corn mummy

corn mummy (plural corn mummies)

1. An Ancient Egyptian sculpture of Osiris, often made of wax or earth, that contained germinated grain seeds (commonly wheat or barley).
   • 2009 February 16, Don Blattner, Seven Wonders of the World and More!, Grades 5 - 8, Mark Twain Media, →ISBN, page 9:

     [This] corn mummy had a mask of Osiris. The purpose of the corn mummy was to help the spirit of the deceased to join Osiris in the afterlife.

   • 2014 April 30, Alexandre Chevalier, Elena Marinova, Leonor Pena-Chocarro, Plants and People: Choices and Diversity through Time, Oxbow Books, →ISBN, page 327:

     [A] corn mummy from Ulm, showing sprouted barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) grains embedded in their soil matrix.

   • 2019 April 24, Lisa K. Sabbahy, All Things Ancient Egypt [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of the Ancient Egyptian World [2 volumes], Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 393:

     [The] corn mummy from the year before was taken out of the coffin and buried in a cemetery just for this purpose. By the end of the Late Period ( 343 BCE ), there were corn mummy cemeteries all over Egypt.

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