What the Egyptian "Falcon Mummy" Really Hides

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For a very long time this museum piece from Egypt was in the British Maidstone Museum, signed as "Mummy of a falcon, the era of the Ptolemies (IV-I centuries BC)." Only in 2016, with the help of X-rays, it was found out that in fact this mummy is not hiding a bird, but a tiny human child. And this year, the research continued and found out even more sentimental details of this mummy …

The fact that scientists for a long time thought that the mummy hides the bodies of a bird under it is not at all surprising: this mummy is very small in size and is decorated with a hunting bird. Studies have shown that the age of this exhibit is approximately 2,100 years, and the skeleton of a newborn child is hidden under the shell of the mummy. Previously, such assumptions were not even made, since there are so few cases of mummification of children that it was difficult even to assume that this is one of them, especially given the size of the mummy.

Then, in 2016, experts claim that it was a 23-28 week old boy. This year, one of the researchers decided to delve deeper into research. Together with the museum and Nikon Metrology UK, the researchers constructed a high-precision micro-CT scanner that allowed a high-resolution image of everything inside the mummy. Such a scanner was needed so that it was not necessary to physically unfold the mummy, but to do all the research without damaging it.

And all these efforts were rewarded: indeed, scientists managed to establish what was previously unknown. It turned out that the skull of the mummified child was terribly deformed. The doctors found out that the child most likely had anencephaly. The top of the skull was barely formed, the ear bones were almost at the back of the head, and the brain was most likely never formed at all.

Apart from the problems with the skull, the rest of the body was perfectly formed. Anencephaly is a rather rare fetal defect that develops in early pregnancy. Scientists associate its appearance with a lack of vitamins (vegetables and herbs in the diet) of the mother. Children with this defect are most often born dead or live for only a few hours after birth.

In total, scientists know no more than 8 cases of mummification of children in ancient Egypt. As for the mummification of a child with anencephaly, this is only the second case known about: the previous similar mummy was described in works almost two centuries ago - in 1826. Due to the fact that such a practice was not widespread at the time, scientists suggest that such a mummy could serve for some magical and religious purposes, most likely as a talisman.

“Probably, it was very sad and tragic for parents then to see such a strange child instead of a living and well-formed one. Perhaps they thought he was so special that they even decided to mummify him."

In China, people were also mummified, but this was extremely rare. So, perhaps we would never have known about Xin Zhui if she had not been mummified after her death. The body of this Chinese woman was amazingly preserved 2100 years after her death, and today over mystery mummy Lady Dai scientists are puzzling.