Mummy

Mummy of Ramesses I

Mummy of Ramesses I

A mummy currently believed to be that of Ramesses I was stolen from Egypt and displayed in a private Canadian museum for many years before being repatriated. The mummy’s identity cannot be conclusively determined, but is most likely to be that of Ramesses I based on CT scans, X-rays, skull measurements and radio-carbon dating tests...

First Full-Color Portraits of Egyptian Mummies

First Full-Color Portraits of Egyptian Mummies

Archaeologists have unearthed the first full-color portraits of Egyptian mummies in more than a century. The excavation at Gerzeh archaeological site in Faiyum revealed a huge funerary building, also turned up papyri, pottery, and coffins from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods Egyptian archaeologists completing their 10th season of excavations at Gerzeh, 75 miles southwest of...

Corn Mummy of Osiris

Corn Mummy of Osiris

This falcon-headed coffin does not contain an actual mummy but a symbolic Osiris mummy stuffed with grains like corn and sand. The falcon head on the coffin and the hieroglyphic text on the painted lid indicate they are associated with the funerary deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. During the mysteries, two statuettes of Osiris were manufactured: one was...

Hawk Mummies

Hawk Mummies

Some ‘hawk’ mummies are the remains of birds who were bred and lived in captivity. Many hawk mummy bundles contain only partial skeletons, or none at all. Most animals, however, may have been seen rather as heralds who entered the Afterlife grateful to the sponsor who paid for their care and feeding and embalming. They...

Mummy of Ankh Hor

Mummy of Ankh Hor

Originally Egyptologists at the museum thought that the mummy of Ankh Hor was untouched, but recent x-rays found modern pins and clips. A re-examination of the cartonnage revealed that it had been cut, re-sealed and painted over. Although no one knows why it was opened, it is possible that Victorian researchers started to unwrap Ankh...

Mummy of Lady Rai

Mummy of Lady Rai

The mummy of Lady Rai is one of the oldest known mummies uncovered in Egypt. She was discovered in 1881 and researchers estimate that she was about 30 – 40 years old when she died around 1530 BC. From the writings left behind about Lady Rai, we know that she was the nursemaid to Queen...

Mummified Falcon

Mummified Falcon

This mummified falcon is covered with an intricate pattern of wrappings done in natural and dyed brown linen. The details of the face and head of the bird have been rendered in paint over a white gesso ground. The falcon was identified from the earliest times with the sun god Horus and the reigning king,...

Mummy of King Thutmose IV

Mummy of Thutmose IV

King Thutmose IV died young and was buried in the Valley of the Kings, later, the mummy was moved to the Deir el-Bahari Cachette (DB320) with other royal mummies. His body was rewrapped in its original bandages, with the feet broken off, but not lost. The king was balding, his mummy was the first of...

Mummified Seated Baboon

Mummy of a Baboon

This baboon mummy is seated with its knees drawn up to its chest, and its tail curving around the right side of its body. The monkey appears to have been mummified through an enlarged cut in the anal area rather than evisceration through enema; radiographs show that a series of large packets that appear to...

Mummy of Djedptahiufankh

Mummy of Djedptahiufankh

The mummy of Djedptahiufankh is in very good condition and examination has shown that the priest died at a very young age. He was buried in Deir el-Bahari Cachette (DB320), West Thebes. Djedptahiufankh held the position of “Second Prophet of Amun” during the reign of Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty. This very prominent position...