Ti Ameny Net

A little known fact about the University of Richmond’s Department of Classical Studies is that the department is home not only to faculty, staff and students, but also to an ancient Egyptian mummy, Ti Ameny Net.

Displayed in the department's Ancient World Gallery in North Court, Ti Ameny Net (or Tcha-Di-Ameny-Niwet, according to the most recent translation), has been a resident of Richmond and a piece of campus folklore since 1876 when Dr. Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, a professor at Richmond College, brought the mummy and her painted coffin back from an excursion to Egypt.

Her history is long and eventful. Buried in Egypt ca. 600 BCE and exhumed in 1869, the mummy traveled to Richmond via the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Over the years, scholars have conducted analyses of her bone structure and coffin, including its intricate hieroglyphics. For more information, see the interactive exhibit, “The Digital Afterlife of Ti Ameny Net.”