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sure that people leave this room thinking about Egyptian mummies a little differently. We have met the Egyptian mummies that inhabit this museum in Chapter 2 , and on this occasion one of them has caught my attention: it is the mummy of a man who has his feet poking from the ancient wrappings, leaving the lines under his toes and his finely cut nails visible. Visitors don
21 Science in Egyptology: the scientific study of Egyptian mummies, initial phase, 1973–79 Alan Curry Ancient Egypt and its highly developed civilisation often captivate us. However, the scientific study of ancient Egyptian artefacts and mummies was uncommon before 1970. Enter Dr Rosalie David, who was appointed as Assistant Keeper of Archaeogy at the Manchester Museum in 1972. The Manchester Museum has been closely associated with the University of Manchester since the university’s inception in 1824 (Rothwell 2012: 6). Shortly after her appointment, it was
remains, and with living human beings, can only be authentic with a full awareness of all the stories that inhabit the museum, and its manifestations in other cultural forms, even if those stories are uncomfortable. As you have read these pages, you may have learnt some stories that do not sit quite right with you – stories that are not the ones you have heard before about Egyptian mummies, Egyptology and
certainly more interested in the mixing of these earlier populations, and this has been a recurring question in various studies subsequently. Strouhal (1968), for instance, considered the question of population mixing and viewed the X group people of Wadi Qitna to be a mixed group, but mainly black Africans. Without far more population studies, the people extending along the Nile might be thought of as purely North African and Mediterranean 230 understanding egyptian mummies in appearance. In fact, the degree of homogeneity and the origins of the genes of these
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