The Getty has started to research these mummies, and is visiting collections all over the world to have a closer look. Check back next week to learn about the Getty’s visit to the Brooklyn Museum to look at Demetrios.

Above is an image of a virtual reconstruction of the portrait where it was originally, within the linens of the mummy, as well as a close up of the portrait. The portrait was actually removed from the linens in the 1930’s because the wood was starting to crack and conservators needed better access to treat it. It was then decided to put the portrait on display – and put the mummy back into storage. I’ll discuss our efforts to reunite the two in subsequent blogs.

“While mummies have been subjected to CT scans for more than two decades, it was a first for the museum and for North Shore. The goal was to gain insights into who Demetrios was, how he died and what his mummified remains might tell them about Egyptian funerary practices.”

Our mummy, Demetrios, is featured in today’s New York Times with a full article by Carol Vogel and a multimedia slideshow. Conservator Tina March will be blogging about Demetrios in the coming weeks.