Westminster College's mummy finally gets a face

April 05, 2006

By PAT LITOWITZ
plitowitz@ncnewsonline.com


Westminster College's oldest resident didn't age gracefully.

The harsh conditions of Egypt etched wrinkles throughout her face. Infections and disease also left their marks. And as for her hair, a case of Pantene Pro-V couldn't reverse the effects of desert living.

But that's to be expected when you're more than 2,300 years old.

Except for the drawings that adorned her sarcophagus, the facial features of the college's mummy were a mystery. On Tuesday, Pesed received a face to go along with her name.

"Think of your 85-year-old grandmother. That's pretty much Pesed," said Dr. Samuel Farmerie, Westminster's curator of cultural artifacts.

Farmerie and Dr. Jonathan Elias unveiled Pesed's bust during a press conference at the college's Mack Science Library.

"After 2,000 years, anyone of us would need help," joked Elias, an Egyptologist and member of the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium. "We have shown Pesed, warts and all."

The mummy has been in Westminster's possession since 1885, when the Rev. John Giffen, a Westminster graduate, donated her to the college.

Pesed was excavated from the city of Akhmim, located 235 miles south of Cairo. A member of Egypt's upper middle class, Pesed is believed to have been between 55 and 70 years old at the time of her death.

Frank Bender, an expect in facial reconstruction and a forensic sculptor, was responsible for producing Pesed's bust. The Philadelphia native has aided authorities such as the FBI in homicide and other criminal investigations.

A CT scan performed last year, which produced information on Pesed's health history and facial information, assisted Bender in his efforts. Results of the scan helped to create a digitally produced skull, on which Bender based Pesed's features.

His sculpture took approximately 60 days to complete.

"I was actually surprised," Elias said of Pesed's bust. "I had a different sense of how she would appear."

So did Farmerie.

"When I first saw this, I was a little bit suspicious," he said. "I thought the artist took a little liberty with the wrinkles."

Pesed's reconstruction represents the second such undertaking by the Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, of which Westminster is a member.

"How did these people appear?" Elias asked. "What was there quality of life? "We want to actually put flesh back on the body."