In May 1852 the goldsmith and collector Joseph Mayer opened an Egyptian Museum at 8 Colquitt Street, Liverpool. The large Georgian house was filled from top to bottom with antiquities, including eight mummies. One mummy, thought to be of a priest called Nes-Amun, attracted a certain interest for it was found within a coffin inscribed three times with a cartouche of Amenhotep I, a pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1525-1504 BC). It was supposed the coffin must be contemporary with the king, though in fact it is some five or six hundred years later. There is even some uncertainly if the mummy and coffin actually belong together.
In this talk we shall delve deeper into the world of Victorian collecting, taking a closer look at how the mummy of Nes-Amun entered into Joseph Mayer’s Egyptian Museum. We’ll follow the story through to the Second World War when the Mayer Collection was devastated by a fire; and how for 75 years the mummy of Nes-Amun remained hidden in storage until becoming part of the Atkinson’s Discover Ancient Egypt Gallery in 2014.
Talk by Dr Ashley Cooke, World Museum Liverpool
Part of our Object of the Month Programme
Object of the Month talks are free and there is no need to book, just come along! If you wish to donate money to The Atkinson Development Trust at the end of any talk there will be donation buckets available.
