Mummy Forensics - The Seal Coffin

Good morning, I am going to look into another episode of Mummy Forensics.  This episode is called the Sealed Mummy.  The run time for this documentary is 46:33.

Joann Fletcher and her team will examine a mummy that died under mysterious circumstances.  This mummy is part of the collection at Segedunum Museum and the mummy’s coffin is beautifully preserved.  However, the body inside remains a mystery.  The casket was top of the range, hinting that the mummy inside would be from a higher class.  The challenge for the team will be to examine the mummy without opening the coffin.  Who was this mummy?  Why was this mummy sealed into this coffin?  The Mummy Forensics Team will have challenges on their hands learning about this mummy.

Joann takes off to the museum to learn more about the coffin and the mummy inside the coffin.  The coffin is of high craftsmanship and would have taken weeks to complete.  The mummy came to England over 100 years ago and was sent to Newcastle.  The mummy inside was female.   It is here that Geoff Woodward, who is the curator of the museum gives Joann the bad news: they cannot open the mummy.  The directors are afraid of damaging the coffin.  There are no cracks that the team can use to get inside, meaning that the mummy is completely sealed.

Joann will take photographs and get back to the team.  They will have to be creative when it comes to examining the mummy.  This investigation will be a massive challenge because they are not allowed to open the coffin.  The experts are among the best in their fields, however, this task may be impossible for them.  However, the coffin has been CT scanned and these scans show a 3D model of the lady.  These scans will be a tool for the team. 

The Lady Mummy investigation begins with a team meeting.  With the bad news out of the way, the team begins analyzing the CT scans.  The team will have to rely on technology to bring the woman back to life.  Jill Scott works on doing some research on the mummy and looks at the acquisition records.  She discovered that the coffin was opened up by her feet.  She discovered that damage was done to the coffin during this first opening and so this is the reason why the mummy must remain sealed now.  Jill learns where the mummy came from and what dynasty the mummy came from.  The mummy came from Thebes and would have witnessed the politics of Egypt.  This mummy would have been under the rule of the priests in the temples of Thebes.

The next step in this investigation is creating an image of the mummy.  What did the mummy look like?  She would have had a striking and beautiful face.  Creating this face is a major achievement for the mummy team.  The image shows that she had an overbite which would have indicated that she had high status.  This overbite was a feature of Egyptian royalty.  Even with the scans, the team was able to recreate the mummy’s face.

Joann looks at the hieroglyphics on the coffins.  The hieroglyphics would have had to display the person’s name accurately to ensure the deceased’s entrance into the heavens.  An expert in hieroglyphics notices something different with the hieroglyphics on the coffin.  He seems to believe that she had been given the wrong name by the museum.  Both Joann and the expert concluded that the name was deliberately obscured to prevent her from having an afterlife.  This error throws the case wide open.  Who would want to deny this lady a place in the afterlife?  Who would really know and understand that an error was made?   

Who was this mummy?  How did this mummy die?  Will they be able to discover why this mummy was handled so strangely?  How will the team conduct this investigation without opening the coffin?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out.

On top of being good for a science class and a history class, are clips that can be used for STEM classes.  Clips involving the recreation of the mummy would be a good demonstration of technology for those classes.  This is also a good demonstration of the scientific method when you have limited information.