"Human Remains" isn't specific enough

[Woodenwonder]

Last weekend had an impromptu wander around the world museum in Liverpool. (Fantastic and free). Anyway in the Egypt section it states that the next exhibit features human remains or words to that effect. I'm thinking a sarcophagus with a mummy inside. And yes that was there, a couple of examples of wrapped up mummies, tastefully and respectfully displayed. Turn the corner and there are 3+ corpses. Not wrapped up and obviously somewhat dessicated.

I'm not squeamish but I find looking at a collection of led out bodies (albeit 1000s of years old) a bit disrespectful for want of a better word. It made me feel really weird.

Yes these souls are long gone but I was not prepared to see them laid out in that way. I don't think I was even expecting full bodies.

Aibu to think the sign could have been a touch more descriptive before entering the room?

The museum is a fantastic place but I just felt a little rattled.

Also I RTFT but haven't seen if anyone's asked yet, did you ever scream at the Sistine?

Nobody mentioned the red haired one in the British Museum yet?

I remember him the most clearly from when I was 9. Never occurred to me that anyone living in Egypt might have red hair.

Sadly it seems they do, programmes that I watched ages ago now have trigger warnings if people are ueber sensitive. Surely if you tune in to, say, Midsomer Murders, you shouldn't need telling that you may see violence?

I imagine those ancient Egyptians would be quite chuffed that they're still being 'worshipped' albeit in a very different way than they hoped, thousands of years after their deaths. I think that it is quite naive to think that they would just be mummies or skeletons displayed - human remains are just that.

Having recently gone through more than my fair share of bereavements I think we shouldn't be so squeamish about bodies once they have died - it happens to us all - especially in an exhibition of ancient Egypt where one might expect to see this even without explicit instructions.

Human pepperoni indeed 🍕

Was it 'Bodyworks'? Its the guy who mummifies real bodies and puts them on display. Yes, don't go to that if you don't like looking at 2000 year old mummies!

I think there's a number issues at hand here;

1. The signage is fine. They are human remains, it was enough warning.
2. From a scientific and historical perspective, showing human remains isn't icky, it's presenting a piece of human history - whether it's burial practises or preservation techniques. If you don't want to see it, don't engage with it
3. A whole separate issue is whether we should be displaying the pillaged remains of people we stole from a country we colonised. It's one thing displaying bodies discovered in peat bogs in England - it's a whole other to actively loot tombs from other countries and proudly display their dead who were left to rest in peace. They may not be able to consent - but their ancestors can, and have raised objections repeatedly

There’s never been a satisfactory explanation as to why the kidneys were left in the body. The belief of the ancient Egyptians was that the body was to be kept as intact as possible, and they removed the internal organs because they knew they would decay and affect the integrity of the rest of the mummified body.

One popular theory among egyptologists is that the kidneys were left intact in deference to this belief as they were too difficult to dissect out without causing damage to the surrounding tissue. Another theory is that they were simply overlooked during the evisceration process because they were encapsulated in fat and not easily visible. The heart was indeed where they thought the soul resided. They believed that the heart was the embodiment of a person's being, personality and intelligence, and needed to be left in place so that those traits could be re-established in the afterlife. Fascinating stuff.

Methinks the OP would not do well in Pompeii or Herculaneum. I don’t consider myself squeamish but the images of those casts of humans and other animals in their positions at the time of their deaths, stayed with me for a very long time.

Yes, I hope they have a helpline too for extra support.

Ah that was a brilliant exhibition - and of course everyone ‘involved’ had consented so no issues of morality there. So fascinating to see all the different aspects of human body.

Apparently there are so many people donating their bodies to science at current that there are too many and they are not needed.

Not to mention St John’s Ambulance standing by !!

Children go to museums you know!

OP I wouldn't personally be bothered by how the bodies "looked" (have been to post mortem etc as part of my job) nor really sure how a warning could have been better worded but yeah you raise an interesting point about when does consent/respect not apply? You have to very specific paperwork if you want to donate your body to medical science etc precisely for this reason - because its important to treat human remains with respect and not have any tom dick and harry be allowed to gawp at them so its an interesting point how "old" does that become irrelevant?

I agree 100%. "Human remains" is enough warning, but the ethics of displaying these bodies in the first place are questionable. Imagine if, say, an Arab country invaded the UK, dug up the bodies of dead British people, and put them on display. People would be horrified, no matter how long the people had been dead for.

I agree with you OP. Dead bodies as a tourist attraction.

Must be the only 10 year old in history who wouldn't. Most of the ones I know would have to be dragged away.

You are aware that children can have different temperaments, right?

Even if the dead bodies are displayed to illustrate the fascinating historical customs and beliefs of a civilisation existing thousands of years ago, and which has influenced the way we live today ? Too intellectual for you ?

Why would you need actual dead bodies on display when we can duplicate pretty much anything. Scan the body, remove it for a dignified burial, and display a facsimile. I have no need to gawp at a dead person.

@DyslexicPoster we used to take school groups to the British museum for part of the Egyptians topic and then discovered this museum was far closer and much smaller but specifically relating to what we were looking at, a much nicer and less stressful trip with only about a fifth of the travelling time!
We had issues at the British museum with tourists photographing some of our children, then they needed to sit on the floor and do some sketching which was highly impractical with so many other people milling about also trying to get a good view, then you had the traipse to the toilets every 5 minutes,..

So remove the bodies for a decent burial which would be against everything we know these people believed, and thereby destroying historical relics. OK then.

why on earth would a "dignified burial" be "against everything we know these people believed?" If we know enough about their culture to have a display section in a museum we would usually know something about their usual death customs, apart from which the vast majority of cultures in human history had very similar final body disposal options (obviously funeral rites were much more varied) because there ARE only a small amount of viable options - largely either burial or cremation. If mummy was found in a tomb, put them back in a private enclosed space, if x was dug up from a grave in the ground bury them back in the ground.

Nobody has suggested that we get a priest to wave incense over them and then stick them in the local catholic cemetery. And even if we didn't know what their burial belief system the one thing we do know was it was 100% NOT on display in a museum next to the gift shop so anything else (non-denominational) is going to be culturally closer to their current "resting place."

We'd either return them to their origin or "bury" as their culture lays out. Gawping at historical relics ( or their dead bodies) is probably against their beliefs too.

well, I hope I end up in a museum display case! It has always been something I would have liked - unfortunately I don't think I will ever be interesting enough.

Realistically - if these people could have been asked, I suspect a large proportion of human beings, human nature being what it is, will be pleased to be remembered and spoken about hundreds or thousands of years after their death

@BeyondMyWits don't go to the museum if you are uncomfortable with it

O actually! I have just remembered! A bit of me IS in a medical museum!!

Not the op or sistine chapel screamer, but I did actually wet myself in the museum being discussed.

Thankfully in my bag was a spare pair of leggings, but we're talking a full on sneeze attack weeks after giving birth.
But at least my baby got some culture 😂