Mummy of Nesmin
This mummy belongs to a man called Nesmin; his name means “The One Who Belongs to (the god) Min.” He was a priest for Min in Akhmim, and from the inscription on his coffin, it is known that his father Djedhor was a priest as well, and that his mother Tadiaset was a musician for Min.
CT scans of his mummy have shown that Nesmin suffered from arthritis and died as a middle-aged man. They also revealed that thirty-one amulets are still within the wrappings. In addition to a wadjet eye on his forehead, he has an amulet representing the god Thoth on each wrist, and two strings with symmetrically arranged amulets on his torso.
The hieroglyphic texts on the lower portion of Nesmin’s coffin lid provide his titles and genealogy. Like his father and many paternal ancestors, he had been a priest of Min, a god of fertility, and also of Khonsu, a god of the moon and healing. His mother played the sistrum (ritual rattle) in the service of Min.
As a priest, Nesmin’s duties included clothing the statue of Min and caring for other god’s statues and for their temple home. Nesmin pursued his priestly duties in Middle Egypt at Akhim. The decoration of his coffin reflects a Ptolemaic style typical for that site.
Together with his coffin, Nesmin came to The Met more than 100 years ago and has been popular ever since. In the past, I have overheard conversations between Museum visitors who assumed that the mummy is “empty”; they thought that it was unwrapped long ago and that the textiles were put back together to look like a mummy. Luckily this is not the case.
The mummy actually contains not only the body of Nesmin, but also 31 amulets that were placed between his wrappings during the mummification ritual in order to magically transfer certain powers, such as regeneration, to him. These amulets are still in place today, but are invisible to our eyes, at least without technology.
The mummy was CT scanned in 2011 with the help of the NYU Langone Medical Center’s Department of Radiology. The resulting data allowed us to see these 31 amulets very clearly, and an image of them is now included in an updated label text in the new galleries. In addition, a new display of several similar amulets is presented right next to Nesmin’s mummy.
People have asked if we will unwrap the mummy to take out the amulets, but we will not do so, as this would destroy the mummy and be disrespectful. With modern technology, we can explore what lies beneath a mummy’s wrappings without causing any damage.
The exact location of Nesmin’s tomb is not known, but the inscriptions on his coffin and the style of his cartonnage elements (decorated pieces that were placed on mummies and that are made out of linen or papyrus mixed with plaster) tell us that he lived in the third or second century B.C. in Akhmim.
The town was an important religious and cultural center at that time, closely related to the fertility god Min, whom Nesmin served as a priest.
Nesmin’s coffin further tells us about his family: his father, Djedhor, was a priest as well, and his mother, Tadiaset, was a musician for Min.
Ptolemaic Period, ca. 200-30 BC. Dimensions: L.174 cm (68 1/2 in.); W. 37 cm (14 9/16 in.); H. 27 cm (10 5/8 in.).
Provenance: Excavated at Akhmim by the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Purchased from the Egyptian Government, 1886. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 86.1.51
