Thanks for the Mummeries

Community bids mummy adieu

Not that many folks get three retirement parties, but then Iret-net- Hor-irw wasn’t like most folks.

The people who had come to know this ancient Akmimian over the past 65 years had the opportunity to say goodbye in a variety of ways during his last weeks here at the Haggin. Those attending included the young and old, from all walks of life. Some had ‘known’ him for years; others were more recent acquaintances. And although this Egyptian cleric was some 2,500 years their senior, he still had a unique ability to connect with each of them, forming bonds that transcended time, space and even death itself.

The first of these community closure events was a screening of The Mummy at a special Movie Night in the Park event on July 17, which drew more than 100 visitors. The following week more than 250 guests attended Mummies, Martinis & More, where they listened to Executive Director Tod Ruhstaller and Stockton Record columnist Mike Fitzgerald reminisce about the Haggin’s favorite Egyptian before pitting wits against each other in a trivia contest. And finally, on Saturday, August 1, nearly 1,300 of the mummy’s ‘closest friends’ took part in a Family Festival farewell.

On Tuesday, August 18, a contingent of 10 individuals from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) arrived to bear Iret to his new abode by the Bay. The team included conservators, curators, technicians and publicists. Haggin Museum staff and assorted local media looked on as they first removed the coffin from the case in the Ancient Arts Gallery, then proceeded to take the coffin lid off, lift the mummy from the coffin bottom and prepare all three for the trip to San Francisco.

The two coffin halves and the mummy were then carefully secured to three special biers and transported down to the climate-controlled truck waiting outside the museum shop. Curators and other staff from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco prepare the mummy and his coffin for the trip.

While Iret was always big news locally, his visit to Stanford’s Medical School for a CT scan on August 20 was covered byahostof news media, including a front page story in the San Francisco Chronicle, an NPR report and various stories carried by the Associated Press.

The CT scan will provide additional information on the mummification process, paleopathology and eventually help with a forensic reconstruction of what Iret-net-Hor-irw would have looked like prior to his death.

The mummy and coffin are currently at the FAMSF’s conservation laboratories in preparation for the upcoming exhibition Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine, which opens October 31 at the Palace of the Legion of Honor.

It is interesting to note that the FAMSF refer to him as Irethorrou, which is how his name is rendered on his coffin. The name Iret-net-Hor- irw—a more formalized rendering of the same name—is how he will long be remembered here in Stockton.