FIRST we had disco Barbie, then model Barbie .... now we have mummified Barbie.

The ancient Egyptian practice once used to bury the dead was put into practice using the popular children’s doll.

Barbie dolls were given a unique makeover on Saturday as part of a series of events at Bolton Library and Museum celebrating the forthcoming launch of its Egyptology gallery.

Families got a unique insight into the art of mummification and secret of the Egyptians at a special talk lead by BBC and History Channel’s Prof Joann Fletcher and Dr Stephen Buckley.

The Mummification and Bolton featuring renowned Egyptologist Prof Fletcher launched the 10-month programme dedicated to the land of the Pharoahs.

She said: “Everyone loves Egypt, what’s not to love?

“It is always a pleasure to come here and we’ve had an amazing audience of young children right through to the elderly.

“It’s a real mix and a great family day out.

“The importance of Bolton’s Egyptology collection is renowned, it is a suburb collection.

“A lot of it is collected by Bolton people, belongs to the people of Bolton and is for the good of Bolton.

“The new gallery next year is unbelievably special and it will really put Bolton on the map.”

Among the items audiences got to see were genuine artifacts from the past, including a mummified falcon.

There were also replicas of the jars used to store organs when they were removed during the mummification processes, as well as a tube of Victorian paint made from ground-up mummies.

Prof Fletcher added: “What makes this such a precious resource is a lot of people can’t just swan off the egypt, but here you can go down the street and here it is.

“It is such a wonderful, wonderful collection.”

Lots of families made it over the the library for the day, including six-year-old Amelia Hall from Farnworth who donned cat ears for the occasion.

Mum Gemma Hall said: “Prof Joann Fletcher asked if they were Egyptian cat ears!

“We decided to come along today because I have always had an interest in Egypt and recently so has Amelia - we also thought mummifying a Barbie sounded like a lot of fun!”