Meeting Annie

Our conservator, Mimi LeVeque, and I met at the Academy of Natural Sciences on Monday to finish conservation of the mummy for Lost Egypt, nicknamed “Annie.” The Academy staff was very helpful, and set us up behind their traveling exhibit gallery - turn right at the hadrosaur, you can’t miss it.

This was the first time I’ve been face to face with our mummy. I’m struck right away by how tiny she is. I knew she was four feet 11 inches, but that didn’t convey how delicate her bones were. Her shoulders are thin, like a child’s, even though she’s estimated to be 16-18 years old. Her bandages are torn in places - she is, after all, about 2,300 years old. Her mask is off at the moment, so I can see her bandaged face, covered in layers of carefully wound linen wrappings. She is incredible.

It was amazing just to sit near her, aware that this was a person who breathed and walked and laughed and died in ancient Egypt, long before I existed. She smells sweet, either from the embalming oils or perhaps the smell of the linen. It’s a rich sweetness, like something you’d find in your grandmother’s attic that speaks of a different time.

The Academy team got Annie’s coffin and lid from the display case where they have been exhibited, and brought them to us for a final cleaning before we pack them up for the show. Moving objects as large as a coffin is challenging under the best of circumstances, and here you can see the Academy team having to carefully negotiate past another mummy and coffin also in the case. Just after they got it onto the transport (an old hospital gurney), school children started arriving at the museum. They kept peering around the temporary walls, excited to see the coffin out of its case, and perhaps thinking that the mummy had come to life at last.

The Academy is a magical place, very “Night at the Museum.” It’s easy to imagine the animals and dinosaur bones and statues and mummies all coming to life when the last visitor leaves for the evening. Great museum - very cool objects everywhere - even a cannon from a shipwreck. I wish I had more time to explore!

Mimi has the difficult job of conserving the cartonnage “boot” that goes over Annie’s feet. While a large portion of it is still intact, the toes are gone, broken into pieces smaller than a fingernail. Mimi gets to put the puzzle back again, reconstructing the top of the foot from paper, paint, and other materials. It’s very beautiful - with intricate patterns and pictures painted all over it. There is a tiny checkerboard pattern on the bottom of the foot, and a white pattern that represents a sandal strap runs across the top. The colors are extraordinary - deep red-brown, black and white, an intense dark green. I wonder how long it took artists to paint Annie’s mask, chest plate, and boot. They are in traditional patterns, yet they were clearly made specifically for her.