May 03, 2021 03:55 PM EDT
A first of its kind discovery was recently reported to have come out of a comprehensive study by scientists of Poland on an Egyptian mummy dating back to 1st century BCE. For decades, it was believed that the said mummy was of a male priest after being X-rayed at a medical center in Otwock, Poland, in 2015.
However, a recent finding confirmed that the body belongs to a pregnant woman, unfolding an unexpected turn of event that was missed out on for decades.
A research group called the Warsaw Mummy Project has been conducting an examination of more than 40 mummies at the National Museum in Warsaw, which started in 2015. After decades of research, the new finding was said to be absolutely unexpected , according to Dr. Wojciech Ejsmond, an archaeologist who led the research team.
Apr 30, 2021 03:40 PM EDT
The first remnants of an ancient Egyptian mummified pregnant woman has been discovered, having been found in Thebes, dating back over 2,000 years.The dead body was 28 weeks into her pregnancy when she passed on, scans of the body showed.
(Photo : Getty Images)
The Warsaw Mummy Project
Scientists working as part of the Warsaw Mummy Project from the Polish Academy of Sciences, worked to get more information about the woman, assumed to be in her 20s. Through X-rays and CT scans combination, the team found the remnants of a fetus, that is around 26 to 30 weeks old, inside the woman - the first time a mummy that is pregnant has been found.
The first known pregnant Egyptian mummy has been discovered, surprising researchers studying the body of what was thought to be a male priest. Not only is this the first known deliberately mummified pregnant woman, but it also raises fascinating questions about who this woman was, whether this practice was rare, and even what it might mean for Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife.
Researchers from the Warsaw Mummy Project were just about wrapping up (sorry) research on about 40 mummies at the National Museum in Warsaw, Poland, when something in a scan of a mummy thought to have been a priest named Hor-Djehuty caught their eye: a tiny foot.
May 3, 2021 The patient presented after 3,000 years. X-ray and CT scans revealed first that this was not a male scribe and priest, as suspected, but in fact a woman about 25 years old, possibly a society elite from a vast necropolis in Thebes in Upper Egypt.
Moreover, the woman was pregnant when she was mummified.
The find is the only known case of an embalmed pregnant woman, according to Polish researchers from the National Museum in Warsaw, who published results of the investigation April 28 in the
Journal of Archeological Science. The discovery opens possibilities for a new understanding of pregnancy in ancient times, the development of fetuses, and the taphonomic processes of fetuses as well as uteruses.