Daily Flickr Finds: Mubarak Al-Thani’s Egyptian Mummy

An Egyptian Mummy housed at the British Museum. Image Credit - Mubarak Al-Thani

Possibly one of the creepier Heritage Key Daily Flickr Finds that I’ve picked out from our Flickr pool, but this photograph of the remains of this Egyptian Mummy housed in the British Museum captivates me. The angle it’s taken at, looking at its profile as it stares upwards gives the impression that there’s still life in this millennia old corpse. The open jaw gives the mummy an eerie feeling, with the clarity of each tooth bared.

The composition of the photograph is also intruiging. It’s an image where you’re interested in what’s not shown just as much as what is. What state was the body of the mummy in?What is the context in where the corpse is kept?What is the skull looking up at? Mubarak Al-Thani’s photograph is a great capture of this Egyptian mummy not just for the detail of the human body is captures, but for what it leaves to be desired too.

You can find out more about mummies and the mummification process in a video with Dr Zahi Hawass (Watch the video) and be sure to take a look at Mubarak Al-Thani’s Flickr photostream