‘Mummies of the World’ at Connecticut Science Center in Hartford

“Mummies of the World,” a traveling exhibit parked at the Connecticut Science Center through Sept. 4, is a fascinating, educational exhibit showing mummified corpses from Egypt, Peru, Ecuador, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, the Netherlands and the United States.

Mummies have existed for thousands of years. Some were mummified medically, such as Egyptian kings and holy men, who were embalmed to preserve their bodies for the ages. Others mummified naturally, having been buried in atmospheric conditions that, unknowingly, would preserve them, too.

“For many cultures, such as the ancient Egyptians, the mummification process was performed as part of their religious beliefs. They believed that the body had to be preserved for the spirit to live in its eternal afterlife,” Jason Simmons, executive vice president of World Heritage Exhibits, said.

“Although the process of intentionally and naturally occurring mummies can vary greatly, the result is same, the halting of the decay process and the preservation of soft tissue.”

Mummified animals also are on exhibit, both embalmed — like Egypt’s beloved cats — and natural, and mummified body parts.

An element of the exhibit is the shrunken heads created by tribes in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil. The heads of enemies defeated in battle were severed, their brains removed and then gradually shrunk with salt baths, until they are about the size of a fist, with the lips sewn closed. Shrunken heads were a symbol of social status; the more a man had, the more enemies he had defeated.

“By studying mummies, we can learn more about the times and places in which people lived in ancient civilizations,” Simmons said. “Clothing, jewelry, and other personal artifacts placed on or with a mummy can tell us about the person’s status and lifestyle, as well as the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the culture in which they lived.”

Two examples of naturally mummified corpses included in the exhibit are Baron von Holz and Baroness Schenck von Geiern, who died during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) in Germany. Their descendants found them, amazingly preserved, in the family crypt in 1806, the Baron’s mummy wearing knee-high leather boots. Today’s descendants of the two nobles loaned the bodies to the exhibit.

Three Hungarian mummies, a husband, wife and baby who all died in the early 19th century, probably of tuberculosis, are other examples of natural mummies. The cool, dry air of the crypt where they were buried, and the oil from the wooden coffins, kept their bodies intact.

The mummy of a woman, found in a Dutch bog in 1951, is an example of another atmospheric condition that preserves corpses. Northern European bog bodies are up to 2,000 years old; most archaeologists believe they were human sacrifices. Bogs decalcify bones, but the woman’s intestines were preserved so well that scientists found remains of her last meal. She had berries, suggesting she died in summer.

“Bogs are wetlands with high concentrations of acid caused by decomposed plants. The chemical composition of the water and the lack of oxygen help preserve animals and human remains that find their way into the bogs,” Simmons said.

Between the 11th and 16th centuries, corpses in the Peruvian highlands were often turned into “bundle mummies.” Two bundle mummies are in the exhibit, placed in fetal positions and wrapped in cords made from grass. Those cords, which resemble elongated baskets, leave holes for the head and feet.

“While the bundles acted as a means of transporting and protecting the body, the mummification process itself occurred because of the thin, dry air and cold temperatures of the high altitude of the highland where the bodies were placed,” Simmons said.

The world’s most famous mummies are from Egypt. The elaborate treatment of the mummies and the sarcophagus coffins in which they were buried, as well as the meticulous embalming methods, make these mummies the showiest examples of mummification.

Two temple priests, Nes-Min and Nes-Hor, spent their lives taking care of statues in temples. In death, they were given the royal treatment, with colorful wrappings and equally ornate sarcophagi.

Over the centuries, Egyptian mummies have been exploited worldwide: used as fuel for trains, ground up to make paint, bought by Europeans as souvenirs and then taken apart for fun, shipped en masse to American paper mills, which used the linen bandages to make paper and got rid of the bodies.

“The mistreatment of Egyptian mummies is well documented,” Simmons said. “This was likely a combination of human nature and very different views on the treatment of human remains than we have today. The mummies in the exhibition are treated with dignity and respect.”

MUMMIES OF THE WORLD is at the Connecticut Science Center, 250 Columbus Blvd. in Hartford, until Sept. 4. The center is currently open Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Butterfly Encounter is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. ctsciencecenter.org.

Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.