Under the chest of aancient Egyptian mummy there could be a mysterious secret hidden, perhaps a papyrus. The find, a child of about 8 years old, is not new, it had arrived in Europe in 1914, and was found among the display cases of the Archdiocesan Museum of Wroclaw, Poland. But only now has the possibility that it is more important than expected has emerged, thanks to research led by Wrocław University (Poland).
What was already known about the mummy
The age of the child and his origin have been known for some time but the cause of death remains unknown. The mummy had been brought to Wroclaw in 1914 as part of a private collection of Cardinal Adolf Bertramnominated Bishop of Wroclaw in the same year, who then donated everything to the local museum (today Archdiocesan Museum).
In 2023, at the request of theArchbishop of Wroclaw, Jozef Kupnyscientists began examining the mummy via radiographic analysisbut also to conduct research that included the history of the embalmed person and its provenance.
The preservation of soft tissue and dental development made it possible to precisely determine sex and age, but radiological analyzes also confirmed that the brain had been removed through the nasal cavity (and most of the internal organs had also been removed).
A comparison with the cardboard in which the mummy is preserved suggested instead that the mummy was originally from southern Upper Egypt, most likely from Kom Ombo, Aswan or from another necropolis in the region.
With bandages and cardboard, the mummy is 123 cm long, 28.4 cm wide at the shoulders and 15.5 cm at the feet. The head and neck are partially exposed and dark, with white salt crusts. A child’s face is visible because most of the bandages have been removed.
There is a clear layer of blackish-brown embalming substances on the head and neck, which strengthen the bandages, and the researchers hypothesize that the child’s face may have been originally covered by a mask.
That detail that attracted the attention of scientists
This is not the end of the research – explains in particular Agata Kubala, who is leading the research – We are still working on the mummy, since an x-ray revealed the presence of an object on the chest: it could be a papyrus containing, for example, the boy’s name
However, to achieve it, scientists must develop a method to remove the cartonnagean ancient Egyptian composite material, similar to papier-mâché, obtained by superimposing layers of glued, plastered and painted linen or papyrus, used as protective casing for mummies In the First Intermediate Period (between 2160 BC and approximately 2055 BC). The layer is in fact damaged and, consequently, rather fragile and vulnerable to further damage.
We are also working on a detailed reading of the iconography of the cartonnage itself, a complex task in the case of mummies from the Ptolemaic period. This will allow us to refine the dating within this era and possibly confirm our hypothesis that the Aswan region is its place of origin
Research, of course, is already underway with the aim of unravel the mystery.
The work was published on Digital Applications in Archeology and Cultural Heritage.
Sources: Wrocław University / Digital Applications in Archeology and Cultural Heritage
