BOSTON — A 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummy named Padihershef came out of his coffin Friday to go to the hospital. Well, actually, he had already been there for a while.
The mummy has been on display at Massachusetts General Hospital since 1823 as a medical oddity. He is one of the first complete mummies brought to the United States.
A conservator trained in restoring ancient artifacts removed him from his coffin Friday and began using cotton swabs dabbed in saliva to wipe away salt deposits from his face. The salt has been slowly seeping out of his tissue, a result of the mummification process.
“I suppose you could say it was something very similar to a facelift, maybe more; maybe he is getting a facial in a spa, perhaps,” Mimi Leveque said.
Experts are also expected to do minor repair and stabilization work on his coffin. The whole process is expected to take three days. The mummy and his coffin then will be moved to a special case in which they will lie next to each other in a surgical amphitheater.
Padihershef was a 40-year-old stonecutter in the necropolis in Thebes. No one knows exactly how the man who became a mummy lived or died. His brain is still in his skull, a rarity because it was typically removed to eliminate the chance of decomposition.
