http://www.britainexpress.com/counties/leicestershire/leicester/new-walk-museum.htm
All pictures are ©2009 Leicester City Museums and taken by me.
Back in 2009 we wrote:
"Leicester City Museum has one wooden anthropoid coffin in its off-site store. We viewed it on 16th July 2009. We also viewed a mummy and head on 22nd January 2009 and paperwork and 'photos of glyphs on 29th January 2009.
According to the information kindly provided by Angela Thomas at Manchester University Leicester have the "Mummy and case of Pe-Iuy, male, from Thebes, died c.650 B.C. Purchased by museum in for £45 in 1859, accession number 50.1859. Male adult". £45 was a considerable sum of money in 1859 - the equivalent to more than 2 years' wages for many working British people! For comparison, a passage on the SS Great Britain sailing from Liverpool in Britain to Melbourne, Australia cost £18.18/ (eighteen pounds and eighteen shillings) in 1869. Even in 1901, according to researcher and television presenter Don Cruikshank, £250 would be worth £15,000 in today's money! Leicester was a bustling, prosperous town in the Victorian period with considerable municipal resources and rising living standards as indicated by this and its remaining magnificent Victorian architecture.
The colours used by the highly skilled people who made this object still glow as freshly as when Pe-Iuy entered what he thought to be his body's final resting place. The mark and "plug" remaining on the chin indicate the former presence of a beard. Note that Isis is missing from the under the foot end of the coffin, indicating that it is not a New Kingdom piece but later. It is Dynasty XXVI (26) according to the museum paperwork. Attention has been drawn in the past to the "ribbon detail" near the neck and was observed by Angela Torpey and Tim Haines on 16th July, 2009. Some authorities apparently believe this to be an indicator of priestly rank in this period.
There is a useful article by Jefferson Monet entitled "The Coffins of Ancient Egypt" at:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/coffins.htm [Jacqueline Webb]
Dimensions, supplied by Laura Hadland, curator:
Base:
length 195mm (sic);
width 465mm (head), 650mm shoulders, 460mm feet;
external depth 295mm, internal depth 255mm
lid:
length 1900mm;
width 510mm-620mm;
depth 150mm-280mm;
foot piece:
length 280mm;
width 510mm;
depth 165mm-15mm."