A suspect fake mummy presently on presentation in Wales is in fact the veridical mickle — and it contain a foetus 12 to 16 workweek into development . The noteworthy finding indicates that the deaths of untried children as well as miscarriages were not treated nonchalantly .
cognise as W1013 , the 20 - column inch artefact is a case made of cartonnage — layers of linen paper stiffened with adhesive plaster or glue — and belongs to the Wellcome accumulation at Swansea University ’s Egypt Center , which houses more than 5,000 objects . Most of them were amass by the Victorian pharmaceutical entrepreneur and archeologist Sir Henry Wellcome on archeological site in Egypt .
The flyspeck mummy come to Swansea in 1971 , but nothing is know about where Wellcome obtained it .
A Potential Forgery
The mummy has long dumbfound expert . It is colorfully decorated in a fashion dating back to the 26th Dynasty , around 600 B.C. The inconclusive results of an X - beam of light carried out in 1998 combined with meaningless inscriptions painted on the cartonnage subject , suggested the mummy could have been a nineteenth century forgery .
“ But it ’s not unusual for sham hieroglyphs to be invest on coffins . doubtlessly this would show that the maker of the art object was not literate , ” conservator Carolyn Graves - Brown told Discovery News .
Further research solved the mystery .
A Secret Revealed
Last month , Swansea University ’s Paola Griffiths of the Clinical Imaging College of Medicine , CT scan the artefact . It was then revealed the majority of the Interior Department of the case is take up by what is likely linen paper patch .
Within those fold strips of material , the CT scan express a dark region about 3 inches long which researchers name as a fetus in fetal position and with a placental theca . What could be the fetus ’s femoris was also identified .
“ The distance of the femur together with the size of it of the benighted eyepatch is consistent with that of a 12 to 16 - hebdomad - old fetus , ” Graves - Brown said . “ Another benighted patch suggests the comportment of an amulet and there are several areas with dark rope resemble string of beads or tassels . ”
dress with criss - hybridizing pattern of rhombus conformation perhaps imitate the bead web placed over some other mammy , the cartonnage grammatical case might bring home the bacon some clues on the unborn child ’s sex . The aspect is painted in reddish - brown , a color usually associated with man . Moreover , the arduous , yellow and blue striped wigging and wide collar are most common on manlike coffin .
But Graves - Brown cautions : “ As the foetus is only 12 - 16 weeks and is not in a perfect state of preservation I would not guess the sex , ” he order .
Deaths Treated With Reverence
The determination revealed the care with which even the fetus was treated in ancient Egypt .
“ For example , two coffin holding fetus were found in the grave of Tutankhamun . In New Kingdom ( around 1550 - 1070 B.C. ) Deir el - Medina , a part of the Eastern cemetery seems to have been set aside for tike burials , but also fetuses and even placentas in bloody cloths , ” Graves - Brown read .
The fact that fetuses and infants were buried with such care indicate that death of immature children as well as miscarriages were not treated casually .
“ We can imagine that the probable foetus within W1013 represents someone ’s awful loss ; an function of great grief and public mourning , ” Graves - Brown said .
effigy : The mummy mask and the CT scan showing the foetus . acknowledgment : Carolyn Graves - Brown / Swansea University ’s Egypt Center .
This articleoriginally appearedat Discovery News and is republished here with permission .
ArchaeologyEgyptologymummiesScience
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