Animal mummies, Jasmine Day, Alex the Cat, and our poor croc.

I've been photographing our croc in the Egypt Centre, in readiness for the visit of renowned Egyptologist and anthropologist Jasmine Day will be visiting the Egypt Centre. Our lucky volunteers will receive a free talk from her. Jasmine is the author of the book The Mummy's Curse: Mummymania in the English speaking Word (Routlege 2006). She has lectured and published internationally..

Jasmine has also long been a supporter of the Centre, so we will be delighted to see her again. She made several of the replica animal mummies which we sell in the shop, and, has made Alex the Cat. 

Who is Alex the Cat?. Here he is on the left. We use Alex who is a replica of a mummified cat we have in the collection. Click here to see the original. He is used to explain to children preventative conservation and safe handling
of objects in museums.

Anyway, on Friday, Jasmine is giving us a talk and here is the title and abstract: The Time Machine: The Coffin in Ancient Egypt - The changing face of Egyptian society and funerary fashions can be traced through centuries of development in the design of coffins, sarcophagi and cartonnage mummy casings. Ever conscious of their own history, the Egyptians periodically revived coffin styles dating back to eras well beyond living memory. Like time machines, coffins were intended to magically and physically protect and carry their occupants through eternity – and have indeed transported them into our own time. This is free for our volunteers but we have one or two spaces for non-volunteers for which we will charge £2.

We are feeling excited.

You may be wondering why I've been photographing the croc.  Well, Alex has been so successful that we are also going to do a croc version. Jasmine is going to copy him.