Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Pickled Ramses Finishes His Vacation

In Art History today, Professor Huang was trying to get the class of about 70 students to tell her about mummies. Bit by bit, we pieced together a mosaic of how the ancient Egyptians mummified their dead. But she wasn't satisfied with the answers. So I piped up with, "They're pickled!" It made her laugh-the first time I saw her laugh.

So Prof. Huang started describing a mummy that was owned by the Carlos Museum at Emory University, here in Atlanta. From all indications, this mummy appeared to be a Pharaoh. Egypt had all their pharaohs, except for one, Ramses I. "They lost Ramses." Huang said, then started laughing again. After extensive tests, Egyptologists are pretty sure the Carlos mummy is Ramses I. So in 2003, he was returned to Egypt. My friend leaned over and whispered, "He finally got to go home after his long vacation."

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