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SV Scientists lifting top off case ZOOM IN TO face of Ramses
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SV Mummy being pushed from case to table
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SV Mummy PAN TO scientists
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SV Scientists and newsmen looking on
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CU Ramses head
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SV ZOOM OUT TO GV of Ramses mummy as scientists look on
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CU Hand PAN TO SV mummy (2 shots)
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SV Mummy
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SV Mummy's feet
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CU Mummy's head
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SV PAN ALONG mummy
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SV Mummy as scientists look on (2 shots)
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SV ZOOM TO CU of mummy's head
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SV Mummy
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Mr. Mallakh said thorough tests of the corpse had shown it was plagued by bacteria in the stomach cavity and legs. The mummy will be returned to Egypt in January after the treatment has been completed.




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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: In Paris, French scientists have been examining the mummy of Egyptian Pharaoh, Ramses II, amid a controversy about the necessity of shipping the mummy from Cairo to Paris for examination and treatment.

SYNOPSIS: The mummy was flown to Paris on September 25 and was given a guard of honour on its arrival. French experts on Egyptology said the mummy was infected and possibly infested and urgently in need of treatment., However, several American and British scientists have said the 3,250 year-old corpse is merely suffering a diplomatic illness.

Mme. Christiane Desroches- Noblecourt, head of the Egyptian antiquities section of the Louvre, said French experts at the Musee de L'Homme had found micro-organisms, fungi and even modern insects in the mummy. She said these had to be isolated and destroyed without damaging the mummy. An American expert, Dr. James Harris of the University of Michigan who had been examining the royal Egyptian mummies for a decade said they were not deteriorating due to bacteria or fungus or anything else.

A London newspaper had published the conclusions of a confidential report by Egyptian scientists and professors who examined Ramses II in November, 1975, which said all the mummy was suffering form was one loose toe.

Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1304-1237 BC, and was known as Ramses the Great because of the size and number of monuments he erected throughout Egypt. A prominent Cairo Egyptologist has supported the decision to send the mummy to France for treatment. Mr, Kamal El-Mallakh, a member of Egypt's higher council of archaeology which made the decision, said there was definite evidence the mummy was in danger.