Cairo, A children's choir and a military band greeted the return Sunday of what scholars believe is a royal mummy possibly Ramses I that was looted from a tomb and smuggled out of Egypt by a Canadian doctor nearly 150 years ago.
The Michael Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, which bought the mummy three years ago from a museum in Niagara Falls, Ont., returned the relic after determining it may be the founder of the 19th Dynasty and grandfather of Ramses II.
"Welcome Ramses, the builder of esteemed Egypt," a children's chorus sang as the box containing the mummy was brought into the Egyptian Museum.
Zahi Hawas, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said it wasn't certain that the mummy is Ramses I, but the return was "a great, civilized gesture" by the museum.
"We are not 100 per cent sure that the mummy is that of Ramses I, but we are 100 per cent sure that it is of a king," Mr. Hawas said.
The mummy was taken, he said, along with other artifacts from the tomb of Ramses I in Egypt's Valley of Kings.
Other experts, including Emily Teeter, curator of Egyptian antiquities at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, have said there is no hard evidence that the returned mummy is Ramses. Without a DNA match, scholars have relied on historical, archaeological and other scientific evidence to identify the mummy.
The Michael Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, which bought the mummy three years ago from a museum in Niagara Falls, Ont., returned the relic after determining it may be the founder of the 19th Dynasty and grandfather of Ramses II.
"Welcome Ramses, the builder of esteemed Egypt," a children's chorus sang as the box containing the mummy was brought into the Egyptian Museum.
Zahi Hawas, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said it wasn't certain that the mummy is Ramses I, but the return was "a great, civilized gesture" by the museum.
"We are not 100 per cent sure that the mummy is that of Ramses I, but we are 100 per cent sure that it is of a king," Mr. Hawas said.
The mummy was taken, he said, along with other artifacts from the tomb of Ramses I in Egypt's Valley of Kings.
Other experts, including Emily Teeter, curator of Egyptian antiquities at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, have said there is no hard evidence that the returned mummy is Ramses. Without a DNA match, scholars have relied on historical, archaeological and other scientific evidence to identify the mummy.
According to our estimates, Ramses I was Jehoahaz, son of Jehu (Horemheb), a king of Irsael and Egypt.
