Archaeologists and medical researchers have united to finally “unwrap” a 3,500-year-old pharaoh — without lifting a single gauze.
Researchers have eagerly awaited the opportunity to see the corpse of AmenH๏τep I, first discovered in 1881.
Computed tomography (CT) technology, which creates a cross-section of a body using X-rays, revealed the pharaoh’s face and a chest full of treasure, including 30 amulets and “a unique golden girdle with gold beads,” study co-author Sahar Saleem said in a statement.
The wooden sarcophagus of AmenH๏τep I, ruler during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt
“By digitally unwrapping the mummy and ‘peeling off’ [the layers around the body] — the face mask, the bandages and the mummy itself — we could study this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail,” Saleem, a radiology professor at Cairo University’s school of medicine, added.
AmenH๏τep I ruled between about 1525 B.C. to 1504 B.C. during the 18th dynasty. He had grown to 5-and-a-half-feet tall by the time he ԀiҽԀ — of as yet unknown causes — at age 35.
His masked visage had been a central icon of Egypt’s Royal Golden Mummy Parade held in March this year to commemorate the relocation of several mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, Cairo, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in the ancient city of Fustat, now Old Cairo.
This is the skull of King AmenH๏τep I created using computed tomography scanning
French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero and his team discovered AmenH๏τep I with several other mummies at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of Thebes (now Luxor) in southern Egypt.
Hieroglyphics at the tomb indicated that they’d been moved from their unknown original burial site during the 21st dynasty (circa 1000 BC) following a spate of grave robberies.
While other modern discoveries were opened by archaeologists, researchers were worried that the elements would destroy AmenH๏τep.
“This fact that AmenH๏τep I’s mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his Ԁҽαth, by High Priests of Amun,” Saleem said.
AmenH๏τep I, who ԀiҽԀ 3,000 years ago, had notably healthy teeth, according to researchers
Mystery remains concerning the Ԁҽαth of AmenH๏τep. CT scans revealed no “wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of Ԁҽαth,” said Saleem, who found “numerous mutilations post mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial.”
Most of AmenH๏τep’s entrails were removed, though his heart remained customarily untouched since the organ was thought to be the seat of one’s soul.
His brain was also undisturbed — perhaps one of the few remaining royals during Late Period ancient Egypt to have kept it, as the process of removing the brain, bit-by-bit through the nose, was popularized around 3,500 years ago. He also ԀiҽԀ with a healthy set of teeth, and was evidently circumcised, as was tradition.
He “seems to have physically resembled his father,” Ahmose I, according to Saleem. “He had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair and mildly protruding upper teeth.”
CT scans also helped researchers confirm that AmenH๏τep had been circumcised
AmenH๏τep’s father Ahmose I ruled during a peak period in Egypt’s power, after he expelled the invading Hyksos, then launched his expansion into Sudan and Libya — meanwhile splurging on a campaign for several new national monuments.
Ahmose I and his wife, Ahmose-Nefertari, were worshipped as gods in their Ԁҽαth, and the burial of their son, AmenH๏τep, I reflected that lineage.
Zahi Hawᴀss, Egypt’s former minister of antiquities and a co-author of the study, told Live Science that the bedazzled girdle may hold “a magical meaning,” while each of the 30 amulets “had a function to help the deceased king in the afterlife.”
The above image shows damage to AmenH๏τep’s pelvis and abdomen sustained post mortem during a grave robbery that occurred a few hundred years after his burial
The robberies had done enough damage to the AmenH๏τep’s body that it had to be re-mummified during the 11th century BC.
“We show that at least for AmenH๏τep I, the priests of the 21st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory and preserved the magnificent jewelry and amulets in place,” said Saleem.
Image shows the disarticulated bones of AmenH๏τep’s right foot
Since 2005, Hawᴀss and Saleem have together studied more than 40 royal mummies dating back to the New Kingdom of Egypt, between 1570 BC and 1069 BC as part of the Egyptian Antiquity Ministry Project.
They’ve said they look forward to applying their CT scanning methods to future archaeological projects.
This CT image of the head and neck of the mummy of AmenH๏τep shows an intact head with the preserved, desiccated brain resting at the back of the skull
“We show that CT imaging can be profitably used in anthropological and archaeological studies on mummies, including those from other civilizations, for example, Peru,” they concluded.
Source: pahilopahilonews
