The real mummies curse? The story of Neskhon

 

 

The beautiful mummy of Neskhon

Neskhon (“She Belongs to Khons [Khonsu, the Egyptian God of the Moon]”), was a noble woman in the 21st Dynasty of ancient Egypt who died around 969 B.C. Neskohn was a fairly young woman at the time of her death and was married to Pinudjem II, a high Priest of Amun at Thebes. 

 

At the time of her unwrapping, when surveying her mummy, Neskohn’s figure; plumpness of her physique and well-endowed bust seemed to indicate pregnancy or motherhood to archaeologists, and to this day it is widely believed she was either pregnant or had died during childbirth. Neskhon was mummified and covered with an Osiris shroud and a few funerary objects such as vases and a canopic jar chest still exist for Neskohn to this day. A heart amulet belonging to Neskhon was robbed from her body by the Abdel Rassul family of Qurna, but was later recovered and today resides in the British Museum (EA25584).

 

Side profile of Neskhon

 

However, despite the lack of goods and plundered funerary objects, buried alongside Neskhon was a peculiar object; an oracular decree with a prayer to Amun, pleading with the God to not let the spirit of Neskhon seek harm upon her widowed husband, Pinudjem II. Why this is we cannot be sure, but it has sparked the imagination of Egyptologists for over a century.

 

Tablet showcasing Neskhon before Osiris.

Petrie Museum, UC14226.

 

 

This entry also appeared on the Egypt-Museum.com | https://www.facebook.com/Egypt.Museum webpage