The Mummy Who Would Be King

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mummy/

Thanks to Stephanie Houghton for the following item about an upcoming show and accompanying website from Nova, due to show in January 2006: "It is a tantalizing idea: could a shriveled mummy that has lain neglected on a dusty shelf in a museum at Niagara Falls be none other than the remnants of a long-lost Egyptian pharaoh? A trail of clues hints at how the looted mummy may have made its way to North America a century and a half ago. A team of archeologists from Emory University attempts to confirm its identity with the help of the latest imaging and DNA techniques. They find compelling evidence that the mummy may indeed be that of Rameses I, founder of ancient Egypt's most illustrious dynasty. At the climax of the show, the mummy is handed back to Egyptian authorities to take pride of place alongside its royal relatives in the Cairo Museum, a fitting climax to a bizarre, 3,000-year-old detective story".

The website will feature the following items:

Inquiry & Article
- Undiscovered Tombs

Could a largely intact royal tomb like that of King Tut's still lie unrevealed in the Valley of the Kings or elsewhere in Egypt? Hear what a suite of leading Egyptologists think.

- Who Was Rameses I?

Son of a soldier with not a drop of royal blood in his veins, Rameses I rose through the ranks to become the founder of Egypt's magnificent 19th Dynasty—and the first of 11 kings across two centuries to take the name Rameses.

Audio Slide Show & Interview
- Making Mummies

From the first ritual cleansing of the corpse to its elaborate burial, preparing a body for the afterlife was a process that could stretch over months. In this audio slide show, Egyptologist Salima Ikram leads us through the steps.

The Mummy Maven

- Unlike most scholars of the ancient world, Salima Ikram knows her subjects on an intimate, face-to-face basis. In this interview, Ikram sheds light on why mummification was practiced in ancient Egypt, how the practice evolved, and why—of some 70 million mummies made—very few remain intact today.

Also Links & Books and a Teacher's Guide

This is the full item on the No9va website.