The mummy and sarcophagus was donated to the University of Padua in 1835 by Giuseppe Acerbi – former Consul General of Austria in Egypt. The sarcophagus is made of wood — cypress — and the hieroglyphic inscription attributes it to Baankh, administrator of the temple of Heka in Heliopolis. He was certainly an important figure, as is evident from the rich funerary items and the high quality mummification. Now almost entirely unswathed, the mummy was prepared in a supine position with the upper limbs bent and folded across the chest; the palms of the hands face downwards and the lower limbs are extended. In June 2012, this mummy and other mummified Egyptian items in the collection of the museum underwent a CAT scan carried out by the Radiology section of the Department of Medicine at the University of Padua. The scan was able, most significantly, to establish what had been the causes of the individual’s death: and it was a violent death. From a collaboration with the State Police, which involved ‘cold case’ investigation methods, the wounds on the body indicate that Baankh was attacked and probably killed.
