Why is the Mummy in Perth Museum? - Saving the Perth Mummy Conservation in Action: Culture Perth and ...
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Conservation in Action:
Saving the
Perth Mummy
Why is the
Mummy in
Perth Museum?
Support the conservation project
justgiving.com/campaign/CPKmummy
The Mummy and her coffin, or ‘sarcophagus’, were donated to Perth Museum & Art Gallery by the Alloa Society of Natural Science and Archaeology in 1936. The Mummy was given to the Society on 5 May 1896 by Mr William Bailey, an Alloa business man. He purchased it from the Curator of the Government Museum in Cairo, Egypt. It was found a few years prior to this, probably in the area of the city of Akhmim.
Ta-Kr-Hb’s Story The radiographic examinations of Ta-Kr-Hb revealed a human skeleton which had suffered extensive damage to the chest and pelvis, sometime after the body had been mummified. The damage is so extensive that determining the sex anatomically proved impossible. The torso damage also means that it cannot be established whether she went through the typical mummification process of internal organ removal.
The skull remains intact and radiography revealed that as part of the mummification process the brain mass was removed through the sinus cavities. The eyes were left in position and the globes packed with linen. Dental examination revealed the loss of the back teeth on the upper jaw as a result of root infection. The surviving teeth on the lower jaw show heavy wear caused by a fibrous diet contaminated by inorganic particles such as sand. Diet was also responsible for the loss of many of the upper teeth as the thickened ridge of bone which contains the teeth sockets – the alveolar bone – has receded around many of the teeth causing them to loosen and eventually fall out before the bone healed. The embalming process appears to have displaced some of the teeth and made the lower jaw protrude.
The left calf-bone is missing, probably removed when an attempt in antiquity was made to unwrap and lift the Mummy’s feet. She is very tightly bandaged and there is no evidence of amulets wrapped in the bindings. The Mummy bundle is wrapped in brown linen. A single shroud covers the upper torso with a vertical band laid head to feet and horizontal bands at the face, neck, chest, waist and feet. A twisted piece of linen is tied around the neck. This could be the remains of a strap used to lift the body into the coffin. Damage to the linen around the skull and feet shows that a resinous substance was applied partway through the wrapping process before a final layer of linen was applied.
Investigation of the coffin design and its hieroglyphs indicate that it was made for a female of the 25th-26th Dynasty of ancient Egypt. This gives a date of approximately 760BC – 525BC. The female design traits include the hair styles and the serpents painted on either side of the lower half of the coffin. Stylistic investigation suggests that the coffin was probably made in the provincial town of Akhmim. This is on the east bank of the Nile and today is the largest town in Upper Egypt. The mix of design elements painted on the coffin reflects the provincial practice of selecting design elements that suited a customer’s taste including those seen in use elsewhere that were found to be aesthetically pleasing.
The vertical columns of hieroglyphs on the lower torso of the coffin lid also appear to record the names of the Mummy’s parents and may also preserve details about geographic location and possibly a job title. However, layers of ingrained dirt prevent them from being read. Only the on-going specialist conservation of the coffin will reveal this further information.
You can also read
