http://www.penn.museum/sites/artifactlab/2016/03/11/a-roman-period-boy-mummy-and-his-coffin/
mollygleeson wrote:
A Roman Period boy mummy and his coffin This child mummy recently joined us in the lab:
As confirmed through digital radiography, this is a young boy, age currently undetermined (we will need to consult with our physical anthropologist to confirm an approximate age). He came to us in 1936 from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, from an unknown location in Egypt. He dates to the Roman Period, approximately 31 BCE – 395 CE. Because he was partially unwrapped prior to joining our collection in the 1930s, we can see how well-preserved his body is, including his hair and eyelashes.
As of yesterday, he seemed to be stuck to the bottom of his coffin, so we were brainstorming ways to liberate him so that we could carry out a full condition assessment and also to allow for conservation treatment. But it turns out that won't be necessary! Before turning to more drastic measures, I decided to do some more prodding and pulling and managed to pry him from the bottom. We are especially pleased that he came out with no problems, because the inside of the coffin is painted with an image of Nut:
We believe that this is an image of the goddess Nut, based on comparison with images of her inside coffins dating to the Roman Period from other collections, like this double coffin in the collection of the National Museum of Scotland. Nut was the sky-goddess and would have been painted inside the coffin to protect the child.
We will now work on getting this boy mummy and his coffin ready for re-installation in the Secrets and Science Gallery by early April.
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