Ithaca: The
Anthropology Collection of Cornell University (in McGraw
150; by appointment only) houses two mummies. According to an article in
the Cornell Daily Sun by Courtney Potts: "One of the mummies is
Egyptian and according to the sarcophagus, the mummified person's name is
Penpi. A male in his late 20s, Penpi probably lived between 817 and 730
B.C. He was found in Thebes and joined the collection in the 1870s. Penpi
was donated by G. Pomeroy, who was the American consul in Cairo at that
time. Sadly, Penpi is no longer in mummy form. He was improperly dissected
several years ago; now only his skeleton remains. The other mummy is a
Peruvian woman in her late 30s who probably lived around A.D. 1400. She
was donated by the first Peruvian student at Cornell, a member of the
Larco family. Unlike Penpi, the mummified woman's name is unknown."
New York City:
The
Metropolitan Museum in
Manhattan exhibits many beautiful mummy cases, but you'll have to look
hard to find the three mummies I saw displayed on my last visit: one
from the Roman period, one from the Late Period, and the third (and
best) named Kharushere from the Twenty-second Dynasty. But be warned: it's not a very
kid-friendly museum!
The
Brooklyn Museum exhibits
many outstanding mummy cases and artifacts but only one or two
mummies. You won't find the crowds here that you do at the Met. This makes the museum quite a bit more appealing.
