The mummies have a long connection with Derby. In 1836, the local collector and Mayor of Derby, Joseph Strutt, had a mummy that was mentioned in Pigot and Company’s Commercial Directory for Derbyshire:
    a singularly fine Egyptian mummy…quite admirably displayed in a superb suite of rooms…situated in St. Peter’s Street.
We do not know where Strutt got his mummy from; in those days the provenance was not thought to be important information, as it is today. We know that the mummies were bought by the Museum in 1859 or 1860. The report of the Committee of the Derby Town and County Museum and Philosophical Society, of 14 February 1860, states:
    Your committee have also added by purchase two highly interesting Egyptian mummies, and some other Egyptian antiquities which will add greatly to the value and interest of the collection.

And the cost of this purchase was just £27!

There are no records of where these mummies came from. It is unlikely that either was the one owned by Strutt, and they may have been in the possession of other local collectors; perhaps Francis Darwin, who died in 1859, or the Harpur Crewe family at Calke Abbey.

The Derby Free Library and Museum opened in its present building on 23 June, 1879, and the mummies have been on display there ever since. Many of our older citizens can remember the mummies being on display when they were young. Sometimes they were allowed to touch Pypy-iw’s foot, although modern standards of conservation would not permit this today!

The mummy was partly unwrapped in the 19th century. The outer wrappings were removed from the legs and lower body, which were later roughly re-wrapped. The bandages were pushed back to show off the mummy’s head, hands, and right foot.

X-ray photographs show that there are no jewellery or amulets hidden within the wrappings.

The mummy may once have worn a painted mask made of linen and plaster - a material known as cartonnage. The bandaged mummy was covered in a single large sheet of linen, which can still be seen over the chest area. This was held in place by a long bandage running from head to foot, with other bandages running across the chest and legs. The mummy was then covered in a net made of blue beads, some of which remain on the chest.

The name, rank and titles of the mummy are written in the inscription running down the centre of the coffin lid:
    An offering which the king gives to Osiris … foremost of the gods? … Lord of Abydos, that he may give a good burial in the necropolis to the West of Thebes for the soul of the Osiris Pypy-Iw, true of voice, son of …
The inscription probably ends with the Pypy-Iw’s title, and the name of his father, but this part is damaged and cannot be read. The position of the hands may indicate that Pypy-Iw was a priest. Men of other classes were usually wrapped with their arms at their sides. The coffin is similar in style to the coffins of the Theban priests of Montu of the 26th Dynasty - around 650 BC.

The mummies were removed from the museum in November 1990, when they travelled to a conservation laboratory in Lincoln to be X-rayed, cleaned and repaired, ready to be put back in a new display. Thanks to X-rays, the mummies did not have to be unwrapped or taken out of their coffins. Closer analysis was made of the paints and resins used to decorate the coffins, which helped the conservators to know which chemicals could be used in the cleaning process without causing further damage. It also helps us to understand the mummification processes and materials used by the ancient Egyptians at the time the coffins were made.

Now the mummies are back in the Museum, and we hope you will enjoy seeing them and exploring life and death in ancient Egypt.

Currently to be found in Secrets of the Mummies at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

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