Mummy's the word for museum staff

7:53am Sunday 2nd March 2008

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A member of royalty has been in Bolton for the last 78 years - in the shape of an Egyptian mummy which is more than 3,000 years old.

Experts carried out a series of examinations - including CT scans at the Royal Bolton Hospital - on two mummies from Bolton Museum.

And the results for one of the relics were unexpected.

For they revealed that the Eygptian mummy, originallly thought to be an Egyptian temple dancer, was in fact a member of the Egyptian royal family from the 19th dynasty, related to Ramesses the Second.

A second mummy, a Peruvian Shaman from around 1200AD, which has been at the museum for 105 years was also examined.

The mummified bodies will feature in a documentary series which will start tomorrow on the History Channel.

Producer of Mummy Forensics, Gillian Mosley, said: "We've made some amazing discoveries, using cutting edge technology.

"One of the most important discoveries was that there's probably a royal Egyptian mummy in Bolton and that's thanks to this groundbreaking research."

Initially it had been thought the Egyptian mummy was a woman but on closer inspection the leading experts involved in the programme discovered it was a male placed in a coffin several hundred years after being mummified.

Tests, including the CT scan and carbon dating, revealed the mummy's genitalia had been removed, that he had a pronounced over-bite and different size eyes, all indicating he was a member of the Egyptian royal family who was mummified between 1295 and 1186 BC.

The second mummy, a relative youngster at just 800 years old, is also examined in the first episode of the series.

Experts carried out a series of tests revealing the Peruvian Shaman was embalmed using ingredients from Papua New Guinea, more than 7,000 miles from where the man lived.

Staff at Bolton Museum are delighted the programme-makers chose mummies housed in the borough.

Matthew Constantine, senior manager of archive collections, said: "These new discoveries are really exciting and experts using huge advances in technology have told us so much more about the mummies in the collection.

"Hopefully this will really put Bolton Museum on the map."

Hospital bosses insisted patient appointments were not compromised during the CT scans on the mummies.

Heather Edwards, head of communications at the Royal Bolton Hospital, said: "This was certainly one of the most unusual requests we've had.

"We took some time considering it and checking regarding health and safety.

"In the end we were able to do the scan using our high-tech equipment one evening when the scanner wasn't needed.

"The production company gave us a fee which has gone to the radiology department and we're looking forward to seeing the programme."

The first episode of Mummy Forensics, The Screamer, featuring the Peruvian mummy, will be shown on the History Channel at 8pm tomorrow.

The Egyptian mummy will be in the Misfit episode, which will be screened on March 16.