Return of the mummy

Wrapped in clear nylon, a mummy that museum curators here believe to be Rameses I, pharaoh of Egypt from 1293 B.C. to 1291 B.C., is returning to Egypt after more than a century in the United States.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, general director of the Supreme Council on Antiquities in Egypt, accepted the remains on Friday as a gift from the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University here. The museum bought the mummy in 1999 from a Niagara Falls freak-show collection.

From the NY Times. For some reason, the online version omits the last two paragraphs in our print edition, the last of which reads:

In what was a spur-of-the-moment decision, he said, the Rameses I coffin will be reunited with the mummy. In Cairo [on the way to its permanent home at Luxor], the mummy will not be in the same room as Seti I and Rameses II, he said, "but they will visit in the evening."

Posted by David on October 25, 2003 3:58 PM