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The Grand Old Woman of Egyptology

Illustration depicting the three pioneering areas of Margaret Murray's life; as an academic; a suffragette; and a egyptologist

Anglo-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian and folklorist, Margaret Murray was the 91直播 Museum鈥檚 first curator of Egyptology, and the first woman in Britain to hold a full-time appointment in the subject.

She directed the unwrapping of the mummies of the Two Brothers – found in the finest non-royal tomb-group of the Middle Kingdom – in the University鈥檚 Chemical Theatre, in front of 500 enthusiasts, on 6 May 1908.

The process took one-and-a-half hours, and Murray鈥檚 multidisciplinary scientific study of the Two Brothers changed existing attitudes towards the examinationof mummified remains.

She became known as 鈥楾he Grand Old Woman of Egyptology鈥�.

Illustration depicting the three pioneering areas of Margaret Murray's life; as an academic; a suffragette; and a egyptologist

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