What age would you find it appropriate to show a child an Egyptian Mummy in a museum

[wishuponastar25]

Bit of a strange question but just as the title says really!

There's a Egyptian museum in Dorset that has a separate mummy section. All the mummies are recreations and not real.
DD who's was 5 at the time loved it.... I found it very creepy! But she loves anything a bit dark!
She still loves Egyptian now!

Any age. It’s fascinating to them.

princesssparklepants Is that the one in Dorchester? My DC loved it there when they were little . It is a good idea for them to be created I think .We went to the BM in the Autumn and it is so vast ,I think the little one is much more interesting and less overwhelming for LO

I have fond memories of childhood trips to the British Museum from a very young age. It actually sparked my life long fascination with Ancient Egypt and I’ve become a bit of a nerd about it .

I took my kids from probably early primary school age.

@BiscuitLover3678

They won’t really understand the concept or think about it as badly as we do.

I think my DS did understand that bodies in museums, or a cat skeleton in a natural history museum were remains of once living people or animals, so he found it upsetting. I'd always been honest with him about death from a young age as well.

@AuntMasha

It scared me as a 6 year old and I thought it was really horrible to display a body behind glass. Also shrunken heads at the museum of anthropology. The helpful curator told us how they were made.

Me too,I've always thought it was such an awful thing to do.

In our National Museum in Ireland there is an exhibit that shows a body that was preserved in the boglands since the Iron Age.
Don't click on the link if you do not want to see the preserved skin/hands/torso of an actual person:
www.museum.ie/en-IE/Museums/Archaeology/Exhibitions/Kingship-and-Sacrifice

I keep meaning to take DS(3) to the British Museum. Won’t take DD(1) but only because she’d be a total liability running/climbing/touching.

Any age really, but maybe 5-8 depending on the child for them to get anything out of it.

One of my favourite stories of my eldest is a conversation with him aged about 4 on a packed commuter train. We had been to the British museum.
Child: ‘mummy, the dead people we saw today’
Commuters: bemused
Me: ‘yes, you mean the mummies’
Child: ‘did anyone ask them?’
Me: ‘ask them what?’
Child: ‘well, if they wanted to be in the British Museum when they died?’
Whole train carriage:
Child: ‘I just don’t think you can dig people up after they have died and stick them in a museum without asking them’

So … I don’t think there is an age limit, only age appropriate questions and answers on the subject.

@Tonsiltrouble

One of my favourite stories of my eldest is a conversation with him aged about 4 on a packed commuter train. We had been to the British museum. Child: ‘mummy, the dead people we saw today’ Commuters: bemused Me: ‘yes, you mean the mummies’ Child: ‘did anyone ask them?’ Me: ‘ask them what?’ Child: ‘well, if they wanted to be in the British Museum when they died?’ Whole train carriage: Child: ‘I just don’t think you can dig people up after they have died and stick them in a museum without asking them’

So … I don’t think there is an age limit, only age appropriate questions and answers on the subject.

You had this conversation with a four year old?

Any age.
And I don't have a problem with them being on display, especially Egyptian ones with all the finery. As long as they are treated respectfully I can't help thinking the long dead king/princess/other VIP would have been thrilled to know that thousands of years after their death they would be admired by people from all around the world.

I first saw one in the British Museum (I think) on a primary school trip - so about 8 or 9?

I'd carefully read the signs, and took a picture with my camera (looong time ago - film and winding it on kind of long!) with the flash off so I could remember it. For years that fuzzy picture of a mummy was one of my prize possessions.

Certainly did! He’s always been an inquisitive child. We later found out he has Asperger’s so that probably plays a part. But we were unaware at that stage. And tbf my NT 5yo went to the Iran exhibit at the V&A last summer and got something out of it.

I don't think mummies have ever been treated with as much respect as they are now. They wanted immortal life...and thats exactly what they've got.

I was taken to see the very early sand-dessicated mummy in the British Museum when I was about 5. In those days, they used to call him "Ginger", because of his hair, and I can remember a Museum keeper in a blue barathea tunic telling me all about him. Because I was a very odd kid, I used to think of that mummy as a sort of friend, and even now, I like to see him and whisper hello to him.

PonyPatter44 I dont think you were odd at all! I have long been fascinated with the Mummies . Went recently and was equally thrilled and awed in equal measures

At any age you think taking them to a museum will be something they enjoy? I think there are probably more disturbing things in museums than Egyptian mummies.

Any age. It's not as if you can even see the actual body so it's not at all gruesome. They probably know what it is around age 4-5 if they watch things like Scooby Doo.

My dc saw a real one in 2019 when they were 5&7 when we went to the local council museum for something to do during the summer holidays. They weren't really that bothered and remember the rain more than the mummy!

Any age.

We've been taking our eldest since 2 or 3 (specifically for the dinosaurs but also saw mummies and other things) and youngest was about 6 weeks.

Any age tbh. My dc have been more upset about seeing taxidermied animals in the museum of Scotland than they were at mummies. I think because they look so alive whereas mummies don't. Kids also love the eww factor it's why horrible histories is so good :)

No issue with it. It's a historical fact

Any age. I think if a child is scared of mummies its not from anything they have witnessed in a museum but from TV shows/computer games etc.

Any age! Our DD has been going to the Natural History Museum, Pitt Rivers and Ashmoleon museum in Oxford since she was in a pram and we’ve always pointed things out to her so she was probably ‘aware’ of mummies from around 18months -2 years

Never. Those mummies deserve the same respect as our dead.

Any age - I would have been taken to a museum from a baby so seen them from then on.