The Victorian Ladies Who Smuggled a Mummy Case Out of Egypt

22.02.2024 - 00:13 / atlasobscura.com

At first glance, the cartonnage in Macclesfield Museum’s display of Egyptian antiquities seems like any other mummy-holding case. The cartonnage material is made of two or three thin layers of bandages applied on top of one another, with ancient glue holding them together. It’s “the Egyptian equivalent of papier mâché,” according to Ken Griffin, Egyptologist and Curator of the Egypt Centre at Swansea University. Its smooth surface, created by a thin layer of plaster, is painted with images to guide the deceased to the afterlife in shades of salmon pink, blue, and olive green. It once held mummified remains and was placed inside a sarcophagus.

But if you lean in very close, you might notice that this cartonnage has a couple anomalies. A pair of orthogonal seams are barely visible: one runs around the base, and the other bisects it around the waist. These are evidence of repairs made after the case was cut into pieces—and the mummy removed—for smuggling. And the people who pulled off the illegal heist were two Victorian ladies.

Though the cartonnage dates to about 800 BC, it was taken from Egypt in 1874. “[The cartonnage] is special because of what it tells us about the actions of British travelers in Egypt at that time, as well as for its own sake,” says Bryony Renshaw, Macclesfield Museum’s Collections Officer.

Macclesfield, a market town in northwest England, seems an unlikely spot to find a collection of Egyptian antiquities. But the artifacts are here because of Marianne Brocklehurst, the daughter of a wealthy silk mill owner, and her interest in archaeology.

In November 1873, 41-year-old Brocklehurst departed for Egypt with her companion, Mary Booth. Together, they were known as the “MBs.” This was their first of five Egyptian expeditions, from which they returned with artifacts that now furnish Macclesfield’s Museum.

Brocklehurst documented their travels in handwritten notes, sketches, and watercolors in her diary, which is also housed in the museum. It is clear she wanted to procure Egyptian artifacts and deliberately shun the legal route in doing so. Brocklehurst explained how she acquired the cartonnage in an addendum to the diary called, “How We Got Our Mummy”.

In Alexandria, Brocklehurst met an artist who knew locals in possession of antiquities. By sheer luck, after sailing down the Nile and stopping at archaeological sites along the way, the MBs bumped into the same artist among the ruins of Thebes. After having dinner together, under nightfall he led them to a tomb, now the residence of a local family. Within one of its chambers, the family presented them with a sarcophagus. Brocklehurst declined to take the whole thing due to its size, but instead negotiated for just the cartonnage