Wayne County Historical Museum's mummy gets reconstructed by forensic artist

The face of the Wayne County Historical Museum's mummy hasn't been seen for thousands of years, but soon area residents will be able to watch as a forensic artist reconstructs its features.

Brenda Robertson Stewart is an Indianapolis painter, sculptor and forensic artist, specializing in reconstructing skulls for identification purposes, generally in crimes.

However, she is donating her skills to the museum to bring to life the face of the museum's mummy.

"I'm very excited about it," Stewart said. "How many people get to work on somebody 3,000 years old?"

Museum founder Julia Meek Gaar purchased the mummy during a 1929 visit to Cairo, Egypt. She was told the mummy had been on exhibition in a curio store for 40 years before the shop owner decided to sell it to her.

In 2006 and 2007, museum volunteer Bonnie M. Sampsell used her Egyptology studies, research and her multiple trips to Egypt to uncover many of the mummy's long-held secrets. The Richmond native now living in North Carolina discovered that the mummy -- long believed to be a priestess -- is a man, likely age 30 to 35. He was probably mummified in about 900 B.C.

It's Stewart's project now to uncover another of the mummy's secrets: what he looked like.

Some might think they already know, but the mask with which the mummy remains displayed today, is not a drawing of its face. Gaar purchased the mask separately. The image on the mummy's coffin isn't its own either. Sampsell said such coffins were made ahead of time, just like today, and the burial likely took place despite a woman being depicted on the coffin.