#Jean-Michel Diebolt

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II was issued a passport 3,000 years after his death in order for his mummy to fly to Paris.

Ramesses II (c. 1303 BC – 1213 BC), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom.

His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor.”

Ramesses II was originally buried in a grand tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

He was subsequently moved many times by priests who feared looters. He spent as little as three days in some places, and the priests recorded their actions on wrappings on his body.

Despite his resplendent wealth and power in life, his body was later moved to a royal cache.

With the passage of time, his sarcophagus  was lost to history.

It was re-discovered in a deteriorating condition in 1881. It is now on display in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.

It was his poor condition that prompted Egyptian authorities to seek help preserving him in the mid-1970s.

They found their experts in France and reluctantly decided to transport the 3,000 year-old mummy to Paris.

In 1975, Maurice Bucaille, a French doctor studying his remains, said that the mummy was threatened by fungus and needed urgent treatment to prevent total decay.

French laws dictated that entry and transportation through the country required a valid passport.

To comply with local laws, the Egyptian government issued a passport to the Pharaoh.

Seemingly, he was the first mummy to receive one. His occupation was listed as "King (deceased)."

The government didn’t want him to get a passport for publicity but believed it would afford them legal protections to ensure his safe return.

As countless artifacts and mummies have been plundered and stolen from Egypt, museums in Europe didn’t always respect Egyptian claims.

In 1976, his remains were issued an Egyptian passport so that he could be transported to Paris for an irradiated treatment to prevent a fungoid growth.

The New York Times reported on 27 September 1976 that the French military aircraft that brought Ramesses' remains from the Cairo Museum was greeted by the Garde Republicaine, France's equivalent of a U.S. Marine honor guard.

“The mummy was greeted by the Secretary of State for Universities, Alice Saunter‐Seite, and an army detachment.

Ramses II, who ruled Egypt for 67 years, received special treatment at Le Bourget Airport.”

It was then taken to the Paris Ethnological Museum for inspection by Professor Pierre-Fernand Ceccaldi, the chief forensic scientist at the Criminal Identification Laboratory of Paris.

During the examination, Cecaldi noted:

“Hair, astonishingly preserved, showed some complementary data, especially about pigmentation.

Ramses II was a ginger-haired ‘cymnotriche leucoderma'” (meaning he was a fair-skinned person with wavy ginger hair).

He is 5 ft '7 inches tall. They found battle wounds, arthritis and tooth abscess.

In ancient Egypt, people with red hair were associated with deity Set, the slayer of Osiris. The name of Ramesses II’s father, Seti I, means “follower of Seth.”

The examination also revealed evidence of previous wounds, fractures and arthritis, which would have left Ramesses with a hunched back in the later years of his life.

In 2007, it was discovered that small tufts of the Pharaoh’s hair were stolen during the 1976 preservation work (published by the BBC).  

A Frenchman named Jean-Michel Diebolt said he had inherited the hair from his late father, a researcher from the team who analysed the mummy.

Deibolt had tried to sell the hair through an online auction for 2000 euros (£1360) but was quickly apprehended by French authorities.

📷 : An artist’s creation of the passport. Image is for representative purposes only. The actual passport is not publicly available.

#Ramesses II #egyptian pharaoh #Ancient Egypt #ancient civilizations #mummy #passport #Valley of the Kings #sarcophagus #Maurice Bucaille #fungus #Paris Ethnological Museum #Pierre-Fernand Ceccaldi #Criminal Identification Laboratory of Paris #Jean-Michel Diebolt #forensics #Museum of Egyptian Antiquities #Ramesses the Great #Cairo Museum #Garde Republicaine