Media release
From: Macquarie UniversityA world-first discovery at Macquarie University published today challenges what we know about ancient Egyptian mummification and raises questions about mummified bodies held in collections worldwide.
A team led by Dr Karin Sowada, a research fellow at Macquarie’s Department of History and Archaeology, examined the layers encasing a mummified adult woman kept at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, using advanced CT scans (computed tomography).
3D visualization and cross-sectional scans revealed a carapace, or shell, encasing the body made from mud and straw sandwiched between layers of linen. Typically, this shell is made from resin, an imported material at the time. Archaeologists had not recorded the use of mud carapaces within layers of textile wrappings as a technique in Egyptian mummification before now.
“Mummified bodies in collections all over the world have been sitting right under our noses for generations. The application of new technology can reveal totally new information which challenges what we previously knew,” Dr Sowada says.
Dr Sowada was involved in conducting initial scans on the mummified body in 1999 during which the carapace was first discovered. Nearly two decades later, working with radiologist Professor John Magnussen, bio-archaeologist Professor Ronika Power and the museum’s senior curator Dr James Fraser who initiated the project, she analysed new CT scans. The improved visualisations of the body revealed more detail, enabling the discovery of the mud carapace.
Dr Timothy Murphy, a geochemist at Macquarie, helped determine that the carapace consisted of a thin base layer of mud, coated with a white calcite-based pigment and a red-painted surface of mixed composition.
Previously, researchers had discovered resinous paste and linen shells within mummy wrappings through autopsies and radiological imaging. Yet such shells are little studied and usually assumed to be made of resin, based on comparison with bodies of the Egyptian elite.
Ancient Egyptians believed that mummification helped transition the deceased from death to the afterlife and rebirth, Dr Sowada says. “Some of the bones had separated from each other, damage probably caused by ancient tomb-robbers. The family likely organised a mud carapace as a form of ancient conservation to assist her transition to the hereafter.”
Another hypothesis is that the mud carapace is an example of “elite emulation.” The deceased’s family may not have been able to afford the expensive resin which was used by Egyptian elite classes and imported from the Mediterranean coast, so they used cheaper, readily available mud - probably from the nearby Nile.
The coffin and the associated body were part of a collection by philanthropist and politician, Sir Charles Nicholson, who donated it to the University of Sydney in 1860 after he bought it during a trip to Egypt in 1856-7.
The research team partnered with Dr Geraldine Jacobsen and her team at ANSTO (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation) to radiocarbon date the linen wrappings. The ANSTO team discovered the wrappings date to the 12th century BC, around 3200 years ago. This led to the discovery that the body was older than the coffin and does not belong to it, suggesting 19th century dealers placed an unrelated body in the coffin to sell as a complete set.
“Carbon dating revealed a discrepancy of 150-200 years between the date of the mummified person and its coffin,” Dr Sowada says. “Based on the decorative style, the coffin dates to about 1000 BC. Perhaps, the dealer who sold it to Nicholson just rustled up a mummified body from another source to fill the empty coffin. The dealer probably thought a tourist wasn’t going to know the difference.”
