An ancient Egyptian coffin long believed to contain preserved organs has actually been found to hold the youngest known mummified human fetus – a 16- to 18-week-old infant believed to date back to 600 BC, officials from the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge have revealed.
According to The Guardian and Discovery News, curators at the museum had long assumed that the 17 inch (44 centimeter) long cedar wood coffin, which was originally excavated from Giza in 1907, contained the mummified remains of organs removed during the embalming process.
However, micro CT scans revealed that the tiny bundle entombed in the coffin actually belonged to a tiny fetus, no more than 18 weeks old and wrapped in bandages sealed by black resin. While its skull and pelvis had apparently collapsed, reports indicate that the long bones of both the arms and legs were visible, as were five digits on both of its hands and feet.
In a statement, the museum said that the fetus was probably the result of a miscarriage, as there were “no obvious abnormalities to explain why it could not have been carried to full-term.” They added that it was “impossible” to determine the if the preborn mummy was male or female.
Credit: Jaymes Sinclair/the Fitzwilliam Museum, Image Library
Discovery shows how ancient Egyptian culture viewed unborn children
Shortly following its excavation from Giza, the cedar wood coffin was delivered to the museum, where it entered into their collection. It is described as “a perfect miniature example” of a coffin from the Egyptian Late Period, and it is believed to date back to around 664 to 525 BC.
While the coffin is “deteriorated,” curators said that it was clearly carved with painstaking care, and while an examination using X-ray imaging technology proved inconclusive, it indicated that the coffin could have contained a small skeleton. Thus, they decided to perform a micro CT scan on the box, during which time the mummified fetal remains were discovered.
“Using noninvasive modern technology to investigate this extraordinary archaeological find has provided us with striking evidence of how an unborn child might be viewed in ancient Egyptian society,” said Julie Dawson, head of conservation at the Fitzwilliam Museum. “The care taken in the preparation of this burial clearly demonstrates the value placed on life even in the first weeks of its inception.”
The newly identified fetus is not the first such mummy discovered by archaeologists working in Egypt – a pair of mummified fetuses were discovered in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 2010 – but it is the youngest, as those mummies were 25-weeks and 37-weeks old (and are believed to have been his daughters, based on the results of DNA testing).
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Image credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
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