Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1991 - 103

Protected
Nourished

and
Forever

Ankh-hap's six-foot-long wooden coffin, left, is covered with a thin coating of painted plaster. The lid
shows a male figure wearing a large wig; his beard is
now missing. Below the wig is a broad, floral collar
(1) ending in the heads of the falcon-god Horus. Between the collar and the inscription (3) is the kneeling
figure of the sky-goddess Nut (2), with outstretched
wings meant to protect the deceased. In her hands
she holds feathers of Maat, symbols of truth. Depicted to the sides of the inscription are the four Sons
of Horus, minor gods associated with the embalmed
internal organs of the deceased, below which are the
goddesses Isis and Nepththys with their hands raised
in an attitude of mourning. Two images of a recumbent jackal in a shrine (4) represent the god Anubis,
patron of embalming and the necropolis. They are
drawn upside-down on the foot of the coffin lid, but
are actually rightside-up when viewed from the head.
Along the sides of the lid are additional scenes showing Isis and Nepththys embracing the symbol of
Osiris (5), the king of the underworld, Anubis (6) as
a jackal-headed man making offerings, 11 protective
genies with knives (7), and the god Aker (8), a reclining lion who guarded the entrance to the underworld.
On the foot of the coffin is a symbol of the sun, which
passed each night into the underworld and was reborn each morning. The inscription is written in cursive hieroglyphs, and contains a magical spell intended to provide eternal funerary offerings for
Ankh-hap. Both the sacred images and text were
placed on the coffin to insure that the deceased would
be protected and nourished in the afterlife.
Surviving in the wrappings of the mummy itself
are decorated plaques of cartonnage, a material similar to papier-mâché. These include fragments of a
broad, floral collar, a winged figure of the goddess
Nut and an "apron" over the legs of the mummy. All
of these appear to be contemporary with the coffin
and may have been painted by the artist who decorated the coffin.
cured a rough translation of the coffin inscription. By a
letter dated May 16, 1921, a Dr. Lutz of the University
of Pennsylvania deciphered the text and produced from
it the famous name "Anh-hr-h3cpj," which freshmen in
the A&M Corps of Cadets were later required to recite
in answer to the question: Who is the oldest man on
campus? Newspapers report that Francis kept the
mummy in his classroom for many years, where it
served as a comical prop and general curiosity. According to local historian John Adams of College Station,
Francis may have X-rayed the mummy to prove its
authenticity. There is some debate as to whether Francis
unwrapped the mummy. We have not been able to locate

the veterinarian's X rays; they could prove if the body
was already stick-braced when Francis examined it or if
this was done subsequently. It is interesting that a 1931
account mentions the "toe" bones lying loose on top of
the mummy; these are probably the finger bones that we
found improperly "replaced" on the foot.
After the death of Francis in 1936, the "Aggie"
mummy grew in local fame while being displayed in
A&M's museum. The strong bias in favor of an elitist
past soon transformed the enigmatic Anh-hr-h3cpj into
a government official, a tax collector, and, eventually, a
tax collector for Ramses II (this was long before the reexhibition centered upon this
cent international
and
illustrious
pharaoh's long
reign). The tomb of the
of
"Aggie" mummy was, course, assumed to have been in
the Valley of the Kings, where Tutankhamun and other
rulers of the period were buried.
But even this exalted and exaggerated pedigree could
not spare Anh-hr-h3cpj from the fate of so many mummies in the modern world. After World War II, the
A&M museum was closed and the collections of Francis
and Ball were scattered to new homes. Old museum archives show that much care was devoted to the process of
de-accessioning the artifacts, but somehow the mummy
suffered nonetheless. There are news reports of the
mummy being lost, and of university officials finding the
body and coffin sitting unprotected in an old restroom.
The mummy's jaw (a vital source of anthropological
data) was lost or stolen in this dismal period; it appears
intact in newspaper photographs taken as recently as
1939. Insects built their nests in the broken skull, and
the cloth wrappings began to fall apart. Finally, in 1970,
what remained of Texas A&M's "oldest man on campus"
was permanently loaned to the HMNS.
We have explored the ancient history of the coffin, the
more recent (but still quite ancient) history of the
mummy, and the very modern history of both. It is interesting, and ironic, that this scholarly endeavor actually re-enacts the very process that it studies. According
to ancient Egyptian legend, the god-king Osiris was attacked and dismembered by his jealous brother Seth. In
time, Isis was able to recover the far-flung remains of her
brother Osiris and restore him to life. This deeply religious myth became the model for mummification in
Egypt, whereby even mortals could be assured a comfortable eternity, like Osiris, through the embalmer's
restorative art. It was through mummification that
Egypt's dead could be revived, body and soul, in a ritual
that made each an Osiris.
Like its ancient god-king, Egypt itself has suffered
at the hands of its jealous brothers. Its riches have been
uprooted; its antiquities have been scattered recklessly
around the world. As a result, we are finding that an
ancient life we admire and wish to reconstruct cannot
easily be revived. The Houston Mummy Research Program has played the part of Isis in saving an important
body of evidence - evidence that must be gathered one
piece at a time, evidence that might help restore the living history of the ancient Egyptian people.
1991 51
November/December

Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1991

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Archaeology Magazine - November/December 1991