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Luxor’s Mummification Museum Documents 25 Years of Pharaonic Secrets

Statues of cats discovered by Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, are displayed. (AFP)
Statues of cats discovered by Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, are displayed. (AFP)
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Luxor’s Mummification Museum Documents 25 Years of Pharaonic Secrets

Statues of cats discovered by Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, are displayed. (AFP)
Statues of cats discovered by Egyptian archaeological team in Giza's Saqqara necropolis, south of Cairo, are displayed. (AFP)

On the eastern shore of the Nile River and the northern side of the Luxor Temple, stands the Mummification Museum, one of the largest specialized museums in Egypt that explores the land of the dead and the golden rays of the sun.

The museum exclusively documents the mysteries of embalming – one of most valuable secrets of ancient Egypt. It is celebrating its 25th anniversary by offering free workshops for visitors to allow them to learn about its history, archeological acquisitions, and boost their touristic and archeological knowledge. The workshops provide presentations that simulate the embalming process and tools in ancient Egypt, coffins, and deities from the other world.

Extending over 2,000 square meters, the Mummification Museum was inaugurated on May 7, 1997. It houses one gallery exhibiting around 73 antiquities providing an inclusive definition of the whole embalming process and explaining the religious value of embalming and the related rituals from the Old Kingdom until the Late Period. It also displays many mummification tools, Canopic jars collection, adorned coffins, amulets, deities’ statues, and funerary drawings.

The museum also exhibits many human mummies, as well as a collection of animal mummies including crocodiles, cats, and fish.

The Mummification Museum is the only museum specialized in documenting the mummification processes in ancient Egypt, said Mohammad Shehata, director general of the museum.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the museum shed lights on the embalming process from death until the end of the burial ceremony, which spanned 70 days.”

“The priests who led the embalming processes were carefully selected based on specific qualifications, including good manners, and good medical and anatomical skills. They carried out embalming processes in the embalming house, or what the ancient Egyptians used to name ‘the beautiful house’, inside the Karnak Temple, where they used to undress the dead before purifying him with the water of the temple’s sacred lake, remove his insides, and cover his body with Natron salt,” explained Shehata.

The brain was extracted from the nasal cavities after breaking the ethmoid bone using a screwdriver-like tool and a spatula, while leaving the heart due to religious beliefs.

Shehata acknowledged the negative impact the coronavirus pandemic and global inflation had on tourism in Luxor. He added that the inauguration of the Avenues of the Sphinxes helped boost tourism for a few months before the eruption of the Russian war on Ukraine.

Among the prominent exhibited antiquities at the museum is the mummy of priest Masherti, son of King Pinedjem from the 21st Dynasty, who served as a senior Priest of Amun in Thebes and an army commander.

The museum also displays a column known as the "spine of God Osiris", mummy cases of High Priest of Amun from the 21st Dynasty, two wooden statues of deities Isis and Nephthys, and wooden boxes used inside tombs to preserve statues.

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Varieties

Japan Wants Hardworking Citizens to Try 4-day Workweek

FILE - Commuters walk in a passageway during a rush hour at Shinagawa Station, Feb. 14, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - Commuters walk in a passageway during a rush hour at Shinagawa Station, Feb. 14, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
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Japan Wants Hardworking Citizens to Try 4-day Workweek

FILE - Commuters walk in a passageway during a rush hour at Shinagawa Station, Feb. 14, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)
FILE - Commuters walk in a passageway during a rush hour at Shinagawa Station, Feb. 14, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Japan, a nation so hardworking its language has a term for literally working oneself to death, is trying to address a worrisome labor shortage by coaxing more people and companies to adopt four-day workweeks, The Associated Press reported on Saturday.
The Japanese government first expressed support for a shorter working week in 2021, after lawmakers endorsed the idea. The concept has been slow to catch on, however; about 8% of companies in Japan allow employees to take three or more days off per week, while 7% give their workers the legally mandated one day off, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Hoping to produce more takers, especially among small and medium-sized businesses, the government launched a “work style reform” campaign that promotes shorter hours and other flexible arrangements along with overtime limits and paid annual leave. The labor ministry recently started offering free consulting, grants and a growing library of success stories as further motivation.
“By realizing a society in which workers can choose from a variety of working styles based on their circumstances, we aim to create a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution and enable each and every worker to have a better outlook for the future,” states a ministry website about the “hatarakikata kaikaku” campaign, which translates to “innovating how we work.”
The department overseeing the new support services for businesses says only three companies have come forward so far to request advice on making changes, relevant regulations and available subsidies, illustrating the challenges the initiative faces.
Perhaps more telling: of the 63,000 Panasonic Holdings Corp. employees who are eligible for four-day schedules at the electronics maker and its group companies in Japan, only 150 employees have opted to take them, according to Yohei Mori, who oversees the initiative at one Panasonic company.
The government's official backing of a better work-life balance represents a marked change in Japan, a country whose reputed culture of workaholic stoicism often got credited for the national recovery and stellar economic growth after World War II.
Conformist pressures to sacrifice for one's company are intense. Citizens typically take vacations at the same time of year as their colleagues — during the Bon holidays in the summer and around New Year’s — so co-workers can't accuse them of being neglectful or uncaring.
Long hours are the norm. Although 85% of employers report giving their workers two days off a week and there are legal restrictions on overtime hours, which are negotiated with labor unions and detailed in contracts. But some Japanese do “service overtime,” meaning it’s unreported and performed without compensation.
A recent government white paper on “karoshi,” the Japanese term that in English means "death from overwork, said Japan has at least 54 such fatalities a year, including from heart attacks.
Japan’s “serious, conscientious and hard-working” people tend to value their relationships with their colleagues and form a bond with their companies, and Japanese TV shows and manga comics often focus on the workplace, said Tim Craig, the author of a book called “Cool Japan: Case Studies from Japan’s Cultural and Creative Industries.”
“Work is a big deal here. It’s not just a way to make money, although it is that, too,” said Craig, who previously taught at Doshisha Business School and founded editing and translation firm BlueSky Academic Services.
Some officials consider changing that mindset as crucial to maintaining a viable workforce amid Japan's nosediving birth rate. At the current rate, which is partly attributed to the country's job-focused culture, the working age population is expected to decline 40% to 45 million people in 2065, from the current 74 million, according to government data.
Proponents of the three-days-off model say it encourages people raising children, those caring for older relatives, retirees living on pensions and others looking for flexibility or additional income to remain in the workforce for longer.
Akiko Yokohama, who works at Spelldata, a small Tokyo-based technology company that allows employees to work a four-day schedule, takes Wednesdays off along with Saturdays and Sundays. The extra day off allows her to get her hair done, attend other appointments or go shopping.
“It’s hard when you aren’t feeling well to keep going for five days in a row. The rest allows you to recover or go see the doctor. Emotionally, it’s less stressful,” Yokohama said.
Her husband, a real estate broker, also gets Wednesdays off but works weekends, which is common in his industry. Yokohama said that allows the couple to go on midweek family outings with their elementary-school age child.
Fast Retailing Co., the Japanese company that owns Uniqlo, Theory, J Brand and other clothing brands, pharmaceutical company Shionogi & Co., and electronics companies Ricoh Co. and Hitachi also began offering a four-day workweek in recent years.
The trend even has gained traction in the notoriously consuming finance industry. Brokerage SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. started letting workers put in four days a week in 2020. Banking giant Mizuho Financial Group offers a three-day schedule option.
Critics of the government's push say that in practice, people put on four-day schedules often end up working just as hard for less pay.
But there are signs of change.
A annual Gallup survey that measures employee engagement ranked Japan as having among the least engaged workers of all nationalities surveyed; in the most recent survey, only 6% of the Japanese respondents described themselves as engaged at work compared to the global average of 23%.
That means relatively few Japanese workers felt highly involved in their workplace and enthusiastic about their work, while most were putting in their hours without investing passion or energy.
Kanako Ogino, president of Tokyo-based NS Group, thinks offering flexible hours is a must for filling jobs in the service industry, where women comprise most of the work force. The company, which operates karaoke venues and hotels, offers 30 different scheduling patterns, including a four-day workweek, but also taking long periods off in between work.
To ensure none of the NS Group's workers feel penalized for choosing an alternative schedule, Ogino asks each of her 4,000 employees twice a year how they want to work. Asserting individual needs can be frowned upon in Japan, where you are expected to sacrifice for the common good.
“The view in Japan was: You are cool the more hours you work, putting in free overtime,” Ogino said with a laugh. “But there is no dream in such a life.”