Unwrapping secret of Bolton Museum's Mummy

4:32pm Saturday 3rd May 2008

Comments (6)   Have your say »

WHEN a Bolton "mummy" went to hospital for an x-ray, radiologists made a startling discovery... the mummy was 700 years old and its hands and feet were missing.

As part of research into two Peruvian mummies, Bolton Museum had the bodies scanned at the Royal Bolton Hospital to find out more about how the ancient civilisation may have lived.

The startling results are revealed in a new exhibition at the museum which opens today.

But it was the images of the 700-year-old wrapped mummy that provided the most intriguing mystery.

They revealed that inside mummy the are a number of objects including pebbles, metal beads and shells. The skeleton sits cross legged but images show that the mummy's hands and feet had gone walkabout.

Copies of the x-ray photographs will be on display in the museum.

Tom Hardwick, the museum's curator of archaeology, said: "This person was clearly buried with the greatest possible care, but without its hands and feet.

"You have to wonder what can have happened - it's a mystery.

"It is possible that the body could have been damaged if the tomb was robbed but this is no more likely than any other explanation."

The second, unwrapped, mummy is 800 years old and is itself the star of TV show, Mummy Forensics, recently shown on the History Channel.

Most of the Peruvian objects on display at the museum were donated by William Smithies, who worked in cotton mills in Peru from 1896 to 1927.

The exhibition runs until August 2. The museum is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and entrance is free of charge.

A free informal talk about the exhibition will be held next Friday from 1pm to 1.30pm in the museum's learning studio.