While theories abound as to the reasons this method was used, one possibility is that the mud covering was meant to be a budget attempt at replicating the resin-based procedure of embalmment employed by the ultra rich, who were often mummified with imported resin from the late New Kingdom to the 21st Dynasty, roughly the period from 1294 B.C. to 945 B.C.
"Mud is a more affordable material," explained the project's lead researcher Karin Sowada, of the Department of History and Archaeology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
Credit: Sowada et al, PLOS ONE
Besides the crunchy mud shell protecting the corpse, this particular mummy of a woman who died between the ages of 26 and 35 appeared to have been damaged after its demise and was found lying in an incorrect coffin intended for a female who had perished much more recently.