If you ’d like to be mummified when you choke , you could touch anorganization in Salt Lake City , Utah , to arrange the subroutine for around $ 70,000 . favourite are gimcrack , around $ 4,000 for an creature under 15 pounds .
It ’s expensive part because mummification is pretty rare these days . But for thousand of years , people preserved the remains of their utter as mummies . This was especially true in place with hot and dry climates , like part of ancient Peru and Egypt .
Now , a special exhibit that ’s on display at theAmerican Museum of Natural History ( AMNH)in New York leave mass to see 18 of those mummies in person , some of which have not been seen since Chicago ’s World Fair over 100 year ago .
In the exhibit , on hitch from the collections of Chicago ’s Field Museum , applied science like computerized imaging ( CT ) scan allows visitors to see what the insides of these mummies are like for the first metre . This engineering science allows visitors to see " who they were , what their lives were like , and even what they may have looked like , " Ellen Futter , President of AMNH , told reporters at a trailer event .
The images below show some of what visitors will be able to see at the display . Much of exhibit , including mummified bodies , bundles containing mummies , and torso part that were unwrapped by tomb plunderer , can not be snap , and will have to be escort in person .
Some South American groups create momma even before the Egyptians . The practice proceed and transfer for chiliad of years . A thousand year ago , this “ false headway ” would have seat atop a mummy of the Chancay culture . The mummy itself would have been kink up and placed in a decorated bundle .
The Field Museum / John Weinstein
The package of mummified extended families would be place in pits together . These burial pits were accessible to living home members , set aside relatives to bring food or drink to their loved single ’ Stephanie Graf , or even to take mom to take them to festivals or other special events .
This diorama record what the Inferno may have looked like . Kevin Loria / Business Insider
Now , scans bring out what ’s inside the bundles . The one here holds a woman in her 20 and two youngster , around ages 6 and 2 .
Kevin Loria / Business Insider
Many Peruvian mommy might be bury with tool they worked with ( like sportfishing equipment ) or with food and drink . These vessels were for corn beer ( chicha ) and hold small cups as if they were offering the dead a bit of refreshment .
While many of the artifacts bury with mama have been seeable ever since they were name , the scans used by researchers for the display mean this is the first time we ’ve witness what ’s inside many of the mummy wrap from both Peru and Egypt .
AMNH / C. Chesek
CT CAT scan take hundreds of images , break 3D detail . This scan of the Egyptian mum known as the “ Gilded Lady ” revealed that she was a woman in her 40 with curly hair and a slight overbite . She may have pall from TB .
The Field Museum
And here here you may see the container the " Gilded Lady " mummy relief in . It ’s being prepared for the exhibition by JP Brown , an associate curator at the Field Museum .
AMNH / D. Finnin
The Egyptian mummies in the display show the elaborated procedures and structures they created for the dry gangrene process . Many coffins were cover in hieroglyphics .
This coffin dates to about 700 to 600 BCE . In the upper band , the ibis - headed god Thoth holds the hand of the just gone gentleman’s gentleman . Thoth introduce the man to Osiris , god of the Scheol ( in the whitened headdress ) . In the lower dance orchestra , the man is being embalm by the Canis aureus - headed god Anubis .
In Egypt , organs were transfer and occasionally placed into containers like the two animal - forge containers beside the mummy here ( in Peru , electronic organ were usually not remove ) .
Animals were also mummified in Egypt . This gazelle was probably bring up at a synagogue for be mummify and used as a burial offering .
This in an elaborate way wind mummified sister crocodile was bury as an oblation in an ancient Egyptian tomb .
The scans that permit investigator to non - invasively and non - destructively embolden what ’s inside are revealing unexampled factor of history , according to David Hurst Thomas , co - conservator of the exhibit . " The skill has change so much in the last couple of decades , " he say . Now kid can most " unwrap " a mummy .
It ’s the same sort of technology used to figure out what killed this baby mammoth .
The CT scans can be used to create 3D images , like this one of a adolescent boy who was mummified ( his skull can be construe in the debut to this story ) .
The exposition will be at AMNH in New York through January 7 , 2018 before it displace on to other urban center ; its tour will finish at The Field Museum .
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