Gebelein Predynastic Mummies - Exhibition History

Exhibition History

The mummies were acquired by the British Museum in 1900. One male adult body, museum number EA 32751 (then nicknamed "Ginger"), went on display in 1901, and was the earliest mummified body seen by the public. Apart from maintenance, it has been on continuous display in the same gallery since 1901. In 1987 the body was temporarily taken off display for restoration and a female mummified body replaced it. She was nicknamed "Gingerella" even though the body has long brown hair.

The male body, EA 32751, is displayed in a reconstructed sand grave in the British Museum in room 64 and case 15. Though Budge wrote of "pots and flints" with the body, these artefacts were not acquired by the museum. A number of Egyptian grave goods taken from similar graves of the period are instead used in the display. The grave goods include black-topped clay pots that were typical of the predynastic period through to Naqada II, and plain and buff coloured pots and bowls typical of slightly later periods. There are also slate palettes, hard stone vessels and flint knives which would be associated with more elaborate burials of the historical period.

One man was wrapped in a skin, a second in a mat of palm fibre, and the third was rolled up in a reed mat. The woman was without covering, and the only pot in her grave contained what seemed to be a sort of dried porridge...
I unpacked the first man we had taken out of his grave at Gebelên one Saturday in March 1900, in the presence of Lord Crawford and the Principal Librarian, and when it was laid on a table it was as complete as when I first saw it at Gebelên. But when it was examined again on the following Monday morning it was discovered that the top joint of one of the forefingers was missing, and it has, to my knowledge never been found since. The body was exhibited at once in the First Egyptian Room, and for the first time the British public saw a neolithic Egyptian.

— Wallis Budge, By Nile and Tigris, 1920

Of the other five bodies, only the female adult, given museum number EA 32752, has been exhibited. In 1997-8 the body was part of a tour to Rome as part of the Palazzo Ruspoli, Ancient Faces exhibition. Again in 2001 the body went to Birmingham as part of the Gas Hall, Egypt Revealed exhibition. In 2001 before going out on loan, the body had some restoration using Japanese kozo paper to secure a loose finger, reattach a rib and to reattach some locks of hair. Strips of polyethylene were used to reduce movement of the right arm.