Media Advisory & Westminster Mummy to Reveal Her Secrets
Posted on Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Pesed, the 2,300-year-old Westminster College mummy, will reveal her secrets on Tuesday, April 4, during a 2 p.m. press conference at the Mack Science Library in Westminster's Hoyt Science Building. The press conference will feature Pesed; Dr. Samuel Farmerie, Westminster curator of cultural artifacts; and Egyptologist Dr. Jonathan Elias. A bust, created by noted forensic sculptor Frank Bender, of what Pesed would have looked like at the time of her death will be unveiled.
*** Please call Mark Meighen at (724) 946-7191 or e-mail meighema@westminster.edu to confirm your attendance. ***
A public lecture and viewing will take place in Philips Lecture Hall of Hoyt Science Building at 7 p.m. It is sponsored by the Biology, Chemistry, Religion, History, Philosophy and Classics Departments, along with the Tri-Beta Biology Honor Society and the Westminster History Interest Group.
Visit www.westminster.edu/mummy for more information about Pesed.
In Her Own Words (as shared through Dr. Samuel Famerie, Westminster curator of cultural artifacts) &
THE PESED REPORTS REVISITED: THE RESURRECTION OF A FACE
Some four years have passed since my return from the Egypt, the Untold Journey exhibit at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts (Harrisburg, PA). While there some 30,000 people, mostly school children, came to visit me. As a preliminary to that event my thoughts were transmitted via mental telepathy to the Curator of Westminster College's artifacts collection. In these reports the results of my medical work-up were shared with readers.
My condition, like that of your 85-year-old grandmother, was not good. The X-rays and CT Scans indicated many senior citizen type physical infirmities. The medical reports are accessible to the public at www.westminster.edu/mummy Knowledgeable people revealed my age and innermost physical secrets. The Federal Right to Privacy legislation protects the living against such revelations, why not the deceased? A mummy must be a second class citizen. A girl just can't keep her secrets!
The general public has seen my insides, but not the outside. Suddenly, that has all changed. Recently, the mummies of my countrymen, King Tut and the College of Wooster mummy Ta-irty-bai, were CT Scanned and the images were used to create busts. I must say they were handsome individuals. Not to be outdone, I was scanned for a second time this past summer at College Fields MRI. This might be viewed by some a game of one-ups-manship. Scanning yields cross-sectional images of the body. Both of the abovementioned scans consisted of fewer than 1800 images, mine was about 2500.
The images were used by scientists at the University of Manitoba to construct a skull. It was forwarded to noted forensic sculptor Frank Bender to complete a bust. The greater number of images produces a bust with more refined features. In my case, the sculptor also factored in aging and the effect of an arid climate on the skin. Unlike the other mummy busts, my wrinkles are readily apparent. Alas, I had no Nivea Lotion or Oil of Olay. I also have a sculpted hair piece.
If you would like to observe the real me in my matronly years, please attend my public unveiling. It will occur Tuesday, April 4, at 7 p.m. in the Philips Lecture Hall of the Hoyt Science Building on the Westminster College campus in New Wilmington, Pa.
Attention dirty old men! Unless there is a Super Bowl style "costume malfunction", the unveiling will not the same as a disrobing and the bust to be revealed will be from the shoulders up, not the shoulders down.
Hope we see each other at the unveiling!
Pesed -- March 27, 2006
Pesed: The 2,300-year-old Westminster College Mummy
Pesed Fun Facts &
" Pesed, a 2,300-year-old mummy, has called Westminster home since 1885. She was donated to the College by The Rev. John Giffen, an 1872 Westminster graduate who was working as a missionary in Egypt.
" She is believed to be the mummy of Lady Pesed, daughter of Neshor (prophet of the eight gods associated with Min). The mummy was excavated from the city of Akhmim, about 235 miles south of Cairo.
" Originally thought to have been a teenager at the time of her death, scientific evidence indicates Pesed lived to an age of 55-70.
" The mummy was purchased for $8 and shipped to the U.S. for $5 in 1885.
" The mummy's first trip off campus was to Greenville in Feb. 1886. She spent two weeks as part of the Citizen's Hose Company Exposition.
" Legend has it that Pesed enjoyed an active social life during her early days at Westminster and would appear in coed's beds during the early 1900s. The under side of the mummy case lid has graffiti in the form of student names scratched into the wood. The earliest dated 1899.
" As recently as 1980, some local high school students were involved in an abortive attempt to steal the mummy.
" The mummy has had four different residences on campus: Old Main Memorial, Mary Thompson Science Hall, McGill Library, and the Hoyt Science Resources Center (Mack Science Library).
" The mummy was professionally restored by Joan Gardner of the Carnegie Museum thanks to the energy and fundraising effort of Susan Grandy Graff, a 1985 Westminster graduate who tackled the project during her undergraduate years.
" Pesed, and over 100 other ancient Egytian artifacts from the Westminster College Cultural Artifacts Collection, were part of the 2001 "Egypt: Untold Journeys" exhibit at the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in Harrisburg.
" Dr. Jonathan Elias, Egyptologist, and the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium have helped solve many of Pesed's mysteries through radio-carbon dating, x-rays, CT scans, and forensic reconstructive modeling.
Visit www.westminster.edu/mummy for more information or contact Dr. Samuel Farmerie, Westminster curator of cultural artifacts, at (724) 946-7053 or e-mail farmersa@westminster.edu
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