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 …
"Mummy of a falcon, the era of the Ptolemies (IV-I centuries BC)."
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. Research has shown that this exhibit is approximately 2,100 years old, and that the skeleton of a newborn baby is hidden under the mummy's shell. 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.
The contents of the mummy.
Then, in 2016, experts claim that it was a boy of 23-28 weeks. This year, one of the researchers decided to delve deeper into research. Together with the museum and Nikon Metrology UK, the researchers designed 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.
With the help of a high-precision scanner, it was possible to find out new details about the mummy.
And all these efforts were rewarded: indeed, the 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 most likely never formed at all.
With the help of a scanner, scientists were able to find out the approximate age of the child.
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Apart from the problems with the skull, the rest of the body was perfectly formed. Anencephaly is a fairly 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 just the second case known about: the previous similar mummy was described in works almost two centuries ago - in 1826. Due to the fact that this practice was not widespread at the time, scientists suggest that such a mummy could serve for some kind of magical and religious purposes, most likely as a talisman.
The mummified child had an undeveloped brain, and the bones of the skull were not formed at all.
“Probably, it was very sad and tragic for the parents then to see such a strange child instead of a living and well-formed one. Perhaps they thought him so special that they even decided to mummify him."