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It is a tantalizing idea and an outrageous long-shot: a shriveled
mummy with crossed arms that has lain neglected on a dusty museum
shelf at Niagara Falls could be the remains of a long-lost Egyptian
king. While a trail of clues hints at how the looted mummy made its
way to North America, archeologists, scientists, and even an
orthodontist look to the latest genetic testing and imaging
techniques in hopes of ascertaining the body's hidden identity. "The
Mummy Who Would Be King" reveals an astounding story filled with
historical intrigue and the wonders of forensic science.
Suspicions about the mummy's noble past first arose decades ago.
Speaking with avid collectors and top scholars involved in the
investigation, NOVA discovers just how complicated it can be to
unravel ancient truths. By the late 20th century, the Niagara Falls
mummy had journeyed across an ocean. It had been stolen, sold,
bought, and neglected. It had languished in obscurity and had been
"discovered" in the 1960s only to be declared a fraud. Yet
Egyptologist Gayle Gibson tells NOVA that as soon as she laid eyes
on the body, she was convinced it was someone special. This
documentary is about how one mummy finally convinced the world.
"The Mummy Who Would Be King" examines Westerners' long-standing
fascination with all things Egyptian, an attraction that brought the
likes of Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and P.T. Barnum to see
the mummies displayed at Niagara Falls. And like any good story,
this one is rich with colorful characters, such as Dr. James
Douglas, the man who originally acquired the mummies for the Niagara
Falls Museum and himself displayed collected mummies on his own
front porch. NOVA also interviews Meinhard Hoffman, the man who
first suspected royal connections and even had his attorney draw up
an affidavit regarding his prescient hunch 20 years before it would
be proven.
In 1998, when the Niagara Falls Museum closed down and its mummies
were sold to the Carlos Museum at Emory University, the mysterious
cross-armed body finally received the attention and resources needed
for a thorough background check. NOVA is there as esteemed
Egyptologist Salima Ikram,
an expert with intimate knowledge of the era and its rituals,
examines the mummy. She looks for onions placed in the eyes and
resin used to seal the body. Three-dimensional CT scans provide a
truly "inside" look as to how the organs were removed and what fills
the chest cavity. X-ray images allow for familial skull comparison
with royal mummies from the Cairo Museum. Ultimately, one candidate
stands out: Rameses I.
Making the case for a 3,000-year-old monarch is a task set as much
in the past as the present. NOVA takes viewers on a fascinating
visual journey through modern laboratories at Emory, and back in
time into ancient tombs dotting the Nile River Valley. Reenactments
bring to life the mummification rites that marked the heyday of
ancient Egypt's illustrious New Kingdom, when Rameses I ruled as
founder of the 19th dynasty (see
Who Was Rameses I?).
"The Mummy Who Would Be King" captures an in-depth and truly
international investigation that requires the best of modern science
and old-fashioned archeological analysis. After exhausting the
evidence, there is one last crucial test: the opinion of the man who
speaks for Egypt, Director of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. Declaring the
body to be that of an ancient pharaoh, Hawass brings Rameses I home
to rest alongside his family in the Cairo Museum, a fitting solution
to a 3,000-year-old puzzle.
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Is this mummy, which until recently languished for
decades in a Niagara Falls museum, that of Rameses I,
founder of the magnificent 19th Dynasty of ancient
Egypt?
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