Amun
Sha-Amun-en-su (Ancient Egyptian: the fertile fields of Amun) was an Egyptian priestess and singer who lived in Thebes during the first half of the 8th century B.C. She was responsible for ceremonial duties at the Temple of Karnak, dedicated to the god Amun. Sha-Amun-en-su was a Heset, i.e., a member of the foremost group of singers with ritualistic functions active in the temple of Amun. After her death, which is estimated to have occurred around the age of 50, the singer was mummified and placed in a sarcophagus made of stucco and polychrome wood. Since its sealing, more than 2,700 years ago, Sha-Amun-en-su's sarcophagus had never been opened, throughout its history, conserving inside the singer's mummy, a feature that gave it extreme rarity.
The sarcophagus and its mummy were given as presents to the Brazilian emperor Dom Pedro II during his second travel to Egypt, in 1876, by the Khedive Ismail Pasha. They became featured items displayed in the Palace of São Cristóvão, integrating Pedro II's private collection until the Proclamation of the Republic, in 1889, when they became part of the Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro. However, a large-scale fire in the museum on 2 September 2018, destroyed the sarcophagus and the mummy, as well as almost all archaeological artifacts in permanent display.
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