Human remains from the coffin of Ahmose

These fragmentary human remains, which include a skull, several vertebrae, and pieces of bone, belong with coffin 12.181.298a, b, inscribed for an individual named Ahmose. The excavators of this coffin, Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, unwrapped the mummy that they found inside. They state in their 1912 publication: "The mummy was sewn up in a sheet, which, when removed, exposed transverse bindings which continued down to the bitumenized body. The arms were crossed over the abdomen. On the head, over the natural hair, a plaited wig much decayed." The fragmentary human remains and pieces of braids were inside the coffin when it was purchased by the Museum from the Egyptian government in 1912. A wooden comb (26.7.1448), which entered the Museum’s collection later, in 1926, comes from the same burial. According to the excavators, this comb was wrapped in linen with a hair piece and placed to the side of the woman’s head: "On the right side of the head was a broken kohl-pot; and at the top of the head, rolled in linen, a chignon, a pottery vase containing a kind of pomade which bore prints of the ancient fingers, and an ebony comb (26.7.144) and bone hair pin."