The Museum is open with updated hours, Wednesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, required free timed tickets to encourage social distancing, and increased health and safety procedures including required cloth masks. Learn more about these updates at ncartmuseum.org/covid19. Museum from Home programming continues, including the NCMA Virtual Exhibitions Subscription and virtual events.
Ancient lives, eternal gold. This exhibition presents eight extraordinary, gilded mummies and more than 100 related objects, including papyri, jewelry, ceramics, and deity works that connect the daily lives of these Greco-Roman Egyptians to the religious world of the gods.
March 6–July 11, 2021
Become a member today to enjoy special savings! Learn more about the perks of membership, including free exhibition tickets.
Tickets on sale now.
In a series of lavishly illustrated thematic sections, the exhibition uses the outstanding collections of the Manchester Museum to showcase multicultural Roman Egypt (circa 300 B.C.E.–200 C.E.), where diverse Egyptian, Roman, and Greek communities and cultural influences were blended.
The exhibition journey traces expectations for the afterlife and introduces cultural constructions of identity, strikingly demonstrated by haunting, painted panel portraits. Visitors will learn more about three of the mummies in the exhibition using digital interactives to see underneath the wrappings, thanks to data gathered through digital radiography paired with multidirectional CT scanning.
Golden Mummies of Egypt is developed and produced by Nomad Exhibitions. In Raleigh additional support for this exhibition is made possible, in part, by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources; the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation, Inc.; and the William R. Kenan Jr. Endowment for Educational Exhibitions.
The NCMA thanks our Media Sponsor: Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc., and WRAL-TV and the Golden Mummies of Egypt Leadership Committee for their support of this exhibition:
Presenting Sponsors
Nancy and Ron McFarlane
Carol and Rick McNeel
Supporting Sponsors
Anna and Jim Romano
Participating Sponsors
Connie and Elliot Bossen
Kristin and John Replogle
March 6–July 11, 2021
Hours
Wednesday–Sunday 10 am–5 pm
Monday and Tuesday Closed
Ticket prices with taxes and fees:
There are eight mummies in the exhibition. None have been unwrapped, and all retain their original portraits and mummy coverings; some remain in their coffins. They continue to be preserved in the way they were intended to be. Digital CT scans of three mummies allow visitors to see through the wrappings to view 3-D interpretations of the remains found within. (The actual bodies are not visible on the scans.)
The gilded mummies were discovered at Hawara in 1888–89 and 1910–11, at a time when Egypt was under British rule. Archaeology, while seeking to learn more about ancient peoples and culture, was nonetheless a colonial enterprise that perpetuated racist views of Egypt and Africa and promoted Eurocentric supremacy at the height of the British empire. Egyptologist William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who directed the Hawara excavations, was not only renowned for his scientific excavation methods but also was a proponent of eugenics, using prejudiced opinions to argue for racial hierarchies. The exhibition and the associated publication seek to bring these colonial and racial biases to light and help the field of Egyptology take a critical look at its past.
Please note the entire exhibition has low lighting, so please use caution. Additionally, many mummies are in floating casework in the middle of rooms. Finally, some of the films contain loud noises. Thank you for coming.
Golden Mummies of Egypt: Interpreting Identities from the Graeco-Roman Period is the lavishly illustrated publication that accompanies the exhibition Golden Mummies of Egypt.
Written by Manchester Museum Egyptologist Campbell Price, the book is not a typical exhibition catalogue with entries for each of the works of art. Instead the author offers a deep dive into the themes of the exhibition, discussing each within its religious, cultural, and sociopolitical context. Readers gain a greater understanding of the funerary traditions of the people who lived and died in Graeco-Roman Egypt; learn more about archaeological and colonial context of Flinders Petrie’s 1888–89/1910–11 excavations at Hawara, where these gilded mummies were unearthed; and discover how the material ended up at Manchester, an important center for mummy studies since the early 1900s.
Golden Mummies of Egypt: Interpreting Identities from the Graeco-Roman Period
By Campbell Price
Soft cover, full color
250 pages
9 1/4 x 11 3/16 in.
ISBN 978 1 526199 67 6
Shareable social media graphics
Click here to see the full album of social media graphic. Download them to your phone or computer and share!
Spotify playlist
Enjoy this playlist of classic and modern Egyptian artists, curated in honor of the exhibition Golden Mummies of Egypt.
Become a member today to enjoy special savings!
Enhance your experience of all special exhibitions and our world-class collection with these exclusive benefits:
Golden Mummies of Egypt Self-Guided School Groups
Self-guided school group tours are available for Golden Mummies of Egypt. Groups of 10 to 20 students on a school-sponsored trip can receive free entry to this special exhibition. Availability is limited by capacity restrictions. Only available Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Students must be divided into groups of five students with one chaperon per group. Each group of five students will need to be in a separate gallery and follow the arrows through the space to ensure social distancing.
To inquire, reach out to the manager of tour experiences by email or by calling (919) 664-6820.
Location
2110 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607-6494
Parking
Visitor parking is free and available in the Blue Ridge lot, on the right after entering the Museum drive. Overflow parking is behind West Building, on the left after entering the Museum drive. Visitor drop-off is located between West and East buildings and can be reached by turning left after entering the Museum drive and following the signs.
Policies
EVENTS IN THIS SERIES:
You’ll see us in your inbox soon. And we hope to see you at the Museum!