Fixing a 2,000 year old coffin with the Carnegie Museum

Location: The Edward O’Neil Research Center where the Carnegie Museum of Natural History stores and cares for its objects not on display

Featured guests: Dr. Lisa Haney, assistant curator and Egyptologist; Dr. Mostafa Sherif, associate conservator; Annick Vuissoz, project conservator; and Gretchen Anderson, senior conservator

3 things that surprised me:

1. Lisa and her team have around 2,000 objects from ancient Egypt that they care for. Some of the collection is being featured in the museum’s new exhibit, The Stories We Keep, that puts both the objects and the conservators on display as they practice restoration in front of museum visitors. Lisa explained that since much of the collection has been in Pittsburgh for more than a century, many of the objects have collected layers of soot from the city’s historic pollution. Getting the objects to their pre-smog glory is another goal of the restoration.

2. Mostafa is an expert at restoring ancient wood objects, and he was recently recruited to Pittsburgh from Egypt to help with the museum’s collection. When we visited the conservation lab he was attempting to stabilize a 2,000-year-old wooden coffin with a device called a thermal spatula. With it, he’s able to reaffix the millennia-old paint to the wooden surface.

3. In another part of the building, Lisa showed us the top of the coffin that Mostafa had been working on. The top is in poor shape. Lisa speculates that there’s more decoration and design on the underside of the lid but it’s currently too fragile to turn around. She hopes to restore the lid’s stability so that her team can finally discover what’s on the underside.

One thing that didn’t make the final cut: Many longtime visitors to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History remember the wooden funerary boat that was long on display. Egyptologists believe that the boat used to transport the bodies of the pharaohs to be mummified and buried. One of Mostafa’s big projects for his time in Pittsburgh is to lead a major restoration of the boat before it is put back on display.

Additional info: You can learn more about the new exhibit, The Stories We Keep, at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s website.

Want more Yinzer Backstage Pass? Check out our visit to the secret bowling alley at the Allegheny Elks Lodge.