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The mummy returns — Long-admired lady’s face revealed
CT scans, MRIs used to craft bust
NEW WILMINGTON — Truth be told, she’s kind of ugly.
She could use a nose job and the bags under her eyes and wrinkles on her cheeks and chin could stand some nipping-and-tucking.
Despite her lack of classical beauty, the students and staff at Westminster College in New Wilmington have loved her for 121 years.
But they didn’t know what she looked like until Tuesday when a bust of Lady Pesed Ma Rhres, the college’s prized Egyptian mummy, was unveiled.
She sat on a table hidden beneath a red veil with two of her best friends, Drs. Samuel Farmerie and Jonathan Elias. They know her simply as “Pesed.”
She was silent as they talked about her and how she was given a face.
Philadelphia-based forensic sculptor Frank Bender “put back what time has taken away,” said Elias, an Egyptologist with the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium.
The consortium was formed in 2004 and is comprised of Westminster, Reading Public Museum and Milwaukee Public Museum. Its research partners include the University of Manitoba and North Dakota State University.
Bender created a bust based on detailed CT scans and magnetic resonance images done last summer to create a computer model from which he could work.
The idea was to “show Pesed, warts and all,” Elias said.
They succeeded.
“I thought she was awfully wrinkled,” Farmerie said.
After more than 2,000 years, that she looks aged shouldn’t come as a surprise; that she lived as long as she did in the Ptolemaic Era is, Elias said.
She was between 55 and 70 years old when she died and in her time most lives ended at 40, he said.
They don’t know what caused her death except that “she didn’t die in a camel accident” because she has no broken bones, Farmerie said.
She was born about 350 B.C. and lived during the reign of Alexander the Great, Farmerie said.
She was the daughter of Neshor, a prophet of the eight gods associated with Min that represented fertility, power and the desert between the Nile and the Red Sea. Her mom was Lady Urt, a priestess and musician, Elias said.
They lived in Akhmim, a town on the Nile about 230 miles south of Cairo, and because of their religious standing were likely well-respected in the community.
“Egypt was extremely diverse at the time,” Elias said.
Pesed was “part of a very established group of priests who were powerful,” he said.
Studies of her body are like looking at two different people, he said.
Her pelvic bones are bruised and show she was a mother. She had arthritic joints and slight osteoporosis. She’s missing 60 percent of her teeth.
“Think of your 85-year-old grandmother. That’s pretty much Pesed,” Elias said.
But her legs were apparently strong and “if she wasn’t a dancer in a temple of Akhmim, I don’t know who was,” he said.
Piecing together the rest of her life and those of others who lived in Akhmim is one of the goals of the consortium.
They already know more about her after-life.
In the 1880s, as the rest of the world was becoming enlightened with the wonders of ancient Egypt, the Egyptians themselves were lining their country’s coffers by selling off their antiquities.
The Rev. John Giffen, an 1872 Westminster graduate who was working as a missionary in Egypt bought her for $8 in 1885. He paid another $5 to have the mummy shipped to the United States. He gave her to the college in 1886.
Her first trip off campus was to Greenville, where she was displayed for the 1886 Citizens Hose Co. Exposition. Campus lore has it that she would appear in students’ beds in the early 1900s and several students carved their names into the underside of the mummy case lid, the earliest of which is dated 1899.
The college didn’t really tout or study their ancient treasure until Susan Grandy Graff was “shocked and awed” by her while studying at Westminster in the 1980s, Farmerie said.
Mrs. Graff raised money to restore Pesed and buy a proper display case. The restoration was done by Jane Gardner of the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh.
“After Susan left Pesed was dormant for five years,” Farmerie said.
Elias, who also serves as an exhibit designer at Whitaker Center for Science and Arts in Harrisburg, negotiated a loan for Pesed in 2001, where she was displayed as part of an exhibit called “Eqypt: Untold Journeys.”
That’s when they found out how old she was at the time of her death through radio-carbon dating. It had been thought she died as a teenager, Farmerie said.
Pesed’s bust will be displayed with her body at Mack Library in the Hoyt Science Building.
- Local News
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
Hermitage commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday to increase sanitary user fees.
Continued ...
Residents tapped into the Hermitage Municipal Authority lines now pay $95 a quarter. That rate will bump up to $105 a quarter on Jan. 1, under the proposed rate hike.
Two more hikes on Jan. 1, 2012, and Jan. 1, 2013, will result in the rates increasing 50 percent from the current fee. -
Water is on at Forrest Brooke: Managers: Well pump shorted out
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Water service has been restored at Forrest Brooke Manufactured Home Community after well problems left the 165-unit complex dry Tuesday.
A boil and conserve water advisory has been issued by the DEP and will remain in place until tests confirm the water is safe to drink, Forrest Brooke’s manager Pete Havens said.
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Storm damages trees, wires
Thunderstorms ripped through parts of Mercer and neighboring counties Wednesday night, downing trees and wires and keeping rescue workers on their toes.
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A Mercer County 911 dispatcher shortly after 8 p.m. said they were busy with calls across the northern part of the county. He said there had been a few reports of trees falling on homes.
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City leaders open to talks
Sharon officials aren’t opposed to sitting down with their counterparts in Farrell to revisit the idea of combining the two struggling cities.
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“It never costs a penny to talk and there’s no (idea) that’s not worth looking at,” Sharon councilman Ed Palanski said. “I think it would be foolish to oppose looking at the idea.”
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Murphy’s Law doesn’t faze regional planners
A complicated, two-day public meeting blitz in 32 counties ran headlong into Murphy’s Law in Mercer County on Tuesday.
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The group Power of 32 are looking to re-write the regional map and create a grand, 15-year strategic economic plan for the 32 counties in four states that make up the Ohio River basin and greater Pittsburgh area.
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Commissioners formally move to raise sewer fees
- Sports
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COLLEGIATE NOTEBOOK: Woods has banner year throwing shot
Former Grove City star Kristy Woods winds up to throw the shot at the U.S. Track & Field Championships where she placed 9th in the Junior Division.
KRISTY WOODS of the University of Buffalo boasted a banner 2010 season for the Bulls’ track & field team.
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The former Grove City High standout and multiple PIAA placewinner and gold-medalist improved as the season progressed in Mid-American Conference, NCAA and ultimately, national-caliber competition.
- Landino, Gramley qualify for Kings finals
- AUTO RACING NOTEBOOK: Mike Lutz is chip off the old (engine) block
- Grove City Senior LL All-Stars earn berth in state tourney
- Outdoors: Paddling into the Allegheny River headwind
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- Death Listing
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Deaths from July 29, 2010
Wayne E. Kennedy, 87, North Beaver Township, New Galilee.
Earicka T. Moore, 34, Farrell.
Jean L. Mowry, 93, Sandy Lake.
Amelia L. Phipps, 94, formerly of Grove City and Harrisville.
Elmer E. Reiter, 77, Masury.
Minister Gerald L. Williams, 64, Youngstown.
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Deaths from July 29, 2010
