Le mummie del Museo Universitario di Chieti: tra comunicazione, musealizzazione e rispetto

The mummies of the University Museum of Chieti: between communication, musealization and respect The University Museum of Chieti displays nine Italian mummies different for historical periods and archaeologica sites of Abruzzo. Four mummies (two adult female individuals and two infants, one male and one female) were found in the Castle of L’Aquila in 1902. Radiometric dating places individuals within a time interval between 1499 and 1617 AD. The mummified remains of the “Celano child” (L’Aquila), in excellent condition, belong to an infant of unidentifiable sex and less than one year old. The remaining four mummies, of childish individuals still wrapped in bandages, were found in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista (Sant’Eusanio Forconese, L’Aquila). The mummies are currently exhibited in a museum section dedicated to them, in which the scientific data obtained from their study are also disclosed. The mummies represent a precious biological and cultural archive as they allow to extrapolate anthropological and ethnographic information that cannot be inferred from skeletal remains alone. Nonetheless, human remains are sensitive materials, the exposition of which must take into account ethical and cultural issues. Furthermore, the legal regulations concerning human remains in Italy are unclear and partly left to custom. In designing and setting up the section dedicated to mummies, the Museum tried to find a compromise between the duty of science communication and pietas towards ancient human remains. The mummies, therefore, are not shown off, but semi-hidden, in order to remind the visitor that the visit requires at the same time awareness and demeanour; these are the attitudes explicitly requested of the visitor