A Victorian audience during the height
of Egyptomania paid large amounts of money
to be present at a lecture
where a mummy would be unwrapped
for their edification.
Unfortunately, many mummys were ancient
or contemporary fakes.
Such a mummy might have
no human remains in it at all
being little more than a glorified hobo bindle
with sacred writing scrawled on it.
Even if there are human remains
how do you know it was really
Queen Hapshepsut
not just someone's annoying aunt,
embalmed last year out of spite and greed?
Modern mummy investigators
employ magnetic resonance imaging
and the mummies can leave their bandages on.