This is how Emory experts helped return a lost pharaoh to Egypt

A quarter-century ago, this unidentified cadaver arrived at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum, where curator Peter Lacovara, Emory University researchers and renowned Egyptologists sought to solve the mystery of the “Niagara Falls Mummy.”

Thanks to a community-funded acquisition and years of careful examination, the remains of Ramesses I — missing for millennia — finally made their way back to Egypt by way of Georgia.

Credit: AJC

Credit: AJC

Born “Paramessu” in the mid-14th century BC, Ramesses I rose to the throne in 1292 BC as the hand-picked successor of Horemheb, a pharaoh with no sons of his own. Breaking from the royal bloodline tradition, Ramesses I’s ascension marked the beginning of the 19th Dynasty and the Ramesside period.

However, he died less than two years into his middle-aged reign.

Ramesses I’s rule was so brief that his small tomb was hastily finished, lacking in both the size and grandeur of his longer-reigning successors: his son, Seti I, and his grandson, the famous Ramesses the Great.

When grave robbers targeted the Valley of the Kings in the 10th century BC, Ramesses I and other royal mummies were relocated to a secret sanctuary, only to be rediscovered and sold by tomb raiders in the 1800s. Canada’s Niagara Falls Museum purchased some of these mummies, sarcophagi and artifacts for public display.

This museum, which Lacovara likened to a Ripley’s-style odditorium, showcased Egyptian antiquities, indigenous artifacts and other curiosities like taxidermied wildlife. The museum claimed one mummy was the Egyptian queen Nefertiti, which prompted German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht to examine the skeleton in the 1970s.

“A German tourist saw ‘Nefertiti’ and told a German public television station who then sent a crew with Eggebrecht,” Lacovara said. “Eggbrecht said it wasn’t Nefertiti, but glanced over at a different mummy and said that could be a royal mummy.”

In 1999, the Niagara Falls Museum ceased operations and listed its eclectic collection, including the then-unidentified remains of Ramesses I, for sale.

“I was contacted by a curator friend at the Royal Ontario Museum who said that this old Egyptian collection was coming up for sale,” Lacovara said. “That sounded really interesting.”

The asking price: nearly $2 million, an expense the Carlos Museum couldn’t afford.

Credit: AJC Staff

Credit: AJC Staff

As the new senior curator of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern art at the museum, Lacovara aimed to expand its small permanent collection. Although speculation hinted that one of the mummies in this Canadian collection could be royalty, it wasn’t Lacovara’s main focus.

“I was amazed because there were a lot of Egyptian coffins that were quite beautiful,” he explained.

Lacovara noted that they were from the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt, a time during which only wealthy people — like priests associated with Karnak Temple — could afford elaborate sarcophagi.

“They were all fascinating. One actually had its name erased and reinscribed so it could be reused,” Lacovara said. “We were 99% sure one of the mummies could be Ramesses I, but having that mummy was not the reason for the acquisition; it was the coffins and the rest of the collection.”

Along with the mummies and sarcophagi, the acquisition included amulets, sculptures, jars and funerary art. Visitors can still find the majority of these pieces on display at the Carlos Museum, including a winged scarab carving, a coffin board and lid for the remains of Tanakhtnettahat/Ta-Aset, and a cartonnage funerary mask.

Lacovara’s aspirations conflicted with the museum’s lack of endowment funds and a tight deadline to secure the sum. According to Emory Magazine, a fundraising campaign reported in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution led to a weeklong spree of donations totaling $1,750,000.

“The phone started ringing off the hook with people wanting this collection to come to Atlanta,” Lacovara recalled. “Even school kids and Girl Scout troops were going door-to-door.”

Lacovara helped pack the collection and ship it down to Atlanta where large crowds gathered in 1999 to see the initial public display, named the Charlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art to honor the mother of Karina Miller, an Emory alumna who donated $1 million to the acquisition.

For the exhibition, Nancy Roberts, director of exhibition design for the Carlos, re-created a tomb. “It was a tremendous success and a beautiful exhibit,” said Lacovara.

Dr. William E. Torres, former vice chair for clinical affairs for the Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at Emory and board member of the Carlos Museum, then conducted radiological research on each of the carcasses.

“We did CT scans and traditional X-rays on nine mummies,” Torres recalled. “They ranged in mummification — some very poorly mummified, some extremely well-mummified — and you could visibly tell the difference.”

One mummy missing a sarcophagus stood out. Torres and Lacovara saw that it was positioned with its arms across its chest, a telltale sign of Egyptian royalty. Torres also noted that the facial features were reminiscent of other Ramesses mummies still in Egypt.

Torres leveraged the latest CAT scanning equipment to capture thin “fly through” images. Using this noninvasive technique, he then grouped multiple images together to form a single comprehensive picture. The result showed two tightly rolled tubes of linen inside the mummy’s chest cavity.

“Only one other mummy has that,” Lacovara said. “Seti I, Ramesses I’s son.”

As Egyptologists like Salima Ikram, Robert Brier and James E. Harris reinforced this notion with their own observations and tests, Lacovara made another discovery.

“Fragments of painted tomb relief stones were also in the collection,” he said. “I recognized that they had likely come from the tomb of Seti I. Casts were made and brought to Egypt; they fit right where I thought they would.”

This confirmation was more evidence that the remains were most likely that of Ramesses I.

“We should really offer it back to Egypt,” Lacovara insisted. “It wouldn’t be right for us to keep him.”

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister of tourism and antiquities, agreed.

“There is no way we can accept a pharaoh who ruled Egypt to be outside of Egypt,” Hawass said.

When the museum approached Hawass about repatriation, they asked only that he appear in Atlanta to give a free lecture and formally celebrate Ramesses I’s departure from Georgia following the 2003 “Ramesses I: Science and the Search for the Lost Pharaoh” exhibit.

“It’s enough that the museum gave us this mummy without asking for any fee,” Hawass said. Though he has aided in the repatriation of more than 6,000 Egyptian artifacts, he was more than happy to let the museum keep the rest of the Canadian collection.

Famed Canadian Egyptologist Gayle Gibson of the Royal Ontario Museum also attended the opening of the “Ramesses I” exhibit.

“On a lovely warm, clear Atlanta night, a thunderstorm suddenly came up with wonderful lightning,” Gibson remembered. “I took it as a sign of appreciation from Ramesses I, whose family god was Sutekh, the god of storms.”

Lacovara followed the mummy to Cairo where the Egyptian Museum hosted a grand unveiling.

“It was pretty wild,” Lacovara recalled. “Millions of people. We were scared because they all had cameras and were bearing down on this poor mummy.”

“He was received in Cairo as if [he were] a living king,” Hawass said. Eventually, Ramesses I was relocated to the Luxor Museum as the focal point of an exhibit dedicated to the Ancient Egyptian military.

As pertains to pharaonic history, Ramesses I’s two-year rule was not significant.

His seat on the throne is overshadowed by the accomplishments of his son and grandson. Even on my tour of Valley of the Kings, we were encouraged to venture into the elaborate tombs of Seti I, Ramesses IV, or Ramesses IX instead of the less extravagant chambers like Ramesses I’s.

And yet, the post-pharaonic story of Ramesses I is arguably the most unique, exciting and awe-inspiring of the New Kingdom period.

Years of research at Emory University and the Carlos Museum solved a mystery of the 19th Dynasty, and in doing so, forever linked Atlanta with Ancient Egypt.

While the placard beside Ramesses I’s remains acknowledges that his identity is still technically unconfirmed, it leaves no doubt about Atlanta’s critical role in his preservation:

This mummy was discovered in the museum at Niagara Falls, where it had lain unnoticed since its purchase in the late 1880s. It was bought recently by the Michael C. Carlos Museum (MCCM) in Atlanta, where it was studied carefully. It is a royal mummy of the late 18th to early 19th Dynasty, and may be Rames I, [sic] founder of the 19th Dynasty. It was recently returned by the MCCM, a gift from the people of Atlanta to the people of Egypt.

“This is very important to all of us, and to me personally,” Hawass said. “It was in the hands of good people like Peter Lacovara and they did a good job.”

This year Hawass intends to conclusively verify the mummy’s identity through new DNA comparisons of Ramesses I, Seti I and Ramesses II. On June 14, he will give a multimedia presentation at the Georgia World Congress Center on the latest discoveries from the excavation of the Lost Pyramid and his personal experiences from decades of field work.

While Ramesses I resides in Luxor, the rest of the acquired artifacts are still displayed in the Carlos Museum’s collection of Ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern antiquities. Annie Shanley, the museum’s provenance researcher and associate registrar, believes the collection represents much more than a hallmark acquisition.

“The support from the citizens of Atlanta that the Carlos received during the Niagara acquisition kicked off a new era for our Egyptian collection,” Shanley said.

“It was not just Emory’s Egyptian collection; it became Atlanta’s Egyptian collection. The Carlos is honored that the community funded acquisition continues to bring joy and new educational opportunities to Georgia school children, Emory students and the people of Atlanta.”

EVENT PREVIEW

“A Royal Evening with Zahi Hawass.” Presented by Archaeological Paths Travel Company. 6 p.m. June 14. $139-$279. VIP meet-and-greet, $999. Georgia World Congress Center, 285 Andrew Young International Blvd., Atlanta. 646-757-1717, www.zahilectures.com

Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $10. 571 S. Kilgo Circle NE, 3rd floor, Atlanta. 404-727-6123, carlos.emory.edu