German Boy Finds Mummy In Grandmother’s Attic

Alexander Kettler, German Boy, Finds Mummy In Grandmother’s Attic

The Huffington Post  |  By Posted: 08/05/2013 7:35 pm EDT  |  Updated: 08/06/2013 11:34 am EDT

Alexander Kettler was playing in his grandmother’s home in Diepholz, Germany, last week when he stumbled across something unusual: a sarcophagus.

Alongside dust-covered boxes and clutter, the 10-year-old found a mummy in his grandmother’s attic, according to local reports. His family reportedly had never before come across the curious items.

“There was a huge sarcophagus and inside a mummy,” Kettler’s father Lutz Wolfgangtold Spiegel Online. “Then we opened the other cases and found an earthenware Egyptian death mask and a Canopic Jar.”

mummy

The elder Kettler suspects the ancient artifacts may have belonged to his late father, who traveled through North Africa during the 1950s. As the BBC notes, Kettler believes the sarcophagus and artifacts are replicas, but he said he thinks the mummy may be the real deal.

Testing will be required to confirm if the wrapped figure within the sarcophagus is an actual mummy. Kettler told the Bild newspaper that he plans to transport the mummy to Berlin for examination.

If the mummy is proven to be an authentic Egyptian antiquity, authorities in Egypt will seek to bring the relic back to the country.

“Diplomacy is a successful way to resolve these sorts of issues, and it is not costly,” Abdel Maqsoud, deputy director of the Antiquities Sector at Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, told Egypt Independent. “We should first check if the piece left the country legally and find out if it is registered at any museum.”

3 Comments

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3 responses to “German Boy Finds Mummy In Grandmother’s Attic

  1. In the 19th Century, and abundance of mummies lead to such bizarre uses as fuel for locomotives and as medicine once pulverized into a powder.

    Of course, in the 19th Century, laudanum (tincture of opium) was used on infants to quiet them or, later in their lives, for teething pain or cold symptom relief.

    I’d love to live into the 22nd Century or later just to find out what we did in the 20th and 21st Centuries that proved to be pure idiocy!

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