Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mummy worship returns to Swansea
The Wales on Sunday reports that chanting mummy worshippers have returned to plague a South Wales museum. They say that the mummy-obsessed visitors deserted Swansea Museum after CCTV cameras were introduced five years ago. But now they are back, sometimes spending hours prostrated before the remains of Tem Hor, a mummified priest who lived on the banks of the River Nile in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago:
As testimony to an enduring but rather extreme fascination with Egyptology, the mummy worshippers – many wearing robes and head-dresses – STROLL into the display room containing Tem Hor’s bandaged body and involve themselves in “unusual practices”.
Exhibitions officer Roger Gale said: “They were quite a problem before we introduced the security cameras but now they appear to have come back.
“They occasionally come to the museum on weekends and just seem to want to be in the presence of Tem Hor.
“They tend to bow low in front of the mummy case and mumble what appear to be prayers or incantations.
“The problem is they can appear quite menacing because they tend to wear strange clothes, behave rather oddly and want to stay for a long time. The display room containing Tem Hor is not big and they put other people off.
“We usually manage to get them to leave and it’s something we are keeping an eye on.”
He said Egypt and Egyptian remains appeared to have a strong lure to some people with many films dedicated to ancient Egypt, mummies and curses all adding to the mystique.
“It’s hard to say whether they are members of a sect or just individuals with particularly strong feelings for our mummy.”
The paper says that the nearby Egypt Centre in Swansea Museum, which also has an extensive display of ancient Egyptian remains, has also been plagued by mummy worshippers:
One woman visitor claimed to staff, who are specially trained to deal with mummy worshippers, that she was the mother of a mummified baby who died 2,200 years ago. After approaching visitors to tell them she was also possessed by a dog god, she was eventually persuaded to leave.
And in another particularly embarrassing incident, a woman chanted before a display case of dusty Egyptian death masks, explaining: “They’re possessed by trapped ancient spirits. I must release them.”
The female visitor ignored requests to be quiet and it was only when staff at the Egypt Centre explained these particular artefacts were the modern creations of local schoolchildren taking part in a competition that she made her excuses and left.
As testimony to an enduring but rather extreme fascination with Egyptology, the mummy worshippers – many wearing robes and head-dresses – STROLL into the display room containing Tem Hor’s bandaged body and involve themselves in “unusual practices”.
Exhibitions officer Roger Gale said: “They were quite a problem before we introduced the security cameras but now they appear to have come back.
“They occasionally come to the museum on weekends and just seem to want to be in the presence of Tem Hor.
“They tend to bow low in front of the mummy case and mumble what appear to be prayers or incantations.
“The problem is they can appear quite menacing because they tend to wear strange clothes, behave rather oddly and want to stay for a long time. The display room containing Tem Hor is not big and they put other people off.
“We usually manage to get them to leave and it’s something we are keeping an eye on.”
He said Egypt and Egyptian remains appeared to have a strong lure to some people with many films dedicated to ancient Egypt, mummies and curses all adding to the mystique.
“It’s hard to say whether they are members of a sect or just individuals with particularly strong feelings for our mummy.”
The paper says that the nearby Egypt Centre in Swansea Museum, which also has an extensive display of ancient Egyptian remains, has also been plagued by mummy worshippers:
One woman visitor claimed to staff, who are specially trained to deal with mummy worshippers, that she was the mother of a mummified baby who died 2,200 years ago. After approaching visitors to tell them she was also possessed by a dog god, she was eventually persuaded to leave.
And in another particularly embarrassing incident, a woman chanted before a display case of dusty Egyptian death masks, explaining: “They’re possessed by trapped ancient spirits. I must release them.”
The female visitor ignored requests to be quiet and it was only when staff at the Egypt Centre explained these particular artefacts were the modern creations of local schoolchildren taking part in a competition that she made her excuses and left.
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I beleive people in Swansea have had a similar problem with Tory Councillor Kinzett. People bow down before him then realise he's a fraud too... but not before he's had they're soul...
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