Exhibition

Hierarchy of Class

Electricity Burn

Accession number: UCH-MX.A.2.1
Location: Pathology collection
Material: Human body part

Before you listen to the following audio, close your eyes. Hold your right thumb in your left hand.

This is a charred thumb and piece of skin stored in its original jar (called a battery jar) from 1936. The thumb is the entry point of an electrical shock, and the skin section the exit wound. The man who was injured man died at work, most likely at a factory or electrical works. What was once a nameless factory worker is now studied by medical students as an example of a serious electrical burn.

What this body part does seem to indicate is an example of this basic human behaviour: To ignore the risk to others when faced with potential profit. The safety measures designed to protect this man and many others were not fully legislated until the 1974 Health and Safety Act. Before this time workers laboured in highly volatile conditions, or so-called ‘suicide missions’ His death was entirely preventable, but his rights were ignored by those more powerful, who decided his fate for him. 

Political and religious hierarchy in Ancient Egypt

Funerary cone of Mry-ms, Dynasty 18

Accession number: UC37620
Location: Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
Size: 7.20cm by 16.40cm
Material: fired clay
Writing on the cone: ‘One revered by Osiris, king’s son of Kush, Mry-ms’

In Ancient Egypt, cones like this were frequent above the entrance of tombs of noble people. They are mostly found in Thebes (present-day Louxor), which is the city where the royalty and the nobles were buried. Most funerary cones date from the 18th Dynasty, the dynasty of the great pharaoh Tutankhamun. Their most meaningful part is their circular face, containing hieroglyphs with the deceased’s name, rank and a prayer. Can you guess what was these cones’ function?

Merymose

Merymose served King Amenhotep III for over 40 years. He was responsible for ruling the Kush province of the Egyptian kingdom (present-day Sudan). Although this cone found above his tomb reads ‘king’s son of Kush’, he was most likely not biologically the King’s son but this title was used to indicate the importance of his position.

Hieroglyphs

The Ancient Egyptians communicated thanks to a combination of over 500 characters called ‘hieroglyphs’. These hieroglyphs were either carved out or painted on materials as diverse as stone, wood or papyrus. However, only certain people such as priests or officials had enough knowledge to understand them. Hieroglyphs were deciphered in 1822 AD thanks to the work of Jean-Francçois Champollion (picture).

Fired clay

This cone is made of clay coming from the mud along the Nile. It has been fired to become highly resistant and constitute an enduring feature of the tombs’ decoration. Clay has been used to make all sorts of objects, from saucers and bowls to building bricks. Here is Adventure Ryan explaining how to fire clay with a pit fire.

Map of the Theban Necropolis

The village of ‘Deir el-Medina’ (known in Ancient Egyptian as ‘Set maat’ – ‘The Place of Truth’) is where the artisans who crafted funerary cones lived. While we know the identity of an important official like Merymose because he has cones like this devoted to remembering him, no one knows the identity of the person who created the artefact you currently have before your eyes.

Man’s Best Friend

Hunting Dog’s Bell

Accession number: C.0015
Location: UCL Ethnography Collection
Size: 17cm x 10cm
Material: Wood, thread and metal wire

This hunting bell was crafted in the Belgian Congo, at the end of the 19th century. At that time, there was a colonial empire in the Congo controlled by Belgium. The bell was almost certainly brought back by a civil servant in the colonial institution or a religious missionary — but we do not know how it made its way to London.

It was either sold, given away, or taken by force.

What do you think might have happened to the bell?

These 3D models show how the inside of the bell was crafted.

Can you see the gap running across the bell and the two crosses on each side? Try to imagine the process of carving the bell from a single chunk of wood. Do you understand how the string and clappers were inserted?

Finally, look again at the intricate carvings on the side of the bell.

Hopefully you can see that a tremendous amount of effort was put into making this bell. Do you think it’s fair that the crafter of this bell remains anonymous? In what ways did societal hierarchies force anonymity on this artist?

This bell was used as a tool to hunt prey, so why was it made to be so beautiful?

These bells were made for a single dog to use. These Basenji dogs, native to the Congo, are often called the “barkless” dogs. Because these dogs are unable to bark, they would wear these bells to scare and herd prey towards the human hunters. They are very intelligent and difficult to tame, and develop a very intimate bond with a single person.

These bells were made not only as a tool to hunt, but as a symbol of love from a human to a dog. What sort of power does such a hunting dog have over a human? Over the animals it hunts?

Reflect on what this bell has to say about power relations in human society and between different species.

Man versus Beings

Gallus gallus domesticus, taxidermy chicken, England, 2017

Accession number: Y1751
Location: Grant Museum of Zoology
Size: Height – 38cm, Length – 35cm, Width – 26cm
Materials: skin of chicken, legs of chicken, wood wool, Balsa wood, cotton wool, clay, apoxy resin, galvanised wire, cotton thread, acrylic (eyes), acrylic paint, clove oil and turpentine oil (on the inside of skin)

This taxidermy chicken was commissioned by the Grant Museum of Zoology for its exhibition The Museum of Ordinary Animals. The chicken died of old age in a rescue farm in Brighton, where it spent the rest of its days after a life of battery farming. The only elements of the original animal that remain in the composition of this taxidermy specimen are the head, legs, and skin that was mounted on a wooden base to regain the shape of the chicken.

What is Taxidermy?

Where does the word ‘taxidermy’ come from? It comes from the Greek words ‘taxis’, which means arrangement, and ‘derma’, which means skin.

What is the purpose of taxidermy? To arrange the skin of an animal to recreate the animal as it would appear in real life. Taxidermy can be a way to preserve an endangered species, taxidermy specimens can be used in exhibitions and museums to present animals to the public and they can also be used for teaching.

Are taxidermy specimens dangerous? Yes and No! Of course you do not risk anything visiting ‘Hierarchies: The power of Manmade’. However, many specimens that were made between the 18th and 20th centuries contain dangerous chemicals, such as arsenic, that were used to preserve the objects. Our chicken is harmless and you can learn more about its creation in the section ‘Making the taxidermy chicken’.

Making the taxidermy chicken

Taxidermist Jazmine Miles-Long made this taxidermy chicken. She is an ‘ethical taxidermist’ who only works with animals that have died of natural causes or accidents.

How do you create a taxidermy chicken using Jazmine Miles-Long’s method?

1. Make detailed plans of the animal you are working with: draw around it and measure it precisely.
2. Take off the skin of the chicken, clean the skin and give it a blow-dry.
3. Make a model body with Balsa wood, wood wool, cotton wool, wire and clay.
4. Place the skin on the model body and sew it back together.
5. You are done!

Making a taxidermy specimen is a long process and requires careful and precise work. You can click here, here, here and here to watch Jazmine Miles-Long making our chicken!

A history of power between the chicken and Man

The nature of the power exerted over our chicken changed when it was rescued from battery farming to live on a farm, and when the chicken was mounted as a taxidermy specimen by an ethical taxidermist and is now being cared for by the curator of the Grant Museum.

The power of man over our chicken has always been present, but it has progressed towards a more respectful form of power, that can nevertheless be questioned.

Homo Heidelbergensis

Bodo Cranium

Location: Aiello Laboratory, UCL  
Material: Plastic

The bodo cranium is the skull of an ancient human called the Homo Heidelbergensis. They are predecessors of the human race , which were evolved from the bodo cranium.

This model is not the one of the original bodo cranium, but it is one of the same species.