Has anyone had experience with mummified animals being unearthed in an historic building? Our museum has a cat buried in the wall dating back to 1751-53. It was discovered in the 1970s during restoration, removed from it's original location, photographed and then deposited in a new location in our building--but still inside a wall.

Please see the linked article, page 2: http://www.nvrpa.org/uploads/Files/published_articles/Oct05.pdf 

We are considering opening up the wall cavity where the cat is now located and putting in plexiglass so that visitors can see the mummified animal. But we have a couple of questions.

1.) Might there be a possibility that the mummified cat has disintegrated since the 1970s when it was put back into the wall?

2.) Would opening the wall cavity now possibly threaten the integrity of the mummified cat?

If anyone has experience with this or can direct me to a good resource on mummified animals, I would really appreciate it.

Thank you,

Helen

Helen Wirka

Historic Site Specialist / Curator

Carlyle House Historic Park

A Property of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority

121 N. Fairfax Street

Alexandria VA 22314

Phone: 703-549-2997

Fax: 703-549-5738

www,novaparks.com