10-Year-Old German Boy Finds A Mysterious Mummy In The Attic

On August 2013, a 10-year-old Alexander Kettler was playing in the attic of his grandmother's house in the northern German state of Lower Saxony when he found three mysterious cases. One large sarcophagus and two small wooden cases stashed behind some shingles. Immediately he report his discovery to his father, Lutz Wolfgang Kettler, a local dentist.

Dr. Kettler said, there was a 1.6-meter (5.2-foot) mummy inside the huge sarcophagus. Then they opened the other cases and found an earthenware Egyptian death mask and a Canopic Jar, referring to a container in which the ancient Egyptians kept the entrails of the deceased who had been mummified.

Dr. Kettler and The Mysterious Mummy
(Source: The History Blog)

According to Dr. Kettler examination of the mysterious objects that has been found by his son, the sarcophagus decorations are repeated like a wallpaper motif and the box is lined with fabric in an Egyptianish print that is not even trying to look real. The mask is shiny and new. The canopic jar is oversized, crudely shaped and has “hieroglyphics” that could easily pass for notepad doodles. All three objects and their containers look not just like fakes, but like theatrical props, which does not in any way diminish the excellence of Alexander finding a mummy in the attic. But he feels there's a good chance that the mummy is real.

Dr. Kettler thinks these artifacts may have been acquired by his father in North Africa in the 1950s. At that time there was still a trade in genuine mummies. He said that his father was one of the older generation who experienced a lot in the war and didn't really talk much about anything. He do seem to remember, that his father mentioning having been to the city of Derna in Libya. Maybe he purchased the sarcophagus on his trip, and it would have been possible for him to ship it to Diepholz via Bremerhaven.

While the mummy's origin is in dispute, testing will be required to confirm if the wrapped figure within the sarcophagus is an actual mummy. Dr. Kettler told the Bild newspaper that he plans to transport the mummy to Berlin for examination.

Few weeks later, on September 2013 the bandages are yet to be removed, but a CT scan revealed a number of puzzling elements beneath them: a fully preserved skull with an arrowhead inside of it, and a skeleton that's largely intact but is coated with or wrapped in metal, reports Der Spiegel. The mummy is now at a hospital in Hamburg undergoing further investigation, and there are plenty of oddities in the story that it'll have to work toward explaining.

Sources:

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/26454

https://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/german-boy-finds-mummy-in-grandmothers-attic-a-914493.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-23553074#:~:text=A%2010%2Dyear%2Dold%20German,packed%20in%20a%20wooden%20crate

https://www.theverge.com/2013/9/4/4693276/german-boy-discovers-egyptian-mummy-in-attic

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/german-boy-mummy-in-grandmothers-attic-sarcophagus_n_3709610