Someone has figured out how to pull apart glued paper used in mummification without destroying the
writing on the paper. What kind of papers? Well, perhaps the earliest copy of the Gospel of Mark, for one, dating from around 90 A.D. And maybe other interesting things like stories of Homer.
I have to admit I feel a bit sorry for the person whose mummy-mask this was. They, or their families, went to such care to prepare them for eternity; only it turns out their descendants value their trash more than the sanctity of the burial they so carefully prepared.
ReplyDeleteThat's one reason to be cremated, although the Church is a little bit against it. Once you've been scattered to the wind, nobody can mess with you anymore.
Dad was cast to the wind on a little hilltop, overlooking a remote Alaskan river he loved, far above the Arctic Circle. Years ago I picked wild blueberries there for our morning pancakes. Really can't think of a better place for his ashes.
ReplyDeleteThen that was the right place for them.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe bodies are sacred. I do have pretty strong feelings about written works of art, though, and historical knowledge.
ReplyDeleteOnly written works of art?
ReplyDeleteNo, of course not, but those are the only works of art implicated in this kind of historical recovery.
ReplyDeleteWell, not quite! There's the mummy mask itself, which is a work of art of similar antiquity. It's going to be destroyed in the process. Why not wait until we could read the documents without destroying it, as with the scrolls we're beginning to be able to do that with?
ReplyDeleteIt's an issue. I wouldn't necessarily care about every Tom-Dick-and-Harry mask, but if it's a fine one . . . .
ReplyDeleteIn any case, I don't care about the human remains behind the mask, and I could easily be persuaded that it was enough to make careful pictures of the mask before harvesting it for documents. There are trade-offs in everything.