Mummy problem...

Over ten years ago I went to the British Museum with a friend. We were BM virgins and keen to spend the whole day there "getting some culture". We moved from room to room; reading, pointing and gasping at the sheer quality and breadth of the contents of the cabinets and displays.

On Saturday I took my partner to London, we met friends in the BM and decided to play BM Lottery. We picked a room at random and made our way to it.

 This was after going to the Sutton Hoo room which was fantastic; the previous times we have been pieces have been absent for cleaning.

So we made our way through the rooms pausing at ceramics, artefacts and books etc. We then happened upon the Mummy rooms. In the cabinets were the sarcophagi, ornate, beautiful and ancient. Then I caught sight of a man taking a picture of his child posing beside the cabinet containing a female Mummy; the coverings were so thin and her body so delicately wrapped that each individual finger could be seen, the shape of her toes and the curve of her hips.

I dropped my camera to my side and made sure it was switched off. Despite the ornate painting on the sarcophagi and the jewellery, all on show for photographs and my having a good camera capable of taking pictures which would show them at their best, I couldn't do it.

I walked ahead of my companions and really observed what we were doing. What other species digs up it's ancient dead and, having preserved them, places them on show? Seeing these people laying in a place they would never choose for themselves, on display for the observations and photographs of the modern, enlightened human suddenly made me feel off balance. They weren't exhibits to me. They were people. I concentrated on the exhibits and avoided looking at the bodies; making my way through the rooms slightly quicker than my friends anticipated.

We moved on. I told myself that I was being sensitive - they were dead after all and not having a particular religion myself (more a vague feeling of wonder and curiosity) - who was I to feel like this?

Later - in a rather nice public house - I gave voice to my uneasiness. Our friends are both highly educated and lean more to science than to the arts etc. Immediately they joined in with my feelings of unease. They commented - "what would you do with that photo? In years to come - father to daughter - "Oh look darling here's you aged five next to a pillaged corpse of an teenage Egyptian girl. Wonderful isn't it?!"

My partner commented that it was like "a foreign power going into Westminster Abbey and digging up various Royal Family members and the elite of our scientists and thinkers and placing them on show".

I know that the artefacts have been "collected" from all over the world and I am ambiguous about having some rather than others; but bodies, especially human beings....should these be allowed to be treated like the waxworks in Tussauds? I may believe that when we go we shed this mantle of dust and light and whatever is left does not care about the shell it leaves behind, but surely those still "in possession" of their corner of clay should "feel" these people are due some respect?