Nesyamun
Nesyamun, also known as Natsef-Amun[2] or The Leeds Mummy, was an Ancient Egyptian priest, who lived c.1100 BC.[3] His remains are now held in the collection of Leeds City Museum in Yorkshire, England.
| Nesyamun | |
|---|---|
 An artist's rendering of how the coffin of Nesyamun might have originally looked like, with the cracks smoothed over and the beard and amulets restored to their original positions. The effect is intended to recall the illustrations made by Napoleon's surveyors in the Description of Egypt. | |
| Dynasty | 20th Dynasty |
| Pharaoh | Ramesses XI |
| |||||
| Nesyamun[1] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Egyptian hieroglyphs |
Life
Nesyamun was a priest, incense-bearer, and scribe at the Egyptian temple complex at Karnak in Thebes. He died in approximately 1100 BC.[4]
Mummification
After death, his body was preserved and entombed in a coffin inscribed with hieroglyphs. His remains are considered one of the most remarkable mummies in Britain. His body has been kept at Leeds City Museum since 1823.[5] Nesyamun's coffins are among the best-researched of their kind.
Second World War bombing damage
Originally part of a trio, Nesyamun was the only mummy without significant damage after the Leeds Blitz bombing of 1941 which destroyed the front half of the museum. Nesyamun's remains were intact and suffered no damage, even though the inner lid to the coffin was smashed during the bombings.[6]
Recent history
In 1990, the Director of Leeds City Museum invited the Manchester Mummy Team led by Rosalie David to undertake a new scientific study of Nesyamun.[7] In 1973, the multi-disciplinary team began researching the living conditions, diseases, and causes of death of the ancient Egyptian population, and also to establish formal, non-destructive methods of examining mummified remains.[8] The International Mummy Database founded at the Manchester Museum in 1979 is recognised as the major centre for the collection and storage of mummy-related information.
Since 2002, the Leeds Museum has been documenting and researching both the decoration upon the coffin, and the coffin itself. This has led to a greater understanding of the nature of the roles that Nesyamun, as a priest at the temple of Karnak, would have played.
In 2008, the mummy was moved to a new home at the Leeds City Museum.
Voice reconstruction
In 2020, after Nesyamun's throat and trachea were found to be remarkably well-preserved, scientists were able to reconstruct and simulate how the priest's voice may have sounded.[9][10][1][11] Piero Cosi, a speech scientist who in 2016 was part of a team which roughly reconstructed the voice of another widely studied mummy, Ötzi, maintained that the reconstruction was largely speculative even with Nesyamun's almost perfectly preserved vocal tract.[12][13] Scholars have debated the ethics and value of the project.
References
- Howard, D. M.; Schofield, J.; Fletcher, J.; Baxter, K.; Iball, G. R.; Buckley, S. A. (23 January 2020). "Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the 3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun 'True of Voice'". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 45000. Bibcode:2020NatSR..1045000H. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6978302. PMID 31974412.
- David, A. R.; Tapp, E. (1993). The Mummy's Tale : the scientific and medical investigation of Natsef-Amun, priest in the temple at Karnak. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-09061-6. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
- Cardin, Matt (17 November 2014). Mummies around the World: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 327–328. ISBN 978-1-61069-420-9.
- "Nesyamun - The Leeds Mummy". BBC - A History of the World. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- "A 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy speaks again, with some high-tech help". The Washington Post. 2020. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- Sheerin, Joseph (22 April 2019). "3 Forgotten Stories From Leeds' Past". Leeds-List. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- David, A. Rosalie (2005). "Natsef-Amun, keeper of the bulls: a comparative study of the paleopathology and archaeology of an Egyptian mummy". Journal of Biological Research - Bollettino della Società Italiana di Biologia Sperimentale. 80 (1). doi:10.4081/jbr.2005.10177. ISSN 2284-0230. S2CID 239525800.
- David, A. Rosalie, ed. (1979). The Manchester Museum Mummy Project : multidisciplinary research on ancient Egyptian mummified remains (PDF). Manchester, England: Manchester Museum. ISBN 0-7190-1293-7. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- Howard, D. M.; Schofield, J.; Fletcher, J.; Baxter, K.; Iball, G. R.; Buckley, S. A. (23 January 2020). "Synthesis of a Vocal Sound from the 3,000 year old Mummy, Nesyamun 'True of Voice'". Scientific Reports. 10 (1): 45000. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-56316-y. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 6978302. PMID 31974412.
- "Mummy returns: Voice of 3,000-year-old Egyptian priest brought to life". BBC News. 24 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
- "Listen to the sound of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
- "The Mummy Speaks! Hear Sounds From the Voice of an Ancient Egyptian Priest". The New York Times. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 24 January 2020.
- Malsbury, Erin (23 January 2020). "The dead speak! Scientists re-create voice of 3000-year-old mummy". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
Further reading
- Wassell, Belinda The Coffin of Nesyamun: the "Leeds Mummy", illustrations by Thomas Small. The Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, 2008. ISBN 1-870737-21-0