The Mummyof Wah

Unwrapped
H. E. Winlock
From The Metropolitan Museum
of Art Bulletin (December 1940)

The digging in Egypt was about over The first photograph gave us a sud-
in March 1920, and we had already den surprise. From Wah's neck, down
made the surprising discovery of the over his chest, and about his wrists
funerary models of Meketra (dis- crossed in front, there was a whole
cussed in the preceding article) when series of objects clear enough in the
our men, clearing up the ruined portico x-ray to be easily identified. We could
of his big tomb, unexpectedly struck recognize strings of beads around
the buried entrance of a little tomb his neck, a broad bead collar over his
which had been under it. Rough breast, bracelets and anklets on his
arms and legs, and extraordinarily
steps going down had been success-
fully hidden with shale chips, and the large scarabs near his wrists.
little tomb door was still blocked
with a stout brick wall, but once that Naturally, we wanted to put this
had been removed we found our- jewelry on exhibition, but at the same
time we wanted to preserve the
selves in a narrow, rock-cut room
which no one had seen for nearly mummy, and so it was finally decided
to take careful notes and detailed
forty centuries. At the back there
was a coffin bearing the name of a photographs before it was unwrapped,
and then to make a faithful replica
certain Wah, and in it, under a pile of
with its own mask and bandages after
laundered bed linen, lay a mummy
we had removed the jewelry.
with wrappings still as fresh as the
day it had been buried. The outermost piece of linen on Wah's
The meal of beer and bread and meat mummy (Figure 1) was a shawl,
beside the coffin was so simple, and wrapped kilt-like about him, with its
so were the few objects in the coffin, fringed edge around his waist tucked
in in front. It had often been to the
that there seemed little likelihood
laundry; it is pink now but had doubt-
of there being anything of value inside less once been a henna red; and down
Wah's bandages. Furthermore, we the front are two very washed-out
had found his title written in ink on lines of hieroglyphs, written in black,
some of the bed sheets and knew that which read: "Linen of the temple
he was simply an "Overseer of a
protecting Nytankhsekhmet, the justi-
Storehouse," and since this was not fied."What temple was meant, or
the sort of person who might be who the person Nytankhsekhmet
expected to be buried with jewels, so may have been, we probably shall
far as our experience went, it was never know, for she is not mentioned
decided not to unwrap him but to on anything else we ever found.
show his mummy in the Museum, just
as it was found. After we had taken off the kilt we
unwound a dozen bandages spiraling
For fifteen years the mummy of Wah
had been on exhibition alongside the
funerary models of his employer
Meketra, when it was used in some 1. The mummy of Wah before it was
experiments with an x-ray apparatus. unwrapped

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up and down the mummy, each about laid on it, perhaps because it had
as wide as one's hand and several been put on at the end of one day's
nearly forty feet long. Then came work and had become hard by morn-
sheets wrapped around, or big pieces ing, when the next wrappings had
of linen folded as pads and laid on been wound on. When we had re-
to fill the mummy out until it was moved it, the bandages it had pene-
practically a cylinder. Later we came trated, and another dozen sheets and
to a layer of bandages streaked with pads, we came to the first of Wah's
the very thin dregs of a pot of resin, jewelry (Figure 6).
probably smeared on with incanta-
tions for Wah's continued existence, There were four bead necklaces, each
for its purpose must have been magic with its cords tied behind the nape
- it could have had no preservative of his neck (Figure 5). There was a
effect. A score more of sheets and string of 11 big, hollow, silver spheroid
beads separated by little cylinders,
pads were then unwrapped, and Wah,
from having been a very stout party, and another string of 28 smaller ones
was becoming more and more slender, of gold. A third string was of 48 blue
and the face which had been peeking faience ball beads, and a fourth of
out of thick folds of linen now ap- 28 cylindrical and oval beads of
peared as part of a stucco mask ex- carnelian, amethyst, moss agate, milky
tending down to his waist (Figure 2). quartz, black and white porphyry,
and green glazed steatite. The dents
The pinched little face was gilded, in the hollow metal beads and the
and on it were painted a thin mous- fraying of the cords of the silver and
tache and, around the jowls, scant of the faience necklaces show that
whiskers. A highly conventionalized at least three of these strings had
wig, striped light blue and dark green, actually been worn by Wah or by
covered the head, and a crudely I0 some of his family.
painted broad collar with red, blue,
and green rows of beads was shown Half a dozen more bandages and pads
and then we came to more jewelry.
suspended on the brown chest. It
was a barbarous-looking affair,but Another string of 45 deep blue faience
after all, Thebes was still a rather ball beads had simply been bundled
countrified, Upper Egyptian town together and laid on the mummy's
when Wah died, and this mask was chest, and over his crossed arms there
had been placed four large scarabs.
clearly bought from one of the more
old-fashioned of the local artisans. One was of plain blue faience, with-
out any inscription or other device, and
When we had taken off the mask and strung simply on a short hank of linen
ten more sheets and pads, we came threads. The other three are among
to another layer of resin, thick and the surprises of our Egyptian work.
black this time, poured all over the
front of the body except the head and 2. After many layers of wrappings
face (Figure 3). It had been prac- were taken off, Wah's stucco mask
tically dry when the pads had been was uncovered
 3 (left). Thick, black resin had been
poured over this layer of Wah's A;L
wrappings
j : ,

F t lE o * tA <
]t~::

4 (right). The larger silver scarab:

the lead had been deliberately
damaged
5 (below). Wah's necklaces

Two are of massive silver and the mummy the faces of both the silver
third of lapis lazuli. The larger silver scarabs and of the lapis lazuli one had
scarab (Figure 4) is 11/ inches long been purposely and methodically
m and the smaller, 11/ inches; each was hammered and pecked as though to
made up of separate pieces, molded blind them. Then, after the blinding,
and chased and then soldered to- each scarab was strung on a stout
linen cord with one barrel-shaped
gether. The lapis lazuli scarab is 176
inches long and perfectly plain, but on and one cylindrical bead, which ob-
the bases of the two silver ones there viously made them into amulets to
are graceful, meandering scrolls protect Wah against some of the
interspersed with hieroglyphs which many perils of the life to come. But
made easily recognizable seal devices. against what? This is another of our
Both silver scarabs were oxidized, unanswered riddles. Such amulets
and when we began to clean the have never been found before, and
larger one we found hieroglyphs skill- they are shown in the painted friezes
inside only two of the many coffins
fully inlaid on its back in pale gold,
those on the one wing reading, "The of Wah's time, unfortunately in
Nobleman Meketra," and on the neither case named or explained.
other, "The Overseer of a Storehouse
Wah"- the names of the owner of Next we unwrapped half a dozen large
the scarab and the noble for whom bandages and twice as many pads
he worked. The scratches and dents and sheets, each one more stained
on the polished surfaces of this silver with resin than the last. Clearly the
seal scarab and its smaller mate, and linen we were now taking off had
the wear in their gold string-holes been put over a third resin layer while
showed that they had seen real use. it was still soft, and when we got
But it was surprising to find that just down to it we found stuck fast in it
before they had been put on the a broad collar ( Figures 7, 8) of green-
 6. The mummy showing the first of
Wah's jewelry: necklaces made of
silver, gold, faience, and semiprecious
stones (also illustrated as the four
lower necklaces in Figure 5)

ish blue beads on Wah's chest and whatever width they required at
matching bracelets on his wrists and the moment. Nearby was the resin
ankles. All were stiff with the resin pot, and sometimes the resin got
which saturated them, and tight band- splashed on the heap of linen and
aging had crumpled up the collar, sometimes it was wiped from sticky
but soaking in alcohol made them all fingers on the pile of sheets, but
pliable once more, and their stringing the embalmers were very careful not
needed very little reinforcement to get any on the bandages that were
before they were ready for exhibition. going to show or any pitchy finger-
prints on the part of the mask that was
What we had found so far had seen not going to be covered up. A dead
actual use in Wah's lifetime. Here we mouse and linen resin swabs were
had objects made expressly for the dropped on the mummy's knees and
tomb and in the style of centuries hidden under the next bandages.
long gone by even in Wah's day, and What we had taken for another
perhaps this explains why they had mouse was much less distinct in the
been put on the body in a perfunctory x-ray: it turned out to be a little house
and careless way. The cords of the lizard, of a kind still common in
broad collar had only been twisted Egypt, and a cricket was in the same
together behind the nape of the neck,
and not tied, and there had been a
v4a~ "? pitch layer beside the broad bead
collar.
good deal of confusion over the brace- c
lets. There were eight of these last. i ;~~ Linen was costly and was an important
Two were tied on each ankle, and form of wealth: in all we unwound
then, by some mistake which no one 375 square meters of linen from the
noticed, a third was put on the right mummy, and, if we add the sheets we
ankle. Thus, when the undertakers found in the coffin and two pieces
began putting bracelets on the wrists, which had covered it in the funeral
they had only three left, and the last procession, the total from the tomb
of these they simply dropped on the of Wah comes to 845 square meters -
body in the soft resin and went on about 1,010 square yards. Much of it
with their bandaging. had been torn up to make convenient-
sized wrappings, but there were still
We still had quantities of bandages some complete sheets which varied
and sheets to take off, but there was from a fringed shawl 100 inches long
only one more object to remove. We to a bed covering 84 feet long. They
had thought from the x-ray that an
oval seal was on a finger of the left probably had shrunk in repeated
washings, for this was old household
hand, but what we actually found
there was an oval seweret bead of red linen, shawls and bed coverings saved
for the day of need, or procured from
carnelian such as was usually put on friends and relatives or perhaps even
the throat of a mummy. Why this
one was laid in Wah's palm is still bought of strangers for the occasion.
another puzzle.
In the corners of at least sixty of these
While we were unwrapping the sheets there had been written in ink
mummy we had it up on two car- a hieroglyphic sign or two which told
penter's sawhorses; the Egyptians its quality, and often in the opposite
who wrapped it probably had it up corer, the owner's name. For some
on blocks of wood while they squatted reason there seems to have been an
beside it on a wide wooden platform. objection to letting linen go to the
Alongside they had great heaps of tomb so marked, and therefore most
old linen bed sheets, which they tore of the little labels had been torn out.
as they needed into pieces about nine This was done during the actual
feet long or into strips of bandage of wrapping of the mummy, but so care-
 7. Another layer of resin-soaked
wrappings on Wah's mummy, with a
broad collar of greenish blue beads
(shown in Figure 8) and matching
bracelets on his wrists and ankles

8. The faience broad collar

-40H,. A

lessly that three of the torn-out the second half of the king's twelve-
41
AoW corners got rolled on the mummy year reign, or about 2002 B.C.
with the bandages, and one-third of
4 the marks were entirely overlooked It only remained to find out what we
and not torn out at all. Half a dozen could from the body of Wah himself,
gave the names of various people and in this we had the co-operation
for whom they had originally been of Dr. Harry L. Shapiro of the Amer-
woven, and eleven sheets bore the ican Museum of Natural History. Wah
name of Wah himself. One was turned out to be a youngish man
marked with his name only. Two were about thirty years old, who had under-
marked with his name and the date gone a primitive mummification. His
"Year2." Then come three sheets brain was probably left in place, and
of "Year5," three of "Year6," and two the embalmers seem to have left his
others without any year, all marked viscera intact above the diaphragm.
"The Overseer of a Storehouse Wah." Below that level they appear to have
It looks as though it had been be- removed them, apparently through
tween the second and fifth years of an incision in his lower abdomen. The
Seankhkara that Wah got the job of more or less prolonged soaking had
manager of Meketra's storehouses, made Wah's flesh so soft that too tight
and as there are no higher dates than a bandaging made a very narrow
the sixth year, he probably died in bundle of his body.