The topic of my museum essay is a mummy lying in the museum. This artifact interested me a lot because of its uniqueness and originality. As far as I know, this is the only mummy keeping in our country. It is kept here from the 5th century. Its origin is the burial site of Kara-Bulak, Batken region, Osh province. The condition of a mummy is a natural state of mummification. The artifact itself is very interesting. There is a juniper coffin, the mummy inside of it but that is not all. Inside of the coffin there is also two boxes with food, inside one of the boxes, there are about fifteen bones from dried apricots.
That is because it is said that in ancient times, people have already suspected about the existence of an afterlife and put the food near the dead person in order to provide them a meal in the other world after death. I. e. they tried to provide them comfort in another world. As for the mummy itself, we can say that this is more likely to be a woman. Because, the mummy has one earring in its left ear. Actually, it said that men were wearing earrings at those times too. But there are also other facts and indicators of this mummy as a woman. They are the remains of a silk dress and the remains of leather boots on its feet.
Thus, because of the presence of the silk and leather, we can judge that this mummy was someone rich and high-ranking in the society, probably it was a princess or at least a member of loyal, kingly family. Because such materials were very rare and expensive at that times. As for the critique, this artifact definitely can be criticized. The mummy is kept in appalling conditions. There is just a coffin and the glass frame from above. To keep a mummy in appropriate conditions is very significant in order to save the artifact in the best possible way, and given conditions now are not enough at all.
There should be a resealable vacuum at least and certainly a specific, determined temperature to retain the conditions of the mummy inherent and suitable. Therefore, workers of the museum should necessarily change the surrounding and add certain important factors. Also, in my opinion, it is not very respectful to keep a mummy in such place. Of course, we do not know the name but we know the place where it was found. Thus, it is a kind of cultural heritage of Kyrgyz people and we should keep it with tact and under appropriate conditions. They should create a separate, even a small storage room for the mummy, so called mausoleum.
Likewise, it would be very interesting to know more about such unusual artifact. This is a human body, not just a material thing. I would prefer to see some more maybe details about how it was found or if it is possible about some moments of life of this mummy. Also, to know about the process of burial or mummification, etc. It does not clearly communicate its message and its importance to the audience because it seems boring and not really differs from other artifacts. But I think it is more than just a material artifact, so it should be represented in special, sapid way.
Therefore in conclusion, the mummy itself is very interesting and intriguing artifact. It tells about past culture of Kyrgyz people, other things which are near the dead shows some traditions and ritual which were accepted at those times. But for sure, the conditions of keeping this mummy are not appropriate. And they should be changed in order not only to support the presentable look of the mummy but also, to show the respect to this particular, important artifact. So people visiting the museum would see this and also would treat it, perceive and behave in appropriate way.
