The Orientalist Rev Dr Edward Hincks (1792-1866) - Dr Gerry Millar
Channel: Takabuti Seminar
Date: 11/05/2021

The mummy of Takabuti is one of the best-known antiquities in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. Takabuti was a young woman who lived in Egypt during a tumultuous period, around 600 BC. Her mummy was unwrapped and investigated in Belfast in 1835. The results of the Takabuti Project (2007-2009 and 2018-2020) have culminated in the publication of a new book – The Life and Times of Takabuti in Ancient Egypt: Investigating the Belfast Mummy (available from Liverpool University Press - https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/id/54509/)
The project has demonstrated how researchers act as ‘forensic detectives’ piecing together a picture of the life and times of Takabuti. Questions addressed include – Who was Takabuti? When did she live? Where did she come from and where did she reside? What did she eat, and did she suffer from any diseases? Did she suffer a violent death, and how was she mummified and prepared for burial?
This video was part of a one-day online seminar to launch the book and bring the project to the public.

Dr Gerry Millar is a former Northern Ireland GP of the Year. He works in the Southern Trust and is Macmillan GP Advisor in Cancer and Palliative Care for Northern Ireland and Vice-Chair of NI Hospice and Children’s Hospice. He was awarded an MBE for services to Healthcare and Palliative Care in 2013 and also honoured as a Macmillan UK Cancer Fellow. His fascination with the history of medicine began at the age of 12 years and developed into research and lecturing on American Civil War Medicine and particularly, ancient Egyptian Medicine and mummification. This interest, along with research into pioneering, Victorian Egyptologist, Rev Dr Edward Hincks, led to his involvement in the Takabuti Project and 2009 BBC documentary. He is a Visiting Scholar in Queen’s University Belfast and is currently investigating diseases in Post-Medieval Ireland.