Most visitors to the our Museum, come to see our mummy, our Alex as he’s affectionately known, since the mummy was a gift by the Jesuits in Alexandria. Actually, his name – written on the coffin inscription reads it.t.Hr-r-w or Yarat‑Hor‑ru, which means, The Protective Eye of Horus, who was a minor official, a priest.

We know little about the deceased, but recent CT scans have shown him to be some 30-40 years old, relatively old for the period considering the life expectancy. The scans also showed evidence for osteoporosis, as well as dental caries and receding gums, which suggest that he lived a rather comfortable life, with a rich diet and without much exertion. The mummy is now 154cm long, but would have been 13cms longer (167cm) in life, owing to shrinkage.

By the standards of ancient Egypt, this is not a very old mummy, dating only to the Ptolemaic period (c. 323-30 BC) when Egypt fell under the sway of Alexander the Great, and his generals who then carved up his Empire between them. But that still makes it more than 2000 years old!

This video was prepared for the recent exhibition A Mummy in Jerusalem, held at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.