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A pregnant ancient egyptian mummy from the 1st century BC

Authors:
Wojciech Ejsmond
Wojciech Ejsmond
Wojciech Ejsmond
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Marzena Ożarek-Szilke at Mummy Research Center
Marzena Ożarek-Szilke
  • Mummy Research Center
Marcin Jaworski
Marcin Jaworski
Stanisław Szilke
Stanisław Szilke
Stanisław Szilke
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
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Abstract

Radiological examination of an ancient mummy said to have been found in royal tombs in Thebes, Upper Egypt, has proved it is the body of a pregnant woman. She came from the elite of Theban community and was carefully mummified, wrapped in fabrics, and equipped with a rich set of amulets. Closer examination has revealed that the woman died between 20 and 30 years of age together with the fetus in age between the 26th and 30th week of the pregnancy. This find is the only known case of an embalmed pregnant individual. This mummy provides new possibilities for pregnancy studies in ancient times, which can be compared with and related to current cases. Furthermore, this specimen sheds a light on an unresearched aspect of ancient Egyptian burial customs and interpretations of pregnancy in the context of ancient Egyptian religion.
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Please cite this article as: Wojciech Ejsmond, Journal of Archaeological Science, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105371
0305-4403/© 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
A pregnant ancient egyptian mummy from the 1st century BC
Wojciech Ejsmond
a
,
*
, Marzena O˙
zarek-Szilke
b
, Marcin Jaworski
c
,
1
, Stanisław Szilke
c
,
1
a
Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Nowy ´
Swiat 72, pok. 327, Warsaw, Poland
b
Department of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
c
Warsaw, Poland
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Egyptian mummy
Radiology
Physical anthropology
Egyptian religion
Archaeology of childhood
Non-invasive archaeology
Bioarchaeology
ABSTRACT
Radiological examination of an ancient mummy said to have been found in royal tombs in Thebes, Upper Egypt,
has proved it is the body of a pregnant woman. She came from the elite of Theban community and was carefully
mummied, wrapped in fabrics, and equipped with a rich set of amulets. Closer examination has revealed that
the woman died between 20 and 30 years of age together with the fetus in age between the 26th and 30th week
of the pregnancy. This nd is the only known case of an embalmed pregnant individual.
This mummy provides new possibilities for pregnancy studies in ancient times, which can be compared with
and related to current cases. Furthermore, this specimen sheds a light on an unresearched aspect of ancient
Egyptian burial customs and interpretations of pregnancy in the context of ancient Egyptian religion.
1. The main text
The development of research techniques of ancient mummies (see e.
g. Price et al., 2016) makes them a priceless sources that allow exami-
nation of well-preserved bodies from diverse perspectives and extracting
various information. A recent radiological research of ancient Egyptian
embalmed body preserved at the National Museum in Warsaw brought
to light substantial research material for various specialists and has a
potential to provide new data on a poorly known subject of pregnancy in
ancient times (see e.g. Cooper and Phelan 2017).
The collection of ancient Egyptian mummies preserved at the Na-
tional Museum in Warsaw has never been studied in detail before, with
the exception of some selected objects (see e.g. Urbanik et al., 2001).
The Warsaw Mummy Project was implemented in 2015 with the aim of
conducting a comprehensive analysis of all human and animal mummies
at the museum. One of the specimens has been completely reinterpreted
thanks to the current research and is the subject of this paper.
2. Provenance and history of the mummy
The mummy, its cofn, and cartonnage case (a decorated cover of the
mummy) (Figs. 1 and 2) are the property of the University of Warsaw,
deposited in the National Museum in Warsaw under the number
236805/3 since 1917/18. The object measures 162 x 42 ×28 cm. It was
acquired by Jan Wę˙
zyk–Rudzki (1792–1874) in Egypt and donated to
the University of Warsaw in December 1826 (Jaworski 2001: 49;
Doli´
nska 2003: 445). The ndspot of the mummy is uncertain as is the
itinerary of Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki’s travel. According to Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki’s letter
published in newspapers Monitor Warszawski [Warsaw’s Monitor] and
Gazeta Warszawska [Warsaw’s Newspaper] (14th and 16th of December
1826, respectively) the mummy came from the “royal tombs in Thebes”
(see also Doli´
nska 2003: 445–7), but according to Hipolit Skimbor-
owicz’s inventory of the Museum of Antiquities of the University of
Warsaw made c. 1869 (Jaworski 2001: 49 and 51) and Władysław
Noskowski’s obituary dedicated to Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki, the mummy came
from the Pyramid of Cheops in Giza (Noskowski 1874; Doli´
nska 2003:
446).
Skimbrowicz’s inventory was written many years after the mummy
was donated to the University (Jaworski 2001: 49) and there are some
errors in Noskowski’s obituary (Doli´
nska 2003: 446). Therefore,
Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki’s letter seem to be the most reliable rst-hand source.
However, in many cases antiquities were misleadingly ascribed to
famous places in order to increase their value (Doli´
nska 2003: 451), and
there are grounds to think that the mummy was not found in a royal
tomb (see below). Thus one cannot solely rely on Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki’s
statement.
The reading of the inscription on the cofn supports Wę˙
zyk-Rudzki’s
information published in the newspapers that the set came from Thebes
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Wojtek.ejsmond@wp.pl (W. Ejsmond).
1
independent scholar.
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Archaeological Science
journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2021.105371
Received 28 December 2020; Received in revised form 1 March 2021; Accepted 8 March 2021
you can download whole article here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440321000418?via%3Dihub
... In 2021, two of three original members of the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP), together with other co-authors, published a paper (Ejsmond et al. 2021a), in which they claimed that an Egyptian mummy housed in the National Museum in Warsaw (NMW) (inv. no. ...
... Saleem's scientific refute of "pregnant mummy" was based on her expertise as a paleoradiologist and mummy expert, as well as her profession as a physician specialized in fetal imaging. Based on a comparison of the images in Ejsmond et al.'s (2021a) published materials with similar images of mummies revealing embalming packs and those of mummified fetuses, Saleem rejected any fetal diagnosis and provided convincing evidence for the inaccuracy of the assessment of findings as a fetus. Because there is no fetal skeleton and the "fetal head" seems rounded rather than collapsed as would be expected, Saleem drew attention to the incorrect method employed by Ejsmond et al. to interpret a fetus. ...
... The CT images of the whole body were first made public in a promotional You-Tube video prepared by the authors of the pregnancy theory in 2022 (Abłamowicz et al. 2023). The initial publication (Ejsmond et al. 2021a) contained also a supplementary video presenting this internal radiological examination of the torso with pelvis, reformatted in the coronal plane (i.e., not the original axial images) (Appendix A 2021). ...
Innovative approach to the verification of the alleged pregnancy and cancer in the Warsaw mummy: international case study with extended research
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The collective international case study of a mummy presented in this paper is to our knowledge the first of its kind. At its core is an independent reassessment, by acknowledged professionals, of radiological material from a mummified woman (now in Warsaw) who had been claimed to have been pregnant and suffering from a neoplastic condition. Despite two studies dismissing these claims on scientific grounds, both the pregnancy and the cancer theories were repeated and sustained, overwhelming any opposing opinions in the matter. A media sensation only contributed to this. Using a cloud-based platform, the participants reexamined the original radiological data, responding to a survey questionnaire prepared for the purpose. Their independent responses consistently upheld the absence of any indications of either a fetus or cancer in the subject of study. The joint case study also provided opportunity for additional individual analysis of the last points raised by the authors of the pregnancy theory, which were dismissed as well. However, efforts at a comprehensive explanation of the pelvic contents, involving identification of the inserted material, did not prove conclusive and will be continued. Addressing issues of responsible science, a part of this study atypically concerns the role of popular media, which in this particular case affected even the scientific approach, not to mention public reception. The study is another strong call for an interdisciplinary approach in bioarchaeology, particularly in mummy studies.
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... The case of the first "pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy", as published by Ejsmond et al. (2021), has raised doubts regarding their conclusions unsupported by (paleo)radiological expertise. Their interpretation of the structures inside the pelvis of the Warsaw mummy as a fetus in the 26th-30th week of gestation has starkly demonstrated some of the pitfalls in the mummy studies. ...
... The Warsaw mummy that was recently declared to be the first ancient Egyptian mummy to be preserved with a fetus inside the womb (Ejsmond et al. 2021) has understandably dominated the scholarly discussion, not to mention attracting broad popular interest. Ejsmond and colleagues (Ejsmond et al. 2021) made their discovery of a "pregnant mummy" 1 based on imaging data produced according to state-of-the-art mummy scanning protocols, within the frame of the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP). ...
... The Warsaw mummy that was recently declared to be the first ancient Egyptian mummy to be preserved with a fetus inside the womb (Ejsmond et al. 2021) has understandably dominated the scholarly discussion, not to mention attracting broad popular interest. Ejsmond and colleagues (Ejsmond et al. 2021) made their discovery of a "pregnant mummy" 1 based on imaging data produced according to state-of-the-art mummy scanning protocols, within the frame of the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP). They proclaimed a 26-30-weekold fetus in the pelvic area, not extracted together with the other viscera (including "the heart, lungs, liver, and intestines with the stomach"; Ejsmond et al. 2021, p. 5) during the mummification process, and estimated its age based on a "head" circumference of 25 cm using modern Western feti age estimations (not to mention ultrasonography as a comparative source). ...
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The case of the first “pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy”, as published by Ejsmond et al. (2021), has raised doubts regarding their conclusions unsupported by (paleo)radiological expertise. Their interpretation of the structures inside the pelvis of the Warsaw mummy as a fetus in the 26th–30th week of gestation has starkly demonstrated some of the pitfalls in the mummy studies. In doing so, it has also accentuated the potential of an enhanced Mixed Reality (XR) technology applied to the interpretation of computed tomography (CT) results acquired through tested mummy scanning protocols. The present paper reassesses the same initial radiological data generated for the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP) that Ejsmond et al. used, applying the same software, more complex software and also enhanced by XR technology. This new approach supports the specific field of mummy studies while holding enormous potential for scientific popularization also in a museum environment. The new CT analysis by a diagnostic imaging professional, illustrated extensively with radiological images, bolstered by a review of archaeological Egyptian literature on mummies and feti, provides grounds for dismissing the fetus interpretation in lieu of a more probable identification of the relevant structure as a bundle that is more readily expected within the pelvis of a mummified body. A discussion of the assumptions made by Ejsmond et al. (fetal preservation, age, aspects of fetal methodology with relevant literature) reveals the dangers of misuse of the mummy research protocols as used today and suggests certain methodological improvements in cases of suspected fetal presence.
View
... We read with interest the reply by Prof. Sahar N. Saleem (2021) to the paper presenting the discovery of the first known case of an ancient Egyptian pregnant mummy (Ejsmond et al., 2021). The research team would like to thank her for her interest and numerous comments that allowed us to elaborate on the case. ...
... As it was described in the paper, the combination of both X-rays and CT allowed the discovery to be made. The X-ray presented in Fig. 8D in Ejsmond et al. (2021) (see Fig. 1 in the current paper) shows a dense object in the pelvic cavity (C in Fig. 1) and four objects above it in the abdomen (two under ribs, poorly visible and two below, well visible: A and B in Fig. 1). The latter objects are mummified viscera, which were returned to the body. ...
... 2-4). We present here further visualizations of the pelvic cavity, which enhance the interpretation presented in Ejsmond et al. (2021) (Fig. 3). The Fig. 3 shows the mummified remains of the fetus in utero, head (A) resting by the hip (B), the torso and legs at the back of the cavity with the hand towards the front (C), and the vertebra of the mummy of the mother below (D). ...
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View
... We read with interest the recently published article by Ejsmond et al. entitled (A Pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy from the 1st century BC) describing a fetus inside the pelvic cavity of an ancient Egyptian mummy from the first century BC (Ejsmond et al., 2021) shown by Computed Tomography (CT). The first pregnant mummy was in fact reported in 2004. ...
... Few fetuses were found mummified and individually wrapped; however, no fetuses have been reported inside an artificially mummified ancient Egyptian body (Hawass and Saleem, 2011). This makes this study (Ejsmond et al., 2021) important. ...
... The article explained the lack of identification of fetal bones by saying they must have shrunk by drying, fractures, and low consistency. The report indicated that the fetal head and body were broken, likely caused by the broken mother's pelvis (Ejsmond et al., 2021). We thoroughly studied the CT images and movies provided in the pdf and the web version of article. ...
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Ejsmond et al. described a fetus inside the pelvic cavity of an ancient Egyptian mummy from the first century BC based on a Computed Tomography (CT) study. The objective of this reply is to open a discussion about this interesting finding with the scientific community. The article based the diagnosis on the external appearance of a pelvic mass that resembled a rolled up fetus but without being able to detect any anatomical configuration or bones. We welcome the authors effort to do advanced radiological mummy studies; however, we are unconvinced by their interpretation. We believe that it is not possible to identify, with any certainty, the pelvic object in question as a fetus. The article explained lack of identification of fetal bones that they must have shrunk. In our experience, ancient Egyptian un-mummified fetal skeletons and mummies kept their anatomical details. It is very unlikely that the dense semi-rounded compact structure could be ‘a fetal head’ as assumed in the article because the skull bones during fetal life are un-fused and would have collapsed and disarticulated after death. We encourage Ejsmond et al. to revise or re-do the CT scan of the mummy with the proper protocol supervised by a paleo-radiologist, to revise/clarify the diagnosis of the ‘pregnant mummy’ and include possible differential diagnosis such as visceral packs/condensed embalming materials, or a calcified pelvic tumor.
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... Graeco-Roman mummified individuals appear in collections worldwide (e.g. [56][57][58] Museums are now reevaluating human remains, shifting from display to sensitive handling. Many institutions are removing mummified individuals and animals from exhibitions and updating internal records. ...
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