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22 Slices of mummy: a thin perspective John Denton My first introduction It was in 1973 at the University of Manchester Medical School, where I was a relatively young pathology technician, that I was introduced to Rosalie David for the first time. Her passion for the multi-faceted complex investigation of Egyptological remains was apparent from the beginning. In 1975 the team formed by Rosalie David came together in one of our seminar rooms to undertake the unwrapping of mummy 1770, one of the rare scientific studies of a relatively intact Egyptian mummy. The
techniques of embalming used, which depended upon the wealth of the individual and his family (De Sélincourt and Marincola 1994: 115–16). Of these 250 understanding egyptian mummies the first description by Herodotus; ‘the most perfect process’ (II, 86) runs as follows: As much as possible of the brain is extracted through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach is rinsed out with drugs; next the flank is laid open with a flint knife and the whole contents of the abdomen removed; the cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out, first with
transmitting information in medical imaging. It includes a file format definition and a network communications protocol. 3 Osirix v 5.8.5. 64 bit from Pixmeo SARL, CH1233, Bernex, Switzerland (2013). 4 Mimics Research [64 bit] v 9.0.0.231 from Materalise UK Ltd, AMP Technology Centre, Sheffield S60 5WG, UK (2014). 330 understanding egyptian mummies packed. Treatment of the mouth varied somewhat with no obvious pattern being evident (Table 26.4). In contrast, there were only two mummies from the Red Shroud group where excerebration was evident – a child from Hawara via
Cairo, determining the age of the king at death (Smith 1912: Adams and Alsop 2008: 21). In 1931 R. L. Moodie surveyed the Egyptian and Peruvian mummies in the Chicago Field Museum in one of the earliest comprehensive radiographic studies of such collections (Moodie 1931). In 1960 P. H. K. Gray and collaborators documented the radiographic findings of some 193 ancient Egyptian mummies housed in various museums in the UK and Europe (Gray 1973), including the British Museum, the City of Liverpool Museum and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands. Since that
focus on how the study of animal mummies capitalised on advances in imaging science, which, in turn, enabled the potential of the techniques to be documented. 346 understanding egyptian mummies The imaging history of the Manchester Museum collection The Manchester Museum is both Britain’s largest university-owned museum and houses one of the largest Egyptology collections in the country. The museum contains twenty complete human mummies, numerous isolated mummified human body parts and forty-six animal mummies. Seventeen human mummies, body parts and thirty animal
have discussed the case of Tutankhamun’s mummy with undergraduates for the past few years. Of course, any discussion of Egyptian mummies necessarily involves reference to Professor Rosalie David’s contributions to the field, and it is the authors’ pleasure to have worked with her in teaching and research matters over the years. We hope that this chapter appeals to the Professor not only in terms of subject, but also as a demonstration of the value of teaching in research development – a cause that she has championed with great success, as can be seen in her
Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) I found that there was some Belzoni-related material, as well as a coffin and royal head of a statue with an acquisition date of 1819 which called for further research. For a long time it was usual to criticise 356 understanding egyptian mummies and disparage early travellers and collectors, particularly Belzoni, as little more than pillagers: this view is now rightly challenged. I hope that this chapter demonstrates how it is possible, using such narratives, to propose contexts for early acquisitions and also shed some
beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of the Nile Valley. 1 Today, owing to the rapidly evolving capabilities of modern science, their remains provide an unparalleled body of evidence through which to investigate life and death in the past. Ancient Egyptian mummies spark great public interest and imagination. Purported to possess miraculous healing properties, mummy powder became a sought-after ingredient in medicinal remedies until the validity of the claims was discredited and mummies became objects of entertainment and
and the location of the Kellis 2 cemetery. (Created by the author.) 288 understanding egyptian mummies 23.2 Excavation plan of the Kellis 2 cemetery in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. (Created by the author.) between 100 and 450 AD (Molto 2002: 243; Stewart, Molto and Reimer 2003: 376). Systematic excavations commenced in 1992 and, to date, have recovered the remains of 770 individuals (Figure 23.2). The cemetery is characterised by the presence of mud-brick enclosures, signifying mausolea, and low mud-brick mastaba-like superstructures, and it is densely filled
study, which after considerable research produced some positive results. In particular, 236 base pairs of the S. haematobium cytochrome oxidase C fragment were sequenced from the bladder tissue of an Egyptian mummy known as Besenmut, a priest in the temple of Min in Akhmim, now in Leicester (700 BC). This allowed the parasite to be located to an area and time. Other tests such as immunocytochemistry supported this result (Rutherford 2002). Today ancient DNA work is widely reported, but at the time of the schistosomiasis project (1995) the research was still in its