art institute of chicago

After 3,000 years it’s appears all but certain that the husband of the mummy of Djedmaatesankh has been found.

We know from her coffin that his name is Paankhntof. She was a musician at the temple of Amun-Re in Thebes - he was a doorkeeper at the same temple (actually something of an important position). 

At the weekend symposium, researchers presented evidence that the mummy of her husband is now located at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Heritage Key broke the story a week ago here.

The research was presented by Gayle Gibson of the Royal Ontario Museum and Stephanie Holowka of the Hospital for Sick Children.

But first – the most interesting aspect – she may not be his only wife!

Djedmaatesankh lived a challenging life.

Today, her closed coffin, with mummified remains inside, is a key artefact at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada.

She died ca. 850 BC. She lived in a time called the "Third Intermediate Period." The Egyptian state had collapsed by the period and the country had fragmented into local power groups.

She was a musician in the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak and her husband was a door-keeper at the same temple. Judging from her coffin (seen here on the right) she appears to have lived, what we might call, a middle class lifestyle.

Still, her life wasn’t easy - evidence from CT scans show that, when she was in her early to mid thirties, she died from a dental cyst in her upper left jaw. It burst open and poisoned her.