09 | Ba birds

[flapping]

AHMOSE: Come on, Cleo!

CLEO: I would, if you weren’t flying so fast!

AHMOSE: Behold! The ‘ba’ birds!

CLEO: Oh, is that all? Next stop, come on.

AHMOSE: Did I have that attitude when we were looking at all the cats?

CLEO: No, you were very attentive and interested.

AHMOSE: Don’t you want to know a bit more about us ‘ba’ birds anyway?

I mean, we’re birds with human heads.

CLEO: Hm, you make a good point.

AHMOSE: Good.

CLEO: So I know that Egyptians believed in the human soul,

which they called ‘ba’?

AHMOSE: That’s right.

Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, their soul was split up into different parts.

One of these parts was the ‘ba’, which is shown as a bird, just like me.

We ‘ba’ birds can move around freely during the day, visit friends and family,

and even fly to the sun god to go with him on his travels around the sky.

CLEO: That is so cool!

Is that why this first figurine has a sun disc on its head?

AHMOSE: Exactly, but at night the ‘ba’ bird had to return to the tomb and to the body it belonged to.

CLEO: So that’s why ancient Egyptians preserved people’s bodies so well after they died,

so the ‘ba’ could recognise it and return to it.

AHMOSE: Exactly. These first two figurines of ‘ba’ birds, here, were probably placed on people’s coffins.

CLEO: Look how beautifully it’s painted, it’s so colourful!

I recognise those colours, red and blue, the Egyptians loved those colours.

AHMOSE: Yes, they did. The second ‘ba’ bird figurine here includes green too.

CLEO: I can’t believe how bright the colours still are after thousands of years.

AHMOSE: These ancient items were stored in Egyptian tombs, which are very dark, and dry, and protected.

So nothing could really damage them.

Once they were taken out of the tombs, they were looked after very carefully.

Even here in this museum, they are protected from bright light,

and the air is kept dry to look after them.

CLEO: This last figurine looks a bit different.

Instead of it being a bird with a human head, it looks like a person with a bird around their neck.

AHMOSE: Yes, this is a ‘ba’ bird shabti.

According to ancient Egyptian belief, a shabti could be a few different things,

one of them being an avatar of a dead person.

They believed the shabti could even be summoned to do work for the dead person

in the fields of the afterlife, or even do their chores for them.

CLEO: Wow, you ‘ba’ birds are almost as awesome as cats!

AHMOSE: That means a lot, Cleo.

CLEO: Let’s head to the next object!

AHMOSE: Yes! Let’s!

[flapping, padding footsteps]