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 Examining Ancient Mummies
Mummies at The Field Museum
Within The Field Museum’s Inside Ancient Egypt exhibition, you’ll find 23 human mummies—one of the largest mummy collections in any American museum. This extensive collection also includes the mummified remains of animals such as a cat, crocodile, ibis, falcon, and scarab beetle.
The Mummy of Chenet-a-a
One of the most beautiful artifacts in the exhibition is the inner coffin of Chenet-a-a, a middle-class woman who lived in the 9th or 8th century BC (22nd Dynasty).
 Her unopened inner casket bears the title “lady of the house.” Wonderfully painted, this elaborate coffin is made of cartonnage, a mixture of linen and plaster similar to papier maché. But before the cartonnage was plastered, the embalmer inserted Chenet-a-a’s mummy through a slit in the back, and then sewed up the coffin.
Once completed, the entire assemblage was placed inside a less elaborate, wooden coffin. The name of Chenet-a-a's father is written on the wood, a practice common among Egyptian nobility.
Continue to The Mummy Harwa. >>
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