Exhibition: Wrapped

The News Tribune (Craig Sailor)

About 2,600 years ago, a man named Ankh-Wennefer lived in the Egyptian city of Akhmim. He raised at least one son, served as the second prophet in the temple of Min, and upon his death was given funereal customs the average person of his day couldn’t afford.

Given that Ankh-Wennefer wasn’t royalty, it’s somewhat remarkable that so much is known about his life and his death. Credit part of that to a late-19th-century souvenir-collecting traveler who brought the mummified remains of Ankh-Wennefer to Tacoma.

Today, visitors will get to see Ankh-Wennefer’s coffins and, for the first time, what the man looked like in life when the Washington State History Museum opens “Wrapped! The Search for the Essential Mummy.”