Mummy and coffin of Hor

Perhaps from Thebes, Egypt
22nd Dynasty, around 850 BC

This mummy came to the British Museum in a finely painted wooden coffin that probably dates to the Twenty-second Dynasty (about 945-715 BC). The coffin is inscribed with the name of Hor. X-rays taken of Hor's body in the 1960s suggest that he was middle-aged, but no obvious fractures or medical conditions have so far been observed. The X-ray did reveal that he had been circumcised. As was common practice in mummification, artificial eyes were placed in the eye sockets, and the arms were extended with the hands placed in the pubic area.

After the X-ray, a small mummiform figurine was noticed among the bandages. It was removed in the 1960s, and examined in the Museum's research laboratory in the 1990s; the figure is made of clay with straw, and inside it is a very small cylindrical object, the identity of which remains mysterious.

W.R. Dawson and P.H.K. Gray, Catalogue of Egyptian antiquit (London, 1968)