Talking Pyramids: Ancient Egyptian Pyramids

Brooklyn Museum’s trip to the hospital with four of their mummies yesterday was an event not to be missed. Many of us all over the world were able to ‘tune in’ via popular social networks such as Flickr and Twitter.

Shelley Bernstein, Brooklyn Museum’s technology geek, delivered a running commentary with photos as the four mummies were taken from the museum to the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

The innovative use of the micro-blogging platform Twitter not only allowed many to follow the event step by step, but also allowed others to jump in and add their own two cents worth.

As Tina puzzled over a fold-out street map to determine what the best route was that should be taken, one observer Ian suggested Shelly help Tina by using the GoogleMaps application on her iPhone instead. Apparently Tina wanted a real map so Shelley checked the current state of the traffic on the iPhone instead.

Here’s one of her tweets:

brooklynmuseum: Figuring out good route to bring mummies into hospital #mummyCT

In no time at all word had spread all over the world as more people came on to Twitter to follow the event. Others were able to do so because all of messages, or ‘tweets’ as they are known as, had the keyword “#mummyCT” added to them. Others wanting to engage also used that keyword, or ‘hashtag’.

Shelley mentioned that there was an interview with the doctors from the hospital on the radio station 1010 Wins and within minutes someone had found the link to the audio and posted it to Twitter for the rest of us to listen to as we watched.

I had to chuckle as Shelley revealed that she could overhear doctors in the corridor talking about the radio segment and how they sounded in the interview. We were not only getting live coverage but also a lot of behind-the-scense action as well.

brooklynmuseum: just heard drs in hallway talking about their 1010wins interview – cute, right? http://twurl.nl/ih1bvi (expand) #mummyCT

We then received a snippet of the discussion between Dr Ousid and Egyptian Curator Ed Bleiberg:

Dr: there’s often a lot of air around the linens, making organs easier to see…depends on how well preserved

Ed Bleiberg: we’re interested in the organs that may still be in there…

Dr. Ousid – scanning will only take 60 seconds per mummy…

Meanwhile, Paul measured the room and hallways to determine how to best allow the the art handlers and conservators to move the mummies into the building.

As word spread around the internet other Museums began tuning in to follow what the Brooklyn Museum was doing.

Scanning begins:

Lady Hor was the largest mummy in the scanner and there was some question over whether or not she would fit:

..first mummy in the scanner is Lady Hor (we think she’s female, hoping to find out!)…resin in the brain, somthing in the chest cavity, crossed hands – still looking at gender…dr looking at pelvis to try and determine gender…

Natron sacks were found inside of Lady Hor as well as four wrapped organs – consistent with what they were expecting. Then, as the specialists were looking closer at the scans for more information, Shelly announced to the world the news that would change history: Lady Hor was not a lady but in fact a man!

brooklynmuseum: it’s a boy! – scrotum and penis pretty well preserved, but the anthropoid coffins says “woman” but going for closer look #mummyCT

What a discovery! It was like a plot from a movie and we were watching it unfold live before us…and that was just the first of four mummies to be put through the CT scanner.

Mummy number 2, otherwise known as “anon man” was then scanned. Until this CT scan very little was known about mummy #2 who lived roughly around the time 300-400 BC. The scan showed that he was well preserved, had no organs and showed the brain preserved in the skull, the nose not being cracked to remove the brain. It even showed a preserved beard as indicated by his portrait.

One of the mummies was then wheeled through the hostpital for a press conference, the hospital staff gathering around snapping pics with their cell phones.

Here is part of the press conference:

Ed at press conf: ongoing process to study mummies @brooklynmuseum to determ more info cause + date of death among other things

Dr Chusid reviews prelim findings such as diffs of methods of preservation w/ diff time periods.

Drs will be trying to make 3D reconstructions in a little while – we’ll try and share those a bit later.

Ed: we thought Lady Hor was a woman because there was no beard, but CT reveals a penis

Drs saying we won’t know everything today, but will be continuing to review.

Ed: @brooklynmuseum started doing non-invasive xrays of mummies in 1936 – much better quality in CT scans today

Ed: now pronouncing mummy names for reporters (forget it, i’m not going to even *try* and go there!)

A reed in his throat?

Reporters now asking about transgender practices in egypt re: “lady” Hor – Ed: “um, no” … and then gives lots of specifics.

Ed: may need to rethink what we know about beards, lots of talk about burial practice.

Ed talking about what he learned: “shows the basic humanity of the ancient Egyptians”.

Ed: “these are our best preserved human mummies, which is why we brought them”.

Ed: two mummies, including “lady” Hor will go back on view in the galleries June 30.

Ed on who the mummies were in society: inscriptions tell us a lot, so does the quality of the coffin and the materials used.

Next mummy #3, Thothirdes was scanned and then mummy #4, Pasebakhaienipet. There were a few surprises, probably the strangest was that a reed was found in Pasebakhaienipet’s esophagus, not his SARCophagus, his ESophagus!

Brooklyn Museum’s innovative use of social networks to engage with the public has once again proved to be a great success. I am sure other museums are taking notes and learning that these tools are a very effective way of sharing this sort of information with the public.

Keep an eye on the Brooklyn Museum’s blog for more information as there will be a series of updates on yesterday’s trip to the hospital.

More information:
Mummy #1: Lady (sic) Hor
Mummy #2: “anon man”, scan showing brain
Mummy #3: Thothirdes
Mummy #4: Coffin and Mummy Board of Pasebakhaemipet

Yesterday’s post: Mummies Go to Hospital – Live Coverage!
Twitter: the source of the live reports.
Flickr: the Set of photos of the event.
Audio: Egyptian Mummies to Get CAT Scans at L.I. Hospital
Related story: LI hospital CT scan may shed new light on mummies
Related story: Demetrios Gets CT Scanned
Related story: More on mummies…

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Tags: mummies, museum, technology