Report to recommend resting place of Egyptian mummy

A report on whether or not a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy in UCC’s Boole Library should remain in Ireland or be returned to Egypt is due in weeks.

A spokesman for the Egyptian Embassy in Dublin said a restoration team and a number of experts had examined the mummy and the coffin in which it is contained. The team is preparing a report and once this is completed, a decision on the future of the mummy would be made.

“It’s still in UCC. We had a team go down to Cork to examine the mummy and the coffin and they are preparing a report which is due around now.

“It’s in a fragile condition so, once the report is received, a decision will be made on what to do with it — whether to move it or leave it in UCC and put it on display there. The university has been very co-operative on this and is happy to go along with whatever decision is made,” he said.

The mummy itself is one metre and 69cm long and weighs 24.2kg. X-rays reveal it was a well-built, fully grown male. The coffin dates to around 625-600 BC and bears an inscription of a man called Hor whose title was lotus-beater.

However, the mummy itself can be dated back to the Ptolemaic Roman period 305 BC to 500 AD and researchers have said it is clear the coffin and mummy do not belong together.

One destination for the mummy and coffin, should a decision be taken to take the artefacts back to Egypt, is the Giza Museum. Due to open next year, it is expected to be the largest archaeological museum in the world. Egyptian authorities are understood to be evaluating artefacts worldwide with a view to securing them for the museum, which will be located 2km from the pyramids.

The mummy is part of a number of artifacts retained by the college from collections amassed when it was Queen’s College Cork (1845 to 1908).The mummy was found at the college in 1903 and mystery surrounds how it came to be in the university as there is no record of its delivery.