Show me the Mummy – the Face of Takabuti

In 1835, the mummified remains of Takabuti were revealed to a fascinated pre-Victorian group of elite men.

A team of 21st century experts joined forces to discover who she was, where she came from and - most importantly - what she looked like.

Now, for the first time since the Egyptian 25th Dynasty, the eyes of the world will once more look upon The Face of Takabuti!

Borderline Productions have just completed a project for BBC NI called Show Me the Mummy – the Face of Takabuti. This is an hour length documentary which follows a group of experts, each a character in their own right, as they recreate the face and explore the history of the Mummy Takabuti, one of the most famous residents of the Ulster Museum in Belfast. Unlike the TV series “Bones” this is the real thing.

A team of experts come together in Belfast Castle, assembled from all over the UK and Ireland to unravel a mystery. The mystery was to recreate the face of Takabuti, the only Mummy in the Ulster Museum and establish where she came from and how she got there.

There is science involved here, for example the Mummy was transported to the University of Manchester for the tests and scans necessary to find out what was inside it, and the final forensic recreation of Takabuti’s face took place in the University of Dundee, in Scotland. However the unique selling points for this documentary are:

• that we establish how this mummy ended up in one of the farthest flung corners of Europe from its originating point,

• that each of the team members establish their own bond with Takabuti and recognise that they are the guardians of something utterly precious.

• that “it” as the documentary progresses, becomes a “she”,

Dr Zahi Hawass, world authority on Egyptology, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities at the University of Cairo and Curator at the Museum of Cairo (check him out on www.drhawass.com/ ) provides another attraction of the documentary. Already famous from many Nat Geo and History Channel documentaries, he guides two of our experts around various sites and mummies in Egypt indicating where Takabuti came from. He also explains the significance of Reverend Hincks another focus point of the documentary. Hincks, a Church of Ireland Minister in 19th century Northern Ireland, had a passion for studying hieroglyphics, but never had his dream fulfilled of visiting Egypt and studying more. He translated the symbols on the side of Takabuti’s sarcophagus when she landed on our shores so long ago, but despite his inherent genius, his gifts never progressed or lauded he died embittered and forgotten.

Universities from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland shared their state-of-the-art technology to gather the crucial information needed, so that the mysteries of this mummy could be unravelled.

Known to every school child in Northern Ireland as one of the most famous occupants of the Ulster Museum in Belfast, in Show me the Mummy we ask our audience to join us on a universal appealing journey of discovery as we reveal the true Face of Takabuti.