Mummy's Tomb Found In Mansion Basement

Clinton: On August 30, construction workers discovered a complete Egyptian-style tomb in the basement of the Thornson Mansion in Hauntown. Workers found the tomb when they removed a false wall in the basement which revealed a secret 12 foot by 12 foot chamber containing ornate murals and a large stone sarcophagus. Inside the stone sarcophagus, they found a carved wooden coffin of the same Egyptian motif. It was at that moment when the homeowners, Arnold and Ellen Thornson called police.

     "We had no idea it was ever there," says Ellen Thornson. "We just thought it was the old cistern Arnold's Great grandpa put in when he built the place."

     Police arrived and discovered mummified human remains inside the wooden coffin. But the condition of those remains so baffled law enforcement that it wasn't long until the County Medical Examiner's Office contacted Dr. Saddam al-Jariri of the Egyptology Studies Program at Georg von Podebrad College.

     Dr. al-Jariri's examination has answered only some of the questions surrounding the Hauntown mummy and its tomb.

     "From what the workmen could tell from the masonry, the chamber walled off sometime after the house was constructed in 1874 but not after 1900. So, it's not a real Egyptian tomb," smiles Dr. al-Jariri. "But, when I first entered the little chamber, I was stunned; the art work on the walls is extremely good and well executed, reminiscent of the better known examples from the Valley of the Kings. Only, instead of gold or gold leaf, there is gold paint. On the whole, the quality of these drawings is excellent. Many of the hieroglyphic inscriptions, of course, are lifted right out of the Book of the Dead, but the attention to detail is marvelous."

     Officials have said that x-rays of the mummy show an as yet unknown robust white male, aged about 65 years.

     "The mummy is a perfect re-creation of the ancient priestly art of embalming," al-Jariri continues. "We were able to recover traces of natron salts from the abdominal cavity as well as copper flecks from the knives used to remove the internal organs. The conoptic jars used to hold the viscera are missing, however, and that's a little mystery. It's clear to me that this is the work of someone consumed by the nineteenth century mummy and pyramid craze. In that regard, I find it highly interesting."