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By Mischa Dijkstra, Frontiers science author
For the primary time because the eleventh century BCE, scientists have unwrapped – just about, utilizing CT scans – the mum of pharaoh Amenhotep I (r. 1525 to 1504 BCE), the one royal mummy to stay unopened in trendy occasions. They present that the pharaoh was round 35 years outdated, 169cm tall, circumcized, and in good bodily well being when he died, apparently from pure causes
All of the royal mummies discovered within the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have lengthy since been opened for examine. With one exception: egyptologists have by no means been daring sufficient to open the mum of pharaoh Amenhotep I. Not due to any legendary curse, however as a result of it’s completely wrapped, adorned with lovely flower garlands, and with face and neck lined by an beautiful lifelike masks inset with colourful stones. However now for the primary time, scientists from Egypt have used three-dimensional CT (computed tomography) scanning to ‘digitally unwrap’ this royal mummy and examine its contents. They report their findings in Frontiers in Medication.
This was the primary time in three millennia that Amenhotep’s mummy has been ‘opened’. The earlier time was within the eleventh century BCE, greater than 4 centuries after his unique mummification and burial. Hieroglyphics have described how at the moment, monks restored and reburied royal mummies from extra historical dynasties, to restore the injury performed by grave robbers.
“This proven fact that Amenhotep I’s mummy had by no means been unwrapped in trendy occasions gave us a singular alternative: not simply to review how he had initially been mummified and buried, but in addition how he had been handled and reburied twice, centuries after his demise, by Excessive Monks of Amun,” mentioned Dr Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology on the College of Medication at Cairo College and the radiologist of the Egyptian Mummy Undertaking, the examine’s first creator.
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Demise from pure causes
“By digitally unwrapping of the mum and ‘peeling off’ its digital layers – the facemask, the bandages, and the mum itself – we might examine this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented element,” mentioned Saleem.
“We present that Amenhotep I used to be roughly 35 years outdated when he died. He was roughly 169cm tall, circumcized, and had good enamel. Inside his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a singular golden girdle with gold beads.”
“Amenhotep I appears to have bodily resembled his father: he had a slender chin, a small slender nostril, curly hair, and mildly protruding higher enamel.”
Saleem continued: “We couldn’t discover any wounds or disfigurement as a consequence of illness to justify the reason for demise, besides quite a few mutilations submit mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial. His entrails had been eliminated by the primary mummifiers, however not his mind or coronary heart.”
The mum of Amenhotep I (whose identify means ‘Amun is glad’) was found in 1881 – amongst different reburied royal mummies – on the archeological website Deir el Bahari in southern Egypt. The second pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty (after his father Ahmose I, who had expelled the invading Hyksos and reunited Egypt), Amenhotep dominated from roughly 1525 to 1504 BCE. His was a sort of golden age: Egypt was affluent and secure, whereas the pharaoh ordered a spiritual constructing spree and led profitable navy expeditions to Libya and northern Sudan. After his demise, he and his mom Ahmose-Nefertari had been worshipped as gods.
Historic reburial
Saleem and her co-author, egyptologist Dr Zahi Hawass, had beforehand speculated that the primary intention of the restorers from the eleventh century was to reuse royal burial tools for later pharaohs. However right here they disprove their very own idea.
“We present that at the very least for Amenhotep I, the monks of the twenty first dynasty lovingly repaired the accidents inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory, and preserved the magnificent jewellery and amulets in place,” mentioned Saleem.
Hawass and Saleem studied greater than 40 royal mummies of the New Kingdom within the Egyptian Antiquity Ministry Undertaking that was launched since 2005. Twenty-two royal mummies, together with that of Amenhotep I, had been transferred in April 2021 to a brand new museum in Cairo. The face of the mum of Amenhotep I together with his masks was the icon of the spectacular ‘Royal Golden Mummy Parade’ on March third, 2021 in Cairo.
“We present that CT imaging might be profitably utilized in anthropological and archeological research on mummies, together with these from different civilizations, for instance Peru,” concluded Saleem and Hawass.
Above: the outer mummy of Amenhotep I. Center: CT scan of the cranium and neck. Backside: The pharaoh’s full set of enamel. Picture credit score: S. Saleem and Z. Hawass
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