Mummy in need of preservation

The Hindu ( T.Lalith Singh)

More than 4,500 years after she died, a mummified daughter of the VIth Pharaoh of Egypt cries for attention at the A.P. State Museum at Public Gardens here. With no experts available in the country to help preserve and waiting for assistance from outside, the Mummy appears to have started giving into the pressures of time.

Though the Mummy, one of the six Egyptian Mummies preserved at museums in the country, has recently been shifted to a better enclosure, the need for immediate steps towards conservation is showing. The wrapping has started to peel and the outer crust is fragmenting at several places and the cracks are very conspicuous at several places.

The Mummy here is believed to be that of a young girl aged between 16 years to 18 years and daughter of the Pharaoh dated to 2,500 B.C. It was brought by Nazeer Nawaz Jung, son-in-law of Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, the VIth Nizam of erstwhile Hyderabad in 1920s. It was said to have been taken for a price of 1,000 pounds and gifted to the VIIth Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan. The same was donated to the Hyderabad Museum which was opened in the year 1930 and since then has been on display.