The area was part of the nome of Hermopolis in antiquity — one of the major administrative districts of Upper Egypt — and contains a series of cliff faces into which ancient Egyptian burials were cut.

The excavation at Nuwayrat that produced NUE001’s remains was conducted in the early twentieth century by the archaeologist John Garstang, whose Egyptological work spanned the early decades of the discipline’s professionalization.

Garstang led the excavation committee that was organized under the auspices of the Egyptian Antiquities Service during the period of British archaeological activity in Egypt.

The committee’s excavations at Nuwayrat produced skeletal material and funerary objects that were donated to British institutions — a practice that was standard at the time but that is now recognized as having ethical dimensions regarding the appropriate stewardship of Egyptian heritage.

The remains eventually came to World Museum Liverpool, where they were catalogued as part of the Garstang collection.