I learned about a very special woman last week during a visit to Girton College, Cambridge.  This was established as the UK’s first woman’s college in 1869 and located two miles north of the city centre to discourage “marauding male” undergraduates and it wasn’t until 1979 that males were admitted. The college has a glittering alumni, including Arianna Huffington, who was recently ranked the 28th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Word of the college’s academic excellence must have spread during its early years because in 1911 it was offered the remains of Hermione Grammatike, a wrapped mummy with an exquisite inscribed portrait, circa AD 20-40. Her story is immortalised on the bookmark I bought showing her delicate features and large oval eyes.t. It is the only known portrait or remains of a learned woman from the ancient world. Hermione’s mummy portrait was discovered in the Fayum Cemetery of Hawara, Egypt, in 1911.

Literacy in Greek, especially among women was rare in Roman Egypt, and Hermione was probably younger than 25 when she died. Her remains were found by the distinguished British archaeologist Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie and he thought it appropriate that Hermione should be offered a place at the “Women’s College” where third year students paid the £20 asking price.

Today her remains are surrounded by other ancient artefacts in the college’s Lawrence Room, a small museum which is open to the public on Thursday afternoons, so do see her for yourself if you get the chance. I think Hermione would consider it a huge honour to be associated with Girton, which has a glittering alumni, including Arianna Huffington, who was recently ranked the 28th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Do you know of any other college which has its own mummy?