Don’t use the word ‘MUMMY’… it’s offensive to ancient Egyptians: Museums stop using age-old expression out of ‘respect’ for 3,000-year-old dead

It might seem impossible to hurt the feelings of a 3,000-year-old corpse. But woke museum chiefs have stopped using the word ‘mummy’ to describe the remains of ancient Egyptians, all in the name of ‘respect’.

They say the term is dehumanising to those who died and – of course – an unwelcome throwback to Britain’s colonial past.

The phrase now deemed politically acceptable is ‘mummified person’ or ‘mummified remains’.

The British Museum says it uses the latter phrase to emphasise to visitors that they are looking at people who once lived, while the Great North Museum: Hancock in Newcastle says that it has adopted the new terms for its mummified woman Irtyru, who dates from around 600BC, to acknowledge the history of colonial exploitation and to give her the respect she deserves.

(Stock Image) The British Museum prefers to term ‘mummified remains’ to remind visitors they are looking at people who once lived

National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh has also removed the word ‘mummy’ from labels on its human remains. 

A spokeswoman said: ‘Where we know the name of an individual we use that, otherwise we use “mummified man, woman, boy, girl or person” because we are referring to people, not objects.

‘The word “mummy” is not incorrect, but it is dehumanising, whereas using the term “mummified person” encourages our visitors to think of the individual.’

Museums are also concerned the word has become linked to terrifying monsters, thanks to countless horror B-movies such as 1932’s The Mummy. 

The Great North Museum’s Jo Anderson, said that ‘legends about the mummy’s curse and movies portraying supernatural monsters… can undermine their humanity.’

The word mummy has been used in English since at least 1615, but some say it has a colonial past as it derived from the Arabic word ‘mummiya’, meaning ‘bitumen’, which was used as an embalming substance.

Many mummies found their way to Britain in imperial times, especially during the Victorian age, where there was a trend for unwrapping them. 

(Stock Image) National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh said it was ‘dehumanising’ to use the word mummy

Ms Anderson said this turned human remains into specimens or curiosities.

But critics of the new terms claim the change is virtue signalling.

Jeremy Black, author of Imperial Legacies: The British Empire Around The World, said: ‘When museums cut themselves off from popular culture they show contempt for how we all understand words, meanings and history.

‘It would be better to focus on helping create a setting that encourages all to visit them rather than in pandering to a virtue signalling minority.’

David Abulafia, professor emeritus of Mediterranean history at Cambridge University, described the move as strange, and Chris McGovern, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘The curse of the mummy is driving these academics mad!’

A British Museum spokesman said: ‘The Museum hasn’t banned the use of the term ‘mummy’ and it is still in use across our galleries. 

‘Our recent displays use the term ‘mummified remains of…’ and include the name (when known) of the person who has been mummified. Displays and exhibitions created by the Museum have emphasized that mummified remains are of people who once lived.

‘The research undertaken by the Museum over the last 10 years has focused on the individuals, looking at how they lived and how they were prepared for the afterlife. This approach aims to bring the visitor closer to the people who lived along the Nile Valley.’

And Adam Goldwater, manager at the Great North Museum: Hancock, said they wanted to describe their collections ‘in respectful ways, sharing information from the perspective of their original community’.