Ancient Egyptians who could not afford expensive embalming resin may have used mud instead
CT scans of a mummy from an Australian museum shows the body was covered with a thin painted shell beneath its wrappings.
An ancient Egyptian mummy’s painted mud shell may have been a budget-conscious way of copying elite embalming methods, write researchers in the science journal Plos One.
The Art Newspaper
February 3, 2021
© Sowada et al, PLOS ONE, courtesy Chau Chak Wing Museum and Macquarie Medical Imaging
The shell, found under the mummy’s wrappings, was first identified in 1999, but has only now been fully revealed thanks to modern CT scans. It covers the entire body, and was painted white over the head and red over the face. The study also revealed that the mummy—held in the collection of the Chau Chak Wing Museum in Sydney, Australia—is probably that of a woman, who was 26 to 35 years old when she died around 1200-1113 BC.
Related articles
The Art Newspaper
- Mummified llamaas, sacrificed to the gods by Incas, uncovered by archaeologists in Peru (October 2020)
- Steep commute gave ancient Egyptian workers osteoarthritis (November 2016)
Apollo Magazine
- Have scientists solved a mummy murder mystery? (February 2021)
- Meet the mummies: cultural ambassadors from beyond the grave (February 2019)
Science Magazine
- Human blood, organs and a surprising virus detected in ancient pottery (December 2016)
- Stone-age Italians defleshed their dead (March 2015)
Rawi: Egypt's Heritage Review
- The Curious Tale of King Seqenenre Tao (July 2013)
The Independent
- Egypt's desert whales (June 2012)