30 



ARCHAEOLOGY. 



locks about five centimetres in length. White 

 at the time of death, they have been dyed a 

 light yellow by the spices used in embalm- 

 ment. The forehead is low and narrow ; 

 the brow-ridge prominent; the eyebrows are 

 thick and white ; the eyes are small and close 

 together; the nose is long, thin, hooked like 

 the nose of the Bourbons, and slightly crushed 

 at the tip by the pressure of the bandages. 

 The temples are sunken; the cheek-bones very 

 prominent; the ears round, standing far out 

 from the head, and pierced like those of a wom- 

 an for the wearing of earrings. The jaw- 

 bone is massive and strong ; the chin very 

 prominent; the mouth small but thick-lipped, 



THE MUMMY OF RAMESES H. 



and full of some kind of black paste. The 

 paste being partly cut away with the scissors, 

 disclosed some much-worn and very brittle 

 teeth, which, moreover, are white and well- 

 preserved. The mustache and beard are thin. 

 They seem to have been kept shaved during 

 life, but were probably allowed to grow during 

 the king's last illness ; or they may have grown 

 after death. The hairs are white, like those 

 of the head and eyebrows, but are harsh and 

 bristly, and from two to three millimetres in 

 length. The skin is of earthy brown splotched 

 with black. Finally, it may be said the face 

 of the mummy gives a fair idea of the face of 



the living king. The expression is unintellect- 

 ual, perhaps slightly animal ; but, even under 

 the somewhat grotesque disguise of mummifi- 

 cation, there is plainly to be seen an air of 

 sovereign majesty, of resolve, and of pride. 

 The rest of the body is as well preserved as the 

 head ; but, in consequence of the reduction of 

 the tissues, its external aspect is less life-like. 

 The neck is no thicker than the vertebral col- 

 umn. The chest is broad ; the shoulders are 

 square ; the arms are crossed upon the breast ; 

 the hands are small and dyed with henna ; and 

 the wound in the left side, through which the 

 ernbalmers extracted the viscera, is large and 

 open. The legs and thighs are fieshless ; the 

 feet are long, slender, somewhat flat-soled, and 

 dyed, like the hands, with henna. The corpse 

 is that of an old man, but of a vigorous and 

 robust old man. "We know, indeed, that Rame- 

 ses II reigned for sixty-seven years, and that 

 he must have been nearly one hundred years 

 old when he died." 



M. Maspero next proceeded to unbandage a 

 mummy which had been found, together with 

 another mummy, in a very dirty and tattered 

 condition, in a sarcophagus that bore the name 

 of Nofretari, the wife of King Ahmes I, of 

 the eighteenth dynasty. The latter mummy 

 proved, on beginning to unroll it, to be much de- 

 cayed and very offensive, but was ascertained 

 to be the corpse of a woman of mature age 

 and middle height, of the white race. There 

 were no traces of writing on the bandages, but 

 a strip of linen discovered in the sarcophagus 

 was decorated with a scene of adoration of 

 King Rameses III. The other mummy bore 

 no outward inscription, but had on the head a 

 linen band covered with mystical figures. The 

 orange-covered winding-sheet of this one being 

 removed, there appeared beneath it a white 

 sheet bearing an inscription in four lines : 

 " The year XIII, the second month of Shomon, 

 the 28th day, the first Prophet of Amen, Pi- 

 anki, the scribe of the temple Zoseron-Khon- 

 su, and the scribe of the necropolis Boutcha- 

 mon, proceeded to restore the defunct king 

 Ra-user-ma Mer-Amen, and to establish him 

 for Eternity." The mummy which had hith- 

 erto been taken for Nofretari was, then, the 

 mummy of Rameses III ; and the anonymous 

 mummy was, without doubt, that of Nofretari. 

 As the unbandaging proceeded, some of the 

 wrappings appeared inscribed with legends and 

 groups in black ink, some of them in the form 

 of offerings. Two pectoral ornaments were laid 

 in the folds of the wrappers, one of gilt wood, 

 bearing the group of Isis and Nephthys adoring 

 the sun, and the other, in pure gold, inscribed 

 with the name of Rameses III. The face of 

 the king was coated with a compact mass of 

 bitumen, which hid the features, and had to 

 be removed. On re-examining the bandages, 

 inscriptions of the high-priest, Pinotem I, 

 were found on two of them. The pitch hav- 

 ing been removed from the face, the features 

 were found to be less well preserved than 



