- Takabuti
Takabuti was a married woman who reached an age of between twenty and thirty years. She lived in the Egyptian city of Thebes at the end of the
Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt . Her mummified body and mummy case are in theUlster Museum Belfast . [Lynne and Ronald Wallace Hogg, Ronald Wallace Hogg, "FreeToDo Travel Guides - UK and Ireland", FreeToDo Travel Guides, ISBN 0955360005, p.345] The coffin was opened and the mummy unrolled on 27th January,1835 inBelfast Natural History Society ’s museum at College Square North.Edward Hincks , a leading Egyptologist from Ireland was present and deciphered the Egyptianhieroglyph s which revealed that she was mistress of a great house. Her mother’s name wasTaseniric and her father was a priest ofAmun . She was buried in a cemetery west of Thebes.After the Napoleonic Wars there was a brisk trade in Egyptian mummies. Takabuti was purchased in 1834 by Thomas Greg of Ballymenoch House, Holywood, Co Down. At that time the unwrapping of a mummy was of considerable scientific interest (as well as curiosity) and later studies revealed a
beetle later described byJohn Obadiah Westwood in "Cabinet of Oriental entomology".The painted coffin was itself of considerable interest and the wrappings of fine
linen were given much attention in the town that was the commercial centre of the Irish linen industry. One hundred and seventy years later Takabuti remains a popular attraction for visitors, young and old.References
External links
* [http://www.ulstermuseum.org.uk/the-collections/world-cultures/ancient-world/egypt/ Photo of Takabuti and her coffin at the Ulster Museum]
* [http://quis.qub.ac.uk/uarcsoc/publications/Jun%202005.doc The Ulster Archaeological Society The UAS Newsletter June 2005 (Word document)]
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