UNBANDAGING OF MUMMIES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 24

UNBANDAGING OF MUMMIES.

PROFESSOR MASPERO’S OFFICIAL

REPORT.

The following is a verbatim translation of Professor Maspero’s proces verbal on the unrolling of two more of the Royal mummies discovered at Dayr el Bahari in the year 1881. Sekenen-ra Ta-aken, a descendant of the old legitimate royal line resident at Thebes, when the Shepherd conquerors, or Hyksos, occupied Lower and Middle Egypt, is known to have headed the great national rising celebrated in Egyptian history as the War of Independence. This war, according to Professor Maspero’s estimate, must have lasted 150 years, and it ended about b.c. 1703 (according to the chronology of Manetho) in the defeat and expulsion of the foreigners. Sekenen-ra Ta-aken is one of the heroes of a very ancient legendary romance written on papyrus in the hieratic character (tempe XIX. Dynasty), of which a large fragment is in the British Museum : The year eighteen hundred and eightysix, the ninth of June, corresponding with the seventh day of Ramadan, thirteen hundred and three of the Hegira. In the presence of General Stephenson, commanding tbe English army of occupation, Gamier de Heldevvier, Agent and Consul General for Belgium in Egypt, General Count Della Sala Pasha, and Madame Della Sala, Eugene Grebaut, Director-General of the Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt, Dr Fouquet, of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris, Insinger, and Herve Bazil: —

By the assistance of M. M. Gaston Maspero, late Director-General of the Excavations and Antiquities of Egypt, Emil Brugsch Bey, keeper, and Urbain Bouriant, assistant-keeper, of the Museum of Boulak, 1 ’ the two mummies which in the printed catalogue bear the numbers 5227 and 4232, both discovered in the hiding-place at Dayr el Bahari, were unbandaged in the room known as the “ Salle Copte.” The mummy numbered 5227, first removed from its glass case, was that of the King Sekenen-ra Ta-aken (17th Theban dynasty), as shown by the inscription, written in red ink and retouched with the brush, upon the cover of his mummy case. Two large winding-sheets of coarse texture, loosely fastened, covered the body from head to foot. Next came pieces of linen carelessly swathed, and pledgets of rags held in place by narrow bandages; the whole of these wrappings being greasy to the touch and impregnated by a foetid odor. The outer Coverings removed, there remained under our hands a kind of spindle of stuff measuring about 1 metre 82 centimetres in length, and so slender that it seemed impossible there should be space enough inside it for a human body. The two last thicknesses of linen being stuck together by spices, and adhering closely to the skin, they had to be cut asunder with a knife, whereupon the entire body was exposed to, view. The head was thrown back, and lying low to the left. A large wound running across the right temple a little above the frontal ridge was partly concealed by long and scanty locks of hair. The lips were wide open, and contracted into a circle, from which the front teeth, gums, and tongue protruded, the latter being held between the teeth and partly bitten through. The features, forciblj distorted, wore a very evident expression of acute .suffering. A more minute examination revealed the position of two more wounds. One, apparently inflicted by a mace or a hatchet, had cloven the left cheek and broken the lower jaw, the side teeth being laid bare. The other, hidden by the hair, had laid open the top of the head a little above the wound over the left brow. A downward hatchetstroke had here split off an enormous splinter of skull, leaving a long cleft, through which some portion of the brain must have escaped. The position and appearance of the wounds make it possible to realise with considerable certainty all the circumstances of this last scene of the King’s life. Struck first upon the jaw, Ta-aken fell to the ground. His foes then precipitated themselves upon him, and, by the infliction of two more wounds, despatched him where he lay,

one being a hatchet-stroke on the top of the head and the other a lance or dagger wound just above the eye. We already know that Ta-akeu fought against the Shepherds—i.e., the so-called “Hyksos’” invaders, who ruled Egypt for about 500 years, but till now we did not know that he died on the field. The-j Egyptians were evidently victorious in the* struggle, which took place over the corpse of their leader, or they would nob have succeeded in rescuing it and in carrying it off the field. Being then and therehastily embalmed, it was conveyed toThebes, where it received the rites of sepulture. These facts explain, not only the startling aspect of the mummy, bub the irregular fashion of. its embalmmentThe chest and ribs, unduly compressed by operators working against time, arebroken, and present the appearance of a. collection of blackened debris, interspersed with scattered vertebrae. The pelvis is intact, and the bones cf the arms and legs are all separate, and decomposition must have already set in> before the embalmers began their work. A large white blotch which surroundsthe wound on the brow appears to be neither more nor less than a mass of braitt substance which has exuded andmortified. Thus hastily embalmed the mummy wasnot proof against destructive influences from without. The wrappers are eaten through by worms, and shells of the larvae of maggots are found in the long hair. Ta-aken was about 40 years of age at the time of his death. He was tall, slender,, and, to judge by what remains of the muscles of the shoulder and thorax, he must have Been a singularly powerful man. His head was small, long, barrelshaped, and covered with fine, black,, curly hair, worn in long locks. The eye was large and deep-set* the nose straight and broad at the bridge, the cheek bones were prominent,, the jaw was massive, the mouth of middle size, somewhat projecting, and furnished with good sound teeth covered with fine enamel. The ears are gone* and there are sc&rcely any signs of beard or moustache. Ta-aken had been shaved on the very morning of the battle. Take him altogether, he must have been singularly like the Barabras (Nubians) of the present day, and have belonged :o a race less mingled with foreign elements than* that of the Rameses family.

The mummy case numbered No. 52321 contained the mummy of Seti 1., second King of the 19 th Dynasty and father of Raineses 11., as testified by the official entries of the year, "VI. XVI. of Hrihor and the year X. of Pinotmou I. inscribed upon the lid. The arrangement of the various winding-sheets and bandages waa the same as ujpon the mummy of Rameses 11. At about midway of the total thickness of the wrappings there occurred twolines of hieratic inscription in black ink* stating that “in the year 9, the second {; month of Pert [the season of seed the sixteenth day, was the day of reclothing the King Men-raa-ra [Seti I.], towhom be life, health and strength.” Another inscription, written on one of the smaller bandages, adds that the linen, used for the King’s wrappings was supplied by the First Prophet of Amen Menkhopirri in his sixth year ; so giving thedate of the latest restoration of theKing’s funerary trappings. The bodypresents much the same appearanceas that of Rameses 11. It is -long* fleshless, of a yello w- black colour* and has the arms crossed upon / the breast. The head was covered with a> mask of fine linen, blackened with* bitumen, which it was necessary to remove with the scissors. M. Alexandre Barsanti, upon whom that delicate operation devolved, removed this shapeless* mass and brought to view the most beautiful mummy-head ever seen within the walls of the museum. The sculptors of Thebes and Abydos did not ' flatter the Pharaoh when they gave him that delicate, sweet and smiling profile which is the admiration of travellers. After a lapse of 32 centuries the mummy retains the same expression which characterised the features of the living man. Most striking of all, when compared with the mummy of Rameses 11., ie the astonishing resemblance between the father and sen. The nose, mouth* chin —in short, all the features are the same ; but in the father they are more refined, more spiritual, than when reproduced in the son. Seti I. is, a 3 it, were, the idealised type of Ramesel 11. He must have died at au advanced age. The head is shaven, the eyebrows are white, the condition of the body points to" considerably more than three score years of life, thus confirming the opinion of the learned, who have attributed a. long reign to this King. The body is healthy and vigorous, notwithstanding the knotty state of the fingers, which bear evident traces of gout. The mouth is filled with some kind of paste, but the two teeth which are visible are white and well preserved. G. MASPERO.