sharing the past - Auckland Museum

Sharing the Past
The body was a young adult,
between 18 and 30 years
old, when it died. Carbon
dating of wood and linen
samples has put the age of
the mummy at between 900
and 400 years B.C. This
date has some confirmation
from the style of the mummy
and coffin.
In 1998, when the old
People of the World gallery
closed for refurbishment, the
mummy was removed from
display. This gave us the
opportunity to assess the
condition and requirements
of the mummy. It was found
that the wrappings were
covered in a white spotty
deposit. This was caused by
the high relative humidity in
Auckland, which, as it fluctuates,
caused salts in the fabric and those used in
the mummification process of the body, to be
drawn to the surface of the wrappings where
they effloresced into crystal form. This, along with
long-term exposure to light and air, caused it to
become brittle and weak and for sections to
break off easily.
The coffin was also badly affected by age and
environmental conditions. There were several isolated
areas of rotten wood where it was crumbly
to the touch. The construction of the coffin was
through the joining of planks of wood with wood-
11 Teacher Background
Auckland Museum
Te Papa Whakahiku
THE MUMMY - A FLASHBACK TO EGYPT
The mummy was obtained by Canterbury Museum in 1888 with
help from the Florence Museum and the Bulaq Museum in Cairo.
It came from Akhmim, which is on the Nile River, and cost five
pounds. In 1958 it was exchanged for several Pacific objects by
Auckland Museum.
Years of exposure to Auckland's humid
conditions have caused serious damage
which will require many months of
painstaking conservation work to remedy.
teacher background
en dowels or nails, and with a
fill material of clay pressed
over or between the joins.
These planks have pulled apart
and the clay has popped out
leaving gaps. The paint is also
weak with areas lost and others
flaking off, due to the unstable
substrates and loss of binder
through time.
The mummy was x-rayed in
1971. The x-rays suggested it
was a female body and gave
the age range. Unfortunately
no exciting amulets were
revealed under the wrappings.
Early in its New Zealand sojourn
a historian translated what was
thought to be her name as 'Ta
Sedgemet", She Who Hears.
However this has since been
questioned. An expert in
Egyptology has recently examined the coffin and
will translate any hieroglyphs still visible. There
are some recognizable images: the four sons of
Horus and a winged scarab. The images are in
lines in imitation of the wrapping of bandages,
and patterns of symbols are repeated on left
and right sides.
The coffin is wood, made from timber from a
common tree in Egypt, the sycomore fig (Ficus
sycomorus). Tenons for fastening the lid to the
base are made from a harder, redder wood,
which is an Acacia species. Coarse clay like mate-