New analysis of a more than 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy has revealed a rare mud carapace (shell), a study suggests.
Studies of mummified bodies from the late New Kingdom to the 21st Dynasty (around 1294-945 BC) have occasionally reported a hard resinous shell protecting the body within its wrappings.
This is especially the case for royal mummies of the period.
Researchers have now described the discovery of a rare painted mud carapace enclosing an adult mummy in Chau Chak Wing Museum, Sydney, Australia.
In addition to its practical restorative purpose, the authors suggest the mud carapace gave those who cared for the deceased the chance to emulate elite funerary practices of coating the body in an expensive imported resin shell with cheaper, locally available materials.
Analysis of Ancient Egyptian Mummy Reveals Unusual Mud Ritual
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3D-rendered CT scans of the mummy. (Image: K. Sowada et al., 2021/PLOS One)
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The discovery of a hardened mud carapace wrapped around a 3,200-year-old mummy has brought a previously unknown ancient Egyptian burial practice to light.
The mud carapace a shell-like casing was identified on an Egyptian mummy kept at the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney in Australia. Carapaces on mummies have been documented before, but they’re made from resins or a combination of resins mixed with other substances, such as bitumen, explained Karin Sowada, the lead author of the new study and an archaeologist from Macquarie University, in an email. Her new paper, pub
In ancient Egypt, the must-have fashion for any royal mummy taking a trip to the afterlife was a resin shell to cover your wrapped remains. But what to do if you can t get your hands on these expensive and imported resin carapaces? Just use mud, obviously.
Archaeologists restudying an ancient Egyptian mummy recently discovered it’s an extremely rare example of an individual who appears to be preserved in textile wrappings and good old-fashioned mud. One theory behind this “muddy mummy” is that it s an example of elite emulation, a lower-cost alternative to the pricy resin shells found in the wrappings of royal bodies from this period.
In a case of potential mistaken mummy identity, scientists uncover clues
You know how clothing stores prop up mannequins in windows, showing off the fashionable goods they have to offer? That might be the explanation behind a case of mistaken mummy identity.
During a trip to Egypt in the late 1850s, Sir Charles Nicholson an English Australian antiquarian, university founder and philanthropist bought a mummified body, coffin and mummy board, which he donated to the University of Sydney in 1860, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
The mummy was a socially esteemed woman named Meruah, according to the coffin inscription that dates back to around 1000 BC. A separate group of researchers discovered the coffin’s age in 1988.
An unusual mud-wrapped mummy is leading archaeologists to rethink how nonroyal Egyptians preserved their dead.
CT scans of an Egyptian mummy from around 1200 B.C. reveal that the body is sheathed in a mud shell between its layers of linen wrappings. Ancient Egyptians may have used this preservation technique, never before seen in Egyptian archaeology, to repair damage to the mummified body and mimic royal burial customs, researchers report February 3 in
PLOS ONE.
While the mummy’s legs are caked with mud about 2.5 centimeters thick, the mud over its face is spread as thin as 1.5 millimeters. Chemical analyses of mud flakes from around the head indicate that the mud layer is covered in a white, possibly limestone-based pigment, topped with a red mineral paint.