Mummified Remains Found in Ancient Egyptian Coffin

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—According to a report in ABC News Australia, human remains were discovered in a 2,500-year-old Egyptian coffin that has been stored at the University of Sydney for the past 150 years. It had been previously thought that the looted coffin was empty. Hieroglyphics indicate it was made for a priestess named Mer-Neith-it-es, but the mummy fragments inside the coffin are not necessarily hers. Radiologist John Magnussen said scans of the debris revealed feet and ankle bones that were largely intact, and that the remains belonged to an adult over the age of 30. After the scan, Egyptologist Connie Lord sifted through the contents of the coffin, and found among the debris the lump of hardened resin that had been poured into the mummy’s skull after the brain had been removed. “Little by little this excavation is really telling us more about the person in the coffin and hopefully giv[ing] it some dignity that it lost when in ancient times it was looted so badly,” Lord said. For more, go to “Tut’s Mesopotamian Side.”