Pharaoh-dynamic

We all should be so lucky to have loved ones who, upon our deaths, use salt to remove the moisture from our bodies, anoint our corpses from head to toe with oils, then cover us with a mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate and sodium bicarbonate to speed up the dehydration process before wrapping us in strips of white linen and entombing us with jars of food and water for the journey into the kingdom of Osiris. About 2,300 years ago, somebody named Meretites, an Egyptian noblewoman, was exactly that lucky. Although her mummified body has been lost to the sands of time, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (4525 Oak, 816-751-1278) acquired her spectacular inner and outer coffins, a gilded mask and hundreds of figurines with which she was laid to rest. It’s a pivotal exhibit in the museum’s new Egyptian galleries, opening today, which also feature the painted wood statue of Metjetji and a stone portrait of Pharaoh Senuseret III. For more information, see nelson-atkins.org.

Sat., May 8, 2010