Egyptian mummy prepared for tour

The mummy has a painted linen mask and a false hand

Conservation work on a 2,300-year-old Egyptian mummy is taking place at Durham University.

Specialists have been examining the body of the adult male at the university's oriental museum, before it goes on a year-long tour of Japan.

It was brought to the UK in the 1860s and has proved a popular attraction at the museum for many years.

Curator Craig Barclay said the mummy had what was believed to be one of the first examples of a prosthetic hand.

The false hand, modelled from linen bandages and shaped with a finger and thumb, was displayed separately from the body.

The mummy's coffin indicated the man could have lived in the city of Akhmim, on the east side of the Nile in upper Egypt, around 250 BC.