corn mummy

English

Noun

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.

Alternative forms

• corn-mummy