© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Kay Hinton.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Mummy and Coffin Base

AAT Object Form/Functionmummy case

AAT Object Form/Functionmummy (body)

AAT Object Form/Functioncoffin

Place FoundAbydos, Egypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodOld Kingdom, Dynasty 6

Date2305-2152 BCE

MediumLinen, human remains, wood, modern head rest

Credit LineCollected by William A. Shelton, funded by John A. Manget

Dimensions54 x 19 x 12 1/2 in. (137.2 x 48.3 x 31.8 cm)

Object number1921.001

Label TextThe first attempts at mummification were necessitated by the development of larger and more elaborate tombs and coffins, which counteracted the drying effects of the desert sand. In this early period there was more of an attempt to preserve the form of the body in the wrappings rather than treating the body itself. The fingers and toes were individually wrapped, as were the arms and legs. By the end of the Old Kingdom, members of the provincial nobility were buried in their local cemeteries rather than in the great court necropolis at Giza and Saqqara as they had been earlier.

Although now badly deteriorated, this mummy was once carefully wrapped in multiple layers of fine linen bands, soaked in a tree resin to stiffen the fabric and allow it to be modeled in the shape of the body beneath the wrappings. The deceased lies on his side in a sleeping position with his neck cradled in a headrest. It is not until after the Old Kingdom that mummies were uniformly buried in a prone position. The body was placed in a large, rectangular wooden coffin, only the bottom of which now remains. The coffin may have been placed inside a larger limestone sarcophagus. The coffin was made of massive cedar planks doweled together, and the outer surfaces of the boards were left undecorated and uninscribed. The name of the owner of the coffin is not known, and the mastaba at Abydos from which it came was not recorded.

Exhibition HistoryLife and Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy, Michael C. Carlos Museum, September 10 - December 11, 2011
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, May 15, 2013 - Present
Published ReferencesJoseph Litsch, "Mummy Museum," The Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine (January 7, 1979).
Peter Lacovara, "The New Galleries of Egyptian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 12 (September/October 2001): 9-16.
Peter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 45.
Peter Lacovara, "Life and Death in the Pyramid Age," Minerva 22 (2011): 12-13.
Peter Lacovara, "Life and Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy," KMT 22 (2011): 75-82.
MCCM Newsletter, Spring/Summer 2011.
Margie Fishman, "Carlos Exhibit Unveils Oldest Egyptian Mummy," Emory Report (August 29, 2011), 1 and 7.
Howard Pousner, "A 4,000-Year Journey to Stardom for Carlos Museum Mummy," Access Atlanta (September 9, 2011)
Catherine Fox, "'Life & Death in the Pyramid Age: The Emory Old Kingdom Mummy' at Carlos Museum," Access Atlanta (September 14, 2011).
Howard Pousner, "Secrets from a Mummy: Emory Specimen in Storage for 90 Years," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (September 14, 2011).
Catherine Fox, "Mesmerizing Look at Egyptian Mummies," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (September 23, 2011), D5.
MCCM Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2011.
Susan Jaques, A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums (Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 41.
Peter Lacovara, et al., "An Egyptian Mummy of the Late Old Kingdom in the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University," Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 51 (2015): 65-74.
Uta Siffert, "Alles nur Schall und Rauch? Zur Benennung und Bedeutung von Mumien aus dem Alten und Mittleren Reich," Sokar 32 (2016): 70.
Bob Brier, "Breve storia della mummificazione," in Mummie Egizie: di Torino, ed. Elisa Fiore Marochetti (Turin: Museo egizio, 2019), 9, Figure 2.

ProvenanceFound at Abydos, Egypt. Acquired for Emory University Museum by William Shelton (1875-1959) through dealer, Egypt, ca. 1920.

Status

On view

Collections

Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art

Technical NotesIn 1921, William Arthur Shelton, a professor in Emory's Candler School of Theology, purchased an Old Kingdom mummy from the sacred site of Abydos in Middle Egypt. In storage at the Carlos Museum for more than 90 years, its linen in tatters, its head in a separate box, and many bones missing or exposed, the mummy provided an extraordinary challenge for conservators Renee Stein and Mimi Leveque. This video documents their almost year-long treatment of the mummy in close consultation with former curator Peter Lacovara, students and faculty at Emory University, doctors at Emory Hospital, and other consultants.