'Mummy' gets a new lease of life in Rajasthan

The mummy, Egyptian teenage girl Tutu, which is estimated to be 2,300 years old, has for the “first time been treated for restoration” since it was brought here in 1883 and  continues to be the main attraction of Jaipur’s Albert Hall Museum.

In March, three restoration experts from Egypt did an X-ray and sterilised the mummy as per the request of the museum authorities. “This is the first time that a team has examined and treated the mummy for restoration since 1883,” said S P Singh, Director, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Rajasthan.

The mummy of Tutu, a member of a priest’s family that lived during the Ptolemaic period (322BC to 30BC), was  brought to “Jeypore”, as the Pink City was then spelt, for an exhibition in the Albert Hall Museum. Built in 1876 as a memorial for the visiting Prince Edward, the museum was thrown open to the public in 1885. Displayed since then, the mummy, a gift from Brughsch Bey, then curator of Cairo museum, was waiting for some ‘human touch’ all these years.

In 1999, Nassry Youssef Iskander, an Egyptian expert who visited the museum, called for “serious conservation action” to save the mummy from decay. Iskander recommended urgent restoration. Among his suggestions was an oxygen-free chamber. Little was done, though officials here claimed they were requesting help from Egypt since then.

“In 1999, Dr Iskander was here for just two days and could not do justice to the restoration work,” the director said. Eleven years passed, and the mummy continued to wait for attention. Finally, the Egyptian government sent Amal Samuel Issac, Gen Samia Mohammad L Mogomi and treatment analyser Taraeh Abdel to help preserve the mummy for the future.

Without periodic check-ups, and locked away in the vaults of time, the mummy’s ochre shroud had become tattered while its linen cloth bandage had frayed. The lower part of the casket had also got damaged.

At some places, body tissues and skeleton were visible, though Egyptian experts said Tutu’s condition was still better than those at museums in Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mumbai, Vadodara and Kolkata. It’s evident that the mummy — from Egypt’s Akhmin region, said to be advanced in mummification — was once well embellished.
A gilded mask, painted in gold, black and white, covered the face and the neck.
The lid showed a winged scarab beetle, a symbol of resurrection in the “afterlife”, flanked by heads of the falcon god Horus, one of the oldest and most significant deities of ancient Egypt.

Decorative figures of gods and goddesses — painted in yellow, white, red and black — adorned the casket.

The lower plaque that covered the legs showed the god Anubis assisting in the embalming.

As part of the treatment, the experts sterilised all the items to wipe out microbes — the invisible agents of slow rot.

The mummy was kept wrapped in a linen cloth for two days. The experts also recorded the moisture content and the mummy’s temperature and did the X-ray for the first time to check whether the inner parts and bones were intact.

Singh said the experts suggested the use of ajwain (which originated in Egypt) to keep microbes away. They also recommended a technically advanced casket.

The team put a linen cloth between the mummy and the wooden casket as it shouldn’t be touching wood. The experts also used some chemicals brought from Egypt.

The three-member team submitted a report with suggestions on ways to preserve the mummy.