Investigations on an egyptian coffin and mummified head from Burgdorf Museum, Switzerland - A case of a historical puzzle

Lösch, Sandra; Rüttimann, Domenic; Jackowski, Christian; Küffer, Alexandra (2013). Investigations on an egyptian coffin and mummified head from Burgdorf Museum, Switzerland - A case of a historical puzzle. Bulletin der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, 19(1), pp. 15-21. Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Anthropologie

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In the Burgdorf Museum of Ethnology, a mummy rests in a coffin. According to the inventory book, it was purchased from the Cairo Egyptian museum in 1926. The coffin was now examined by Egyptologists and the mummy was radiocarbon dated and examined by Anthropologists. The aim of the study was to compare the results and to check whether mummy and coffin actually belong together. The skull was examined morphological-anthropologically and by CT as a “blank sample”. Coffin and skull imply that the individual was female. The coffin dates to the Ptolemaic period. Only skull bones are preserved, the ethmoid is damaged. CT images Show resinous substances, bone fragments and brain remnants inside the skull. The ethmoid bone was probably foraminated during the mummification process and thus ended up inside the skull. The individual was mummified between the New Kingdom and the Ptolemaic period. Due to its style, it is most probable that the coffin comes from the Gamhud necropolis. The Burgdorf museum of ethnology inventory book chronicles were largely falsified by the examinations. There is a time gap between coffin and the mummy, there are two possible interpretations: the body was mummified with older linen, or the mummy and the coffin do not belong together. The authors strongly advise further investigations.

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