Nefrina ( meaning "a good thing has come to us") was a woman who lived in the town of

Akhmim Akhmim (, ; Akhmimic , ; Sahidic/Bohairic ) is a city in the Sohag Governorate of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis () and Panopolis (), it is located on the east bank of the Nile, to the northeast of Sohag. ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, in c. 250 BC. She died c. 275 BC, possibly of complications resulting from a broken hip. She was mummified in the fashion typical of the upper class. Her father, Irethourrou, was a member of the clergy; her mother, Irty-rou, was a sistrum player of Min.

Present day

Nefrina's mummy is currently on exhibit in the

Reading Public Museum The Reading Public Museum is a museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, located in the 18th Ward, along the Wyomissing Creek. The museum's permanent collection mainly focuses on art, science, and civilization and contains over 280,000 objects. It a ...

Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...

, United States. The Museum received Nefrina in 1930 on loan from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. Her mummy was purchased by the museum in 1949. Using CAT scans made in 2003, her face has been reconstructed in a sculpture by forensic artist

Frank Bender Francis Augustus Bender (June 16, 1941 – July 28, 2011) was a forensic artist and fine artist. He made facial reconstructions of the dead based on their skeletons, and of fugitives based on outdated photographs, with his reconstructions showin ...

References

External links

Reading Public Museum - "Nefrina's World"
3rd-century BC Egyptian women 270s BC deaths 3rd-century BC Egyptian people Year of birth unknown Ancient Egyptian mummies Museums in Reading, Pennsylvania {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub