22 October 2026

DFG Funds New Research into the ‘Münster Mummy’

Who was the man whose mummy is on display in the basement of the University of Münster’s Archaeological Museum? Why was he buried in a coffin that is several centuries older than he was? And how did the mummy and coffin come into the possession of the merchant Wilhelm Schmitz-Scholl, a descendant of the Tengelmann founding family? These specific questions will probably remain unanswered forever. However, Egyptologist Prof. Dr Angelika Lohwasser and project collaborator Dr Marc Loth, together with the team at the Archaeological Museum, hope that the new project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), “History(ies) in a ‘rich archaeological context’ – a multidisciplinary investigation of the Egyptian coffin containing a mummy in Münster”, will yield numerous new insights into everyday life in Egypt 3,000 years ago.

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9 July 2010

UKM radiologists examine the Münster mummy: approximately 30 years old and 1.65 metres tall at the time of death

1.65 metres tall, approximately 30 years old at the time of death, likely died almost 3,000 years ago, clearly male, with the head and parts of the spine missing: these are the initial medical findings from the CT scan of a fully bandaged mummy carried out at the Institute of Clinical Radiology at Münster University Hospital (UKM). The mummy forms part of the collection at the University of Münster’s Archaeological Museum. Even after the thorough examination at the UKM, the mummy has not revealed all its secrets: the cause of death remains unknown.

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