For the First Time in a Century, Conservators Took This Mummy Out of Her Coffin—and Found a Hidden Painting of a Goddess Buried With Her

Conservators at the Perth Museum and Art
Gallery in Scotland made a surprising discovery when they
cracked open the coffin of a nearly 3,000-year-old mummy for the
first time in a century.

Decorating the inside of the coffin were paintings of the
Egyptian goddess Amentet.

“We had never had a reason to lift the whole thing so high that
we could see the underneath of the trough and had never lifted the
mummy out before and didn’t expect to see anything there,” Mark
Hall, collections officer at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, told the
Scotman. The
mummy was donated to the museum back in 1936.

Ta-Kr-Hb, as the mummy is identified in hieroglyphics on the
coffin, is believed to preserve the remains of a priestess or
princess from Thebes. The paintings, which line the internal and
external bases of the coffin trough, show Amentet, known as “She of
the West” or “Lady of the West,” in her customary red dress.

The fragile artifact, which sustained damage at the hands of
grave robbers and Victorian collectors, had been undergoing
conservation ahead of a display at the new City Hall Museum in
Perth in 2022.

Ta-Kr-Hb was examined at the Manchester Royal Children’s
Hospital in 2013, where a CT scan and x-ray revealed her chest and
pelvis had been damaged after mummification. Experts are now
working to stabilize the condition of the mummy and prevent further
deterioration.

To help fund the project, which is expected to cost £16,608
($20,329), the trust administering the region’s museums, Culture
Perth and Kinross, has launched a JustGiving crowdfunding campaign. To date,
it has raised £1,307 ($1,600) toward a goal of £7,395
($9,053).

“Although both the mummy and the coffin have suffered badly
during the centuries in the tomb, from grave-robbers searching for
amulets to flash floods that washed mud and debris onto the painted
coffin,” project conservators Helena and Richard Jaeschke said in
a statement, “they have
survived remarkably well and need careful, patient conservation
treatment to enable them to survive for many more years and allow
everyone to see the beautiful paintwork on the coffin.”

The post For the First Time in a Century, Conservators Took
This Mummy Out of Her Coffin—and Found a Hidden Painting of a
Goddess Buried With Her appeared first on artnet
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