Mummy exhibit to open at Field Museum in March

It's still under wraps, you might say.

But we're getting our first look at a new exhibit on mummies that will be opening at the Field Museum next month.

Field Museum conservator JP Brown showed FOX 32 the mummified animals -- some several thousand years old -- that will be on display as part of the museum's special mummy exhibit.

"It features mummification traditions from the two places in the world that have the most interesting mummies, ancient Egypt and ancient Peru,” said Field Museum project manager Janet Hong.

The exhibit will have 16 human mummies and eight mummified animals, including cats, a falcon, a gazelle and a baby crocodile.

"This one has a neo natal crocodile inside it. So it's actually about this long inside the mummy,” Brown said.

Brown says the Egyptians mummified animals for a number of reasons -- for food and companionship in the afterlife -- and as an offering to the gods.

"And that's what the Egyptians were about. We think of them as obsessed with death. But what they wanted was a good time in the afterlife. Like a Miami retirement plan for the afterlife is what they're shooting for,” Brown said.

The exhibit shows that even poor Egyptians could afford a mummified animal.

"So I think what we're looking at is these are kind of Lord and Taylor options. This is the cool cat mummy. This is a cheaper thing. This is like the Walmart or Walgreens off the shelf. It's something for people who can't afford as much,” Brown said.

So what is it about mummies that both fascinates and frightens us? Brown believes it's a sense of connection with the past.

"You can tell it's a person and they're a particular individual. And I think it's a sense of reaching back to our common humanity across enormous gulfs of time is just a very powerful thing to do,” Brown said.

The mummies exhibit opens March 16th and will continue into 2019.

The mummy exhibit will be on the main floor of the Field Museum and will require an additional admission charge.