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Ta-Kesh Mummy
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Ta-Kesh, Maidstone Museum's mummy, died around the age of 14. She was brought over to England in the 1820s.

Ta-Kesh Mummy

One of Amy's favourite objects in the museum is Ta-Kesh, our mummy. What she finds astonishing about Ta-Kesh is that she is believed to have died around the age of 14, at which age she could have already been married! Amy finds mummies interesting because they give a glimpse of people who lived in the past in the way that no other museum object does. However, it is always tricky to display mummies in museums as in one sense we all want to look at them but in another it is important to remember that Ta-Kesh was a real person and we must respect that.

Ta-Kesh is shown in the lower half of her inner coffin. The top part exists but is kept in our stores. She dates from the 25th or early 26th Dynasty (c700-650 BC) and was known as 'The lady of the house, Ta-Kesh, Daughter of the Doorkeeper of Osiris, Pa-Muta'.

Ta-Kesh was brought to England in the 1820s where she was bought at a customs house sale by Sir William Geary of Hadlow. He presented her to a local philosophical society in around 1835, and in 1840 Samuel Birch of the British Museum opened the coffin. He did so with local physician HW Diamond, who made the cuts in Ta-Kesh's skull and abdomen.

Ta-Kesh was later presented to the Thomas Charles Museum and was bequeathed to the town of Maidstone with the rest of his collection in 1855.

Accession number: EA 513 & 514