Ancient Egypt, World Museum Liverpool

"Why don't you actually have a look at some of the small objects in the case?" says a teacher at World Museum Liverpool's new Ancient Egypt gallery. "It's boring, I want to see the mummies," replies a schoolgirl.

This neatly sums up one of the challenges facing many of the UK's ancient Egyptian galleries: they have numerous artefacts that can tell a great deal about ancient Egypt, but the only things people seem interested in are mummies.

And let's face it, mummies are pretty fascinating, particularly to primary school-children, who are among the gallery's key audiences - ancient Egypt is part of the national curriculum for key stage two, which covers seven to 11 year olds.

The case the schoolgirl was looking at was about jewellery and, with 62 items, it was either quite daunting or object-rich, depending on your point of view. The jewellery is part of the Living in Ancient Egypt section of the gallery, while the other section, the Realm of Osiris, focuses on death and the afterlife.

One of the aims of Living in Ancient Egypt is to tell the story of ordinary people, those who made the objects rather than used them. This is partly a reaction to traditional ancient Egyptian galleries, which have tended to focus on the affluent sections of ancient Egyptian society, as these were the people who were buried in the tombs and left most material evidence.

Liverpool, like the recently opened gallery containing the Nebamun tomb paintings at the British Museum (see link below), has tried to redress this.

Matters of life and death

Living in Ancient Egypt is arranged thematically and there are lots of topics covered, allowing the museum to get a wide range of objects out on display. There are more than 1,300 to look at and even some of the everyday ones are really startling, such as a huge serving plate used for banqueting. There are also remarkable model boats and a fantastic wooden shoulder harp.

But there are so many objects in some of the showcases that
you can see why younger visitors could be overwhelmed. Faced with rows of nearly identical items, it is sometimes difficult to grasp the significance of an object over the many other similar-looking ones on display.

Nevertheless, there are a number of interactives to keep visitors interested. A low-tech interactive where you are invited to look like an Egyptian is not great, but a touchscreen allowing you to create your own Egyptian name is more fun. Living in Egypt and the section about death and the afterlife both contain films of actors portraying ancient Egyptians, which enlivens the displays.

While the Living in Ancient Egypt section is a valiant attempt to get people interested in ordinary Egyptians, it is the Realm of Osiris section containing the mummies that works really well.

A statue of Osiris shown as a mummy provides a dramatic opening. It's a mysterious-looking object made from wood with black resin that was poured over the statue as a funerary rite before it was buried in a tomb. A deep-voice says: "I once ruled the earth, now I rule the underworld… Dare you enter?"

Maybe the subject matter lends itself to a tighter focus, but the writing feels livelier than in the previous section and the explanations more lucid. It might also benefit from the displays being firmly anchored by big objects such as the mummies and coffins, but even the showcases containing smaller objects, such as the Shabti, work well.

There is also an interesting area showing how mummies can be investigated without unwrapping them using x-rays and CT scans.

Addressing how to respectfully display and treat mummies is one of the elements that shows Liverpool is among the new generation of ancient Egypt galleries. The issue is first dealt with before you enter the gallery as part of a short video featuring exhibition curator Ashley Cooke discussing its development.

"We thought carefully about displaying mummies in the gallery and decided to do so," says Cooke, "The public are very interested in seeing them and mummification is such an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture that not showing the mummies would deny people access to this information."

Criteria of public interest and not denying access could justify displaying just about anything, but at least the gallery is making visitors aware that there is a debate.

Beyond the mummies

The curator's video and the introductory space that follows it tackle some of the other subjects that traditional displays of Egyptian material in the UK often shy away from. So Cooke talks briefly about the history of the collection, although more information about how these objects ended up in the UK would have been welcome.

Graphic panels also place ancient Egypt very firmly in Africa and in the context of modern Egypt: "Today, Egypt is an African nation with a vibrant culture. Music, literature and film are popular throughout Africa and the Arabic-speaking world. The national football team, the Pharaohs, are the most successful team in Africa."

There is also another short video where two Egyptians talk about some of their concerns. "Egypt is not only tombs and pyramids, we have a modern culture," says one. The other refers to the "controversial issue of displaying human remains. In a way there is some desecration of the dead. But if they are displayed in a respectful way…"

Ancient Egypt is part of a raft of new galleries on ancient Egypt opening in the UK. As well as the Nebamun tomb paintings at the British Museum, Brighton Museum opened a new one in April and there is also a large Egyptian gallery in the £26m Great North Museum in Newcastle, which will be unveiled later this month. Bristol opened its one early last year.

Liverpool, like the others, has begun to address some of the more interesting issues, such as how all these objects got here, their African context and how they relate to modern Egypt. But more work could be done to make some of the objects come alive for visitors, particularly younger ones. The mummies will always be the big draw - the trick is getting people to look further.