Researchers discover mummy in coffin thought to be empty

Since it was bought 160 years ago, University of Sydney archaeologists didn’t think there was much to a particular sarcophagus in its collection.

The coffin of one Mer-Neith-it-es sat in the Nicholson Museum, listed as empty in a 1948 handbook, while the museum database said it contained “mixed debris.”

Dating circa 664-525 BCE, it had been purchased by an early founder of the university, Sir Charles Nicholson, as part of 408 Egyptian objects that would form a basis for a collection.

It all changed last June, when researchers needed to take a photo of the previously undocumented hieroglyphics under the coffin. That’s where they discovered the remains of human feet and bones. Read more…

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