Mummies of the World provides students a learning guide to enhance their interest in the scientific and cultural study of mummies and to heighten their interest in the sciences and social sciences in general. The guide is divided into units containing interpretive text highlighting aspects of the exhibition and explaining why it is important to study mummies and how that study connects with various fields of science. Each unit contains inquiry-based science and social science activities that will further student’s understanding of scientific methods of study and the historical and cultural context of mummies.

The human and animal mummies in Mummies of the World represent a wide variety of mummies that have been found in different regions of the earth. Every human mummy in the exhibition is treated with dignity and respect; the mummies were originally acquired at a time when it was common for people to collect human specimens. All of the mummies in this exhibition are assembled from the collections of various museums and institutions in Europe. When modern scientists examine these mummies, they are careful at preserving and keeping them as perfectly intact as possible, while still learning all they can about their lives, origins, people and histories. In doing so, the scientists and everyone who see the exhibition are ensuring that the living person the mummy once was will be remembered.

The Learning Guide is available to teachers and educators in a downloadable format. For further resources on the study of mummies or to identify the national educational standards that are supported by the activities and Learning Guide, please fill out the teachers’ guide request form below.