How Ancient Embalmers Pulled The Brains And Guts Out Of Mummies

by Pavithra Mohan 15 November 2013

We’ve unearthed mummy upon mummy from Egypt, the oldest dating back to 3500BC, but one thing has remained a bit of a mystery: what does the mummification process actually entail from a surgical point of view? How did they remove the brains, guts, and other vital organs — what tools did they use and how did they train for it? One anthropologist thinks he’s found out.

Much like a 46-million-year-old mosquito fossilised mid-meal, Egyptian mummification has long provided us embalmed snapshots of an ancient way of life. Just last week, we found out why King Tut’s mummy had not been preserved in the most kingly fashion: his body seemingly experienced ignition inside its sarcophagus due to a flammable cocktail of oxygen, embalming oils, and combustible linens.

One myth of mummy-making has long appealed to our, or perhaps just my, gross sensibilities: mushy brain parts were usually removed from Egyptian mummies and flushed out through the nose, we’ve been told. And that’s not all: more often than not, they were disemboweled and rid of their internal organs as well, to stop decomposition.

In a paper published in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, Dr. Andrew Wade at the University of Western Ontario investigated the literal ins and outs of organ-removal techniques. Wade looked at films and forensic scans from a sample of 50 human Egyptian mummies, noting that there were two main methods of both excerebration (brain removal) and evisceration (body organ removal). Occurrences of brain and organ removal actually increased over time, as mummification was expanded to non-royals.

Nefertiti as sensual goddess

Lecturer details research suggesting more complex role for Egyptian queen

By Valerie Vande Panne, Harvard Correspondent

In history, the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti is depicted as a powerful, independent woman. Her bust, on display at the Neues Museum in Berlin, is one of the most reproduced works of ancient Egypt.

But Jacquelyn Williamson, visiting lecturer on women’s studies and Near Eastern studies and women’s studies in religion program research associate at Harvard Divinity School (HDS), suggests that Nefertiti wasn’t quite who people imagine she was, and eventually was revered as something of a sex goddess.

Nefertiti is “often represented as a powerful and independent figure,” said Williamson, and has a “reputation as being a uniquely strong queen.”

“I expected images of her smiting the heads of the enemies of Egypt, an act usually reserved for the king,” said Williamson, who has identified a temple that she believes was the queen’s. “She is shown in the tombs of the elite at Amarna at a natural height to the king.”

Amenhotep IV became king when Egypt was wealthy and its empire was strong, covering territory from as far north as Syria to as far south as Sudan. He worshipped the sun god Re, whose visible manifestation in the daytime sky was known as the Aten. He gave this god prominence. When Amenhotep took the throne, he became Akhenaten, or “one who is effective for the Aten.”

Museum Pieces - Shabti of Akhenaten

Almost nothing remains of the burial equipment of Akhenaten. However, many Shabtis near his tomb were found. The Shabti shows Akhenaten, who can be identified by its characteristic features. Inscriptions were probably on the lower part of the Shabti, now missing. The King is wearing the nemes headscarf with Uraeus and the King beard. 

Shabtis were intended to perform work that the deceased was called upon to do in the afterlife. More than two hundred shabti fragments inscribed for Akhenaten are known, and their existence suggests that belief in the afterlife and certain aspects of traditional funerary practices survived during the Amarna period. However, Akhenaten's shabtis are inscribed only with the king's names and titles, not the standard shabti text.

Quartzite, fine-grained, white

H 12.78 cm, W 8.1 cm, D 5.7 cm 

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, Egyptian - Oriental Collection

Inv AE_INV_10166

Sources: http://www.khm.at/en/visit/collections/egyptian-and-near-eastern-collection/selected-masterpieces/?cHash=dfb045333efd096a1ea1afd262c4a608

http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefact?id=316945

Pyramid-Age Love Revealed in Vivid Color in Egyptian Tomb

By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor   |   November 15, 2013

She was a priestess named Meretites, and he was a singer named Kahai, who performed at the pharaoh's palace. They lived about 4,400 years ago in an age when pyramids were being built in Egypt, and their love is reflected in a highly unusual scene in their tomb — an image that has now been published in all its surviving color.

Inside a tomb dating back to the age of the Pyramids in Egypt held this image, an embrace between a priestess and her husband, a singer in the pharaoh's palace. The image has been recorded by researchers in full color.

Credit: Photo by Ms. Effy Alexakis, copyright Macquarie University Ancient Cultures Research Centre

The tomb at Saqqara — which held this couple, their children and possibly their grandchildren — has now been studied and described by researchers at Macquarie University's Australian Center for Egyptology. Among the scenes depicted is a relief painting showing the couple gazing into each other's eyes, with Meretites placing her right hand over Kahai's right shoulder.

Such a display of affection was extraordinary for Egypt during the Pyramid Age. Only a few examples of a face-to-face embrace survive from the Old Kingdom (2649 B.C. to 2150 B.C.), the time period when the couple lived and pyramid building thrived, said Miral Lashien, a researcher at Macquarie University. "I think that this indicates very special closeness," Lashien told LiveScience in an email.

Tutankhamun's sister goes missing

Alert issued after 'Daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten' - Tutankhamun's sister - is stolen alongside hundreds of other exhibits in Egypt

By Richard Spencer, Mallawi, Egypt

Egypt has issued an international alert for the return of an exquisite statuette of Tutankhamun's sister, stolen with hundreds of other exhibits when a museum was looted amid clashes between police and Islamists this summer.

The carved limestone figurine of "A Daughter of the Pharaoh Akhenaten", dating from the 14th Century BC, has not been found since the destruction in August of the Mallawi City Museum in central Egypt.

Photocredit: The Telegraph

Experts fear that under the cover of days of riots it was stolen to order. It was Mallawi's prize exhibit, and due to be transferred to a new museum currently being built nearby to honour the family of Akhenaten, one of Egypt's most celebrated and unusual pharaohs as well as Tutankhamun's father.

During the riots in the town which followed the violent dispersal of protests in Cairo on Aug 14 and the killing of hundreds of Islamist supporters of the president, Mohammed Morsi, looters walked off with everything that could be carried from the museum - around 1,000 pieces in all.

More than 600 have been returned or seized by police. But hundreds of fine pieces, including a collection of Greek gold coins, statues of ibises, the birds still common to the region which were held in reverence in pharaonic times, and the figure of the princess have still not been recovered.

Some archaeologists believe the raid may have been orchestrated with her statue in mind. Relics of the Akhenaten era, source of the most celebrated finds of ancient Egypt, fetch the highest prices on the international black market and families of antiquities smugglers are known to operate in the area.

"I think the looters knew what they were taking," said Monica Hanna, an Egyptian archaeologist prominent in the campaign to prevent the desecration of its historic sites.

King Tut Death by Chariot? Not So Fast

by Rossella Lorenzi

King Tutankhamun’s death is a mystery which may never be solved, says a new study on the best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

The study indirectly dismisses a recent theory which ascribed King Tut's demise to a horrific chariot accident. According to the claim, which was detailed on Sunday in a new British documentary, the high-speed chariot crash would have smashed the boy king's rib cage and many of his internal organs, including his heart.

"It is not the first time that this mode of death has been mentioned," Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, told Discovery News.

"I wonder how could they say his internal organs were crushed. We won't know until the canopic jars housing his organs are examined," she said.

Frank Rühli, Head of the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, agreed.

"Moreover, the mechanism of explanation for the accident is not fully provable," Rühli told Discovery News.

According to the researchers, the diagnosis of trauma caused by a chariot accident is one of the many hypothesis about King Tut's death for which not enough evidence can be found.

Wednesday Weekly # 9

Welcome to the Wednesday Weekly, your weekly dose of links to Egyptology news, articles, blogs, events and more.


DR. MGNH

New blog:

A female administrator in ancient Egypt
http://drmgnh.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/a-female-administrator-in-ancient-egypt/

HAIR AND DEATH IN ANCIENT EGYPT

by María Rosa Valdesogo Martín

Secular Mourning vs. Ritual Mourning. An Egyptian Custom.
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/secular-mourning-vs-ritual-mourning/

Data Collection on Mourning Hair in Ancient Egypt
http://hairanddeathinancientegypt.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/956/

EGYPT AT THE MANCHESTER MUSEUM

Study Day 08/02/2014: Sons of Osiris - Men in Ancient Egypt
http://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/study-day-08022014-sons-of-osiris-men-in-ancient-egypt/

Study Day 23/11/13: South Asasif Conservation Project in Context
http://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/study-day-231113-south-asasif-conservation-project-in-context/

AHRAM ONLINE

by Nevine El-Aref

Egyptian government deploys armed guards at remote temple sites
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/85915/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Egyptian-government-deploys-armed-guards-at-remote.aspx

Egypt recovers 90 stolen antiquities from Israel
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/86032.aspx

EGYPTOLOGICAL

Check out new updates:

http://egyptological.com/

THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES

Tentative schedule for The SSEA/SÉÉA's Annual General Meeting weekend, Jan 9-12, 2014
http://www.thessea.org/news.php#249

HAARETZ

by Julia Fridman

How a Canaanite goddess conquered ancient Egypt
http://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium-1.557382

THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Recruitment information:

Curator: Egyptian Written Culture

You will be responsible for undertaking research and documentation on the collection of inscribed material from ancient Egypt, and expected to develop research programmes and seek external funding to support these. A primary focus will be the significant collections of papyri and ostraca (hieratic, demotic), but the post holder will also have the opportunity to work across other inscribed material in the collection. The curator will also be expected to place Egyptian written culture within a broader context of writing across other cultures.

More info:
https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?SID=amNvZGU9MTM4MDk3MSZ2dF90ZW1wbGF0ZT02NzImb3duZXI9NTAyNzczNSZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZicmFuZF9pZD0wJnJlcXNpZz0xMzg0MTcxNjU2LTQ5ZGU2YjdmYzAyYWJjZWE4MGQ2MmFhN2MwY2I0YWZmYTAyZGNhZGY

EGYPTIAN'S

New blogpost by Timothy Reid:

A Burnt Tutankhamun
http://tim-theegyptians.blogspot.nl/2013/11/a-burnt-tutankhamun.html

LUXOR TIMES

New additions to the blog:

Two New Kingdom statues discoverd at Montu temple in Armant
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2013/11/two-new-kingdom-statues-discovered-at.html

"The Revival of the Egyptian Museum"
http://luxortimesmagazine.blogspot.nl/2013/11/the-revival-of-egyptian-museum.html

HERITAGE DAILY

Egypt - Past and Present
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/11/egypt-past-and-present/99576