(NECN: Jackie Bruno) - Meet the mummy of Massachusetts General Hospital. He was the first mummy to be shipped to the U.S., arriving in 1823. And has been dazzling crowds ever since.
“His name is Padihershef,” said Mimi Leveque, conservator of objects. “He was a stone cutter, sort of like a stone mason. He worked in Luxor.”
It’s estimated that he lived and died just before Cleopatra took the throne. That makes him about 200,500 years old.
And even though he’s well preserved, he smells.
“You’re smelling a combination of the resins, that were used in the embalming,” said Leveque. “But you’re also smelling…that sort of smell you get from opening Granny’s sampler closet or something, all of these old, smelly linens.”
Lovely. To spruce him up, Leveque will use her own spit to wash his face.
“It doesn’t leave a residue, but it doesn’t do damage to the surface, either,” she said.
But the real question is what’s inside this mummy. Scientists are now analyzing CT scans and X-rays to determine exactly how he died. And they’ll also do a 3D facial reconstruction to discover what he looked like in life.
One thing’s for sure: This guy had a killer smile.
