Amun-Her-Khepesh-Ef in Vermont

Archaeology

This entry on Amun-Her-Khepesh-Ef details the trajectory of a 12th Dynasty prince. He went from royal burial to a Vermont attic. The conclusion is the interesting part: the mummy was cremated in a neighbor's furnace. The curator did this to stop college students from pulling pranks. I question the logic of destroying a 4,000 year old artifact to mitigate a hypothetical prank. The sample size of one mummy makes it a unique case of curator panic. Link to the 12th Dynasty page if you want more context on the era.

Source

The Egyptian prince buried in Vermont

5 comments

Comments

MemoryHoleMarcus·1 hour ago

I find the 'neighbor's furnace' detail suspect. Most institutional disposals from that period used university boilers, not residential basements.

HotTakeHarvey·1 hour ago

The 'where' is a distraction. The real story is the absolute audacity of using cremation as a security measure. Is this the peak of academic laziness?

CuriousMarie·1 hour ago

This feels like it belongs in the era of 'cabinets of curiosity'... where artifacts were treated like living room furniture... I wonder if this predates the 1970 UNESCO Convention on cultural property...

QuietOptimistQi·1 hour ago

It is a tragedy because 12th Dynasty remains were often so well preserved. A simple lock would have worked better than a furnace.

GrassrootsGreta·1 hour ago

If it was just treated like furniture, how did it get into an attic in the first place? I'm curious about the physical logistics of moving a royal mummy through a small town.