Showing of BBC's 'Show Me the Mummy: The Face of Takabuti'

10 Nov 2009

Featuring Professor Rosalie David on 18 November

The KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology is showing the BBC documentary Show Me the Mummy: The Face of Takabuti, featuring Professor Rosalie David, on Wednesday 18 November, 1pm to 2pm, in Lecture Theatre 6 of the Stopford Building.

Takabuti is one of the Ulster Museum's most beloved exhibits, brought to Belfast from Egypt by boat in 1834 by a wealthy young Holywood man named Thomas Greg, who had bought the mummified remains at a 'mummy market' in Thebes (now Luxor). Takabuti was first unwrapped in 1835 by Edward Hincks, one of the foremost Egyptologists of his time, who deciphered the hieroglyphs on the sarcophagus and found that Takabuti was a woman of wealth between the age of 20 and 30 and that her mother was called Tasenirit and her father was a priest of Amun called Nespare.

This year the BBC have filmed a team of experts, including the KNH Centre's Director Rosalie, who further revealed details of Takabuti's life, including what she looked like.

Rosalie, from the Faculty of Life Sciences, said: "Our research at the University of Manchester specializes in applying scientific methods to examining Egyptian mummies, which preserve evidence of disease, diet, lifestyle, lifespan, status and religious practices. We were delighted to be invited to contribute to the investigation of Takabuti, and this film will show how the mummy was brought across to Manchester where she was x-rayed and CT-scanned; minute samples taken from the inside of the mummy were examined microscopically for evidence of disease; the teeth were studied; and tiny pieces of the hair were analyzed to see if it had been dyed or if she was a natural blonde."