A special tour at Weston Park Museum examines the complicated history of two mummified people from Egypt and asks how their remains came to be part of a Sheffield museum collection.
The tour focuses on Thomas Bateman, the nineteenth-century antiquarian and archaeologist sometimes known as the “Barrow Knight” because of his extensive excavation of burial sites across Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.
Bateman never travelled to Egypt, yet two mummified people from the country became part of his large private collection.
That collection was later connected with what became Sheffield’s museum collections, raising important questions about how African human remains were acquired, collected and displayed in nineteenth-century Britain.
The tour asks: how did Bateman obtain these human remains, why did he want them, and what can their presence in a British museum tell us about Victorian attitudes towards people from other parts of the world?
The event was designed by Sheffield-based True Talk Africa CIC, which works to provide broader narratives about Africa and the Black presence in England and Wales.
Rather than treating Egyptian remains simply as archaeological objects, the tour encourages visitors to consider the people themselves and the historical systems through which African human remains entered European collections.
The event is suitable for anyone interested in African history, archaeology, museums, collecting and contemporary discussions surrounding the ethical treatment of human remains.
tunity for audiences to expand their understanding of African history beyond familiar narratives and discover remarkable women whose leadership shaped communities across the continent.
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