An ancient Egyptian sarcophagus was a prized object inside Perth Museum since it was donated to the Scottish collection in 1936. Now the face of the woman who was mummified and buried in it some 2,500 years ago has been brought to life in a dramatic digital reconstruction.
The curators and expert who recreated her believe she was a black woman from the kingdom of Kush, one of the largest empires in the ancient world, who took control of Upper. Egypt and whose lands included present-day Sudan. The reconstructed head and her sarcophagus will be featured in the museum’s upcoming exhibition, Waters Rising, which opens on November 8.
Dr. Chris Rynn, a craniofacial anthropologist and forensic artist, realized the woman in the sarcophagus had a skull shape that was not classically Kemetic ancient Egyptian. He has to the Observer: “The skull shape doesn’t look like any of the ancient Egyptians I’ve seen before. Kemetic skulls normally have narrow long skull heads, more prominent narrow noses and longer faces.
“As you reconstruct the face, you have no control over its shape because it is all locked to the skull by the scientific method. I have no artistic license until the final stage, when the photorealistic textures and color are added.”
Rynn believes it is highly likely that the woman was black, and that this theory is consistent with the history and archeology of the area.
The hieroglyphs on the woman’s sarcophagus show that the individual buried in it was called “Ta-Kr-Hb” or “Takerheb”. She is believed to have been a priestess or princess who died in her thirties and suffered severe tooth decay. She is thought to have lived during the 25th-26th dynasty (circa 760-525 BC).
Dr Mark Hall, the museum’s collections officer, said: “What we now know about Chris’s facial reconstruction is that the female is Kushite. She is from the kingdom of Kush, which was a neighbor of Ancient Egypt Sudan.
“At this particular time, 2,500 years ago, it was when the Cushite empire conquered Egypt. You get a whole series of black, Kushite pharaohs.”
Rynn works primarily with international police, helping to identify bodies, and making a likeness out of a skull so that friends and family can recognize the individuals. He said: “The face on the sarcophagus is completely different – a long face with a long, narrow nose. I looked at how unusual it is that the sarcophagus does not look like its occupant. It was quite common. But to on the inside of the lid there is a painting of a woman with much darker skin.”
In Rynn’s portrayal, the woman is bald. He said: “All the priestesses and priests would have shaved off all the hair from the body because they embalmed corpses. It was both ceremonial and a hygienic thing. If she was a princess, she would probably have shaved her head too, but she might have worn a ceremonial wig.”
The imagery on the sarcophagus includes the goddess Maat, whose role in the underworld was to weigh an incoming soul against a feather.
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João Philippe Reid, the museum’s exhibition manager, said: “We are very interested in exploring hidden histories and marginalized stories, by looking at places where museum collections are not representative of the perspectives and experiences of societies today and in the past . It is really exciting to see a Sudanese face appear. These histories are hiding in plain sight.”
The sarcophagus is believed to have been discovered in the late 19th century and sold from a museum in Cairo to an Alloa businessman and civil official. It is thought to have come from Akhmim, a frequent stop on the Nile for 19th-century travelers. The sarcophagus came to Alloa in about 1892 and was subsequently donated to Perth.
The museum’s collection includes the Stone of Destinyalso known as the Stone of Scone, today crowned kings and queens of the United Kingdom.
Waters Rising has climate change as its theme, examined from a historical perspective. The sarcophagus was damaged by the flooding of the Nile.
Hall said it was “exciting” to see Ta-Kr-Hb’s face: “We hope it gives visitors the sense that here is someone you can easily relate to as a different person.”
