A mummified pigeon? Closed museums show off their oddest artifacts in online challenge
Museums are sharing their most haunting artifacts, and the online challenge may just give you nightmares.
From a “cursed” children’s toy to broken doll parts, bizarre items from around the world have made it into the #CreepiestObject challenge on Twitter.
It all started with the Yorkshire Museum in the United Kingdom, which put out a call Friday for curators to find and show off items that give them chills.
“We’re kicking things off with this 3rd/4th century hair bun from the burial of a #Roman lady, still with the jet pins in place,” the museum wrote. “CAN YOU BEAT IT?”
The announcement came as some museums and other places are shut down to help stop the spread of the coronavirus. Still, curators rose to the occasion, posting pictures of truly odd pieces in their collections.
Hinting at current world events, one shared relic was a so-called “Plague Mask” that dates back to about 1650 to 1750.
“Here is the one we just can’t hide from you, one of our many creepy gems,” the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Germany wrote in its Twitter post about the mask.
For another facility, a mummified pigeon made the cut. The Bell Museum in Minnesota says the bird was stuck in the wall of the building when it died and naturally dried out.
The post about the featherless creature joined other photos of preserved animal and human body parts, including frostbitten fingers.
Even seemingly religious objects found their way into the Twitter battle. The Ashmolean Museum in the United Kingdom says its hair-raising submission could have been on a rosary.
“It’s a carved pendant with a dead man’s face on one side and a decaying skull with worms and other creatures on the reverse from Southern Germany,” the museum tweeted.
This story was originally published April 22, 2020 at 7:35 AM with the headline "A mummified pigeon? Closed museums show off their oddest artifacts in online challenge."
