The Unlucky Mummy / “Princess of Amen-Ra” legend
- Date of account
- Late nineteenth century; especially 1880s–1890s circulation
- Location
- Egypt; later British Museum and London press
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
The so-called Unlucky Mummy is a nineteenth-century British legend associated with a painted Egyptian coffin board, commonly identified with British Museum object EA 22542 and later with a supposed Princess of Amen-Ra. Stories linked the object to deaths, accidents, and ominous experiences after its arrival in Britain. The legend is useful for comparing museum-mediated apparition narratives, Egyptian antiquarianism, and retrospective “curse” construction. The object’s identity, acquisition history, and the dating of individual incidents are disputed, and many popular accounts appear to postdate the events they claim to describe.
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