Public lecture by Salima Ikram

It is rare to look upon the actual face of ruler, let alone one who has been dead for over three thousand years, yet this is possible when it comes to the kings of ancient Egypt. A cache of royal mummies was discovered in the 1870s and brought to the Egyptian Museum in 1881, and another one found in 1898. This lecture traces the history of the royal mummies from the time of their discovery until the present, including their roles as grand historic figures, objects of scientific inquiry, ambassadors for Egypt, political symbols, nationalist icons, and economic mainstays, as exemplified in the remarkable procession of 2021 that took them from the Egyptian Museum to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, where they now rest.