human mummy;
mummy-case;
cartonnage
- Museum number
- EA25258
- Description
-
Mummy of a priestess, middle aged, enclosed in much larger cartonnage mummy-case with yellow-painted face and polychrome detail. Hieroglyphic text in centre is a hetep di nesu formula. The name of the owner is illegible, but the title Singer of the Interior of Amun is preserved.
Skull - The orbital areas are obscured by the cartonnage mask; it is therefore uncertain if there are artificial eyes. Mouth closed. Crowns of the teeth much worn and lower middle incisors missing. There is subcutaneous packing about the neck.
Thorax and Abdomen - Filled with packing material consisting of linen and sand. No parcels of viscera are visible: they are probably concealed within the mass. There is subcutaneous packing in the soft tissues about both shoulders. A fairly small scarab lies adjacent to the left border of the 4th lumbar vertebra. Well-marked marginal lipping of the body of the 5th lumbar vertebra. The dorsal and lumbar intervertebral discs are partially opaque. There appears to be a long rod, broken in the middle, with its base in the right iliac fossa and extending upwards to about the level of the navel. This rod is probably one of those driven between the skin and the underlying muscular tissue to form a channel for subcutaneous packing. If so, it was overlooked by the embalmer and left within the body. There is some diastasis of the pubic symphysis and a crack fracture through the right ramus of the pubis. There are numerous unidentifiable small metallic objects varying in size in the region of the left hand and in the region of the left iliac fossa.
Arms - Extended. Hands with fingers extended in the pubic area.
Legs - No fracture of pelvis or hips. No lines of arrested growth. The left internal meniscus is opaque. The treatment of the feet and ankles is most unusual. Both feet have been dislocated at the ankle-joints and are displaced to the left. The sole of one foot is uppermost and the articular surface of the os calcis is facing downwards. All the phalanges, save the proximal phalanx of the hallux, are missing. The other foot is lying under the first with the inferior aspect of its os calcis in contact with the heads of the metatarsals of its homologue. The proximal phalanges of this foot are present; the distal and middle phalanges are missing. There are no associated fractures and both feet must have been carefully disarticulated when the legs were in an advanced stage of decomposition.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 31.50 millimetres
-
Length: 165 centimetres
-
Depth: 51 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Bibliography:
C. M. Firth, ‘Archaeological Survey of Nubia, 1908-9’ (Cairo, 1912), p. 184n.
R. Loynes, Prepared for eternity. Archaeopress Egyptology 9, 2015, passim.
D. Antoine and M. Vandenbeusch, Egyptian mummies. Exploring ancient lives, Sydney 2016, pp. 112-31.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2016-2017 10 Oct-30 Apr, Sydney, Powerhouse Museum, Ancient Lives
2017 16 Jun-18 Oct, Hong Kong Science Museum, Ancient Lives
2017-2018 14 Nov-20 Feb, Taiwan, National Palace Museum, Ancient Lives
2018 16 Mar-22 Jul, Brisbane, Queensland Museum of Art, Ancient Lives
2019-2020 14 Sept- 28 Jun, Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts, Ancient Lives EXTENDED DUE TO COVID19
2020-2021, 19 Sept - 21 Mar, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Ancient Lives
- Condition
- good
- Acquisition date
- 1894
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA25258
- Registration number
- 1894,0331.3
