Hidden Tulane Part V - MARI

SHOW ME THE MUMMIES!

Part five in our Hidden Tulane series and this one's a cool one! In case you missed our previous tours of those secret spots on campus you won't see on a traditional campus tour, go back and check out the glass blowing studio, the Cassatt Courtyard, Hillel and the Community Garden.

Today, we are heading to Dinwiddie Hall on the Academic Quad to check out the Middle American Research Institute, a.k.a. MARI, and the infamous Tulane mummies! Dinwiddie Hall just finished up a beautiful renovation last year and is now LEED Gold Certified. The building is gorgeous and is quite modern and contemporary but also has an older feel to it is well. It has managed to hold on to much of the antique feel to it (many of the materials from the original building were reused in the renovation- the original glass, cool rugged concrete floors, etc.) however, the hall also sets the standard for sustainability. Appropriate as it is home to our department of Anthropology. 

Here is an x-ray of the female mummy. They can't
figure out what that black speck is. Maybe I can
crack the case!

My coworker Rachel and I were lucky enough to get a tour of this incredible building given by Professor Verano from the Anthropology department. We chatted a lot about the great offerings in our Department of Anthropology  and then got straight into what I wanted to see the most- the mummies! That's right, Tulane is home to its very own collection of ancient Egyptian mummies. In fact, Professor Verano currently is teaching a class all about mummies (he even gives samples as to what mummies smell like. It's... rustic). Tulane has been in possession of two mummies since the early 1850s which were exhumed once again from underneath the old Tulane Stadium when the facility was demolished in the 1980s. They now make their home on the 2nd floor of Dinwiddie Hall, but they have toured various spots around the city, including the New Orleans Museum of Art. 

The mummies are said to be almost 3000 years old; the male and female duo can be traced back to 900 BC. The female mummy is an amazing sight as she is fully intact. She was mummified at around 16 years old and Professor Verano told us that part of the reason she is so well preserved was because of her high stature in a wealthy family who preserved her quite well when she passed away. The mummies are stored on the second floor of Dinwiddie in a state-of-the art storage room. It was pretty cool to see them, I gotta tell you.

We then ventured up to the 3rd floor to check out MARI, the Middle American Research Institute. MARI has an expansive collection of Central American artifacts ranging from masks to textiles to ancient tools. The collection is vast and contains all kinds of cool stuff from the region- everywhere from Mexico down to Panama. I was amazed about how huge the MARI collection is- in fact, the institute is home to the largest amount of Mayan artifacts anywhere outside of Central America. Tulane is world-renown for its programs in Latin American Studies, Central American Research and Middle American artifacts, and MARI, according to their website, "stewards an extensive collection of textiles and artifacts from not only Mexico and Central America, but also the US Southwest and South America. It also houses a large archive of letters, field notes, maps, and photographs from the scores of field projects it has sponsored," and has been a fixture on our campus since 1924. 

So many artifacts in storage!

Even more storage! 

Original windows in the new Dinwiddie 

Scenes from Dinwiddie Anthropology labs. 

Professor  Verano showing off a little piece of Egyptian history 

Rachel and the professor checkin out the female mummy. This was SO COOL. 

Hangin' out at MARI

If you have an interest in mummies, or in Middle America and archaeology anthropology, definitely check out all that MARI has to offer. The museum is beautiful, and you'll be shocked how large our collection is. Dinwiddie Hall houses some great hidden treasures of Tulane's campus, so have a gander next time you are here!