Egyptian Pharaoh's Mummified Body Gives Up Its Secrets After 3,500 Years (theguardian.com) 12
With his narrow chin, small nose and curly hair he physically resembles his father, said radiologist Sahar Saleem. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who lived about 3,500 years ago, he also has strikingly good teeth. From a report: Saleem is talking about the mummified body of the pharaoh Amenhotep I, a warrior king who has been something of an enigma in that he is one of the few royal mummies not to be unwrapped in modern times. Until now, that is. Saleem, a professor of radiology at the faculty of medicine at Cairo University, is part of a team which has successfully unwrapped Amenhotep I not physically but digitally. The results, using 3D computed tomography (CT) scanning technology, are unprecedented and fascinating. They provide details about his appearance and the lavishness of the jewellery he was buried with. "We show that Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died," Saleem said. âoeHe was approximately 169cm tall [5ft 6in], circumcised, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads. "Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father ... he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth."
Took him long enough (Score:2)
Had to be waterboarded quite a few times before he coughed it out though. Gotta respect that.
The most surprising part to me? (Score:4, Interesting)
Circumcised? I wasn't aware that was something the Egyptians did that far back.
Re: (Score:1)
Maybe were you live mutilation is sexy ;)
A Social History of Male Circumcision (Score:5, Informative)
Curious that they don't mention the head shape (Score:2)
The forehead recedes dramatically, and the back of the skull appear elongated. It makes you wonder if they applied one of the old "squash it between boards" technique on the infants, or whether that's the (also very traditional) Egyptian royal technique of heavy inbreeding.
Re: (Score:2)
The forehead recedes dramatically, and the back of the skull appear elongated.
Not all skull cavities were elongations were "squashed", those ones were emulations of the real thing.
In real elongated skulls there is space for an additional 200grams of brain matter which, curiously, is human in all respects via DNA analysis.
If Amenhotep I is one such individual and there is an intact brain in there it would most certainly be interesting to see if the brain is larger and occupying that space.
Isnâ(TM)t COVID enough? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Isnâ(TM)t COVID enough? (Score:5, Informative)
Genuine tomb curses are rare finds in Egyptology. For example King Tut's tomb (also 18th Dynasty like Amenhotep) doesn't actually contain any curses; the "Curse of King Tut" is entirely a pop culture thing. Of course with over 3000 years of burials, with every tomb custom decorated for its occupant's tastes and personality, you're bound to find the occasional curse; but it wasn't common, any more than curses on gravestones [pinterest.com] are common today.
We can't be sure about Amenhotep I's tomb because it was apparently robbed in antiquity and its location subsequently forgotten. We have his mummy because 21st Dynasty priests moved it to a cache of 40 mummies in tomb TT320 of the Deir el-Bahri mortuary complex. This was around 1000 BCE, or some 500 years after Amenhotep's original burial.
If there were a curse on the mummy itself, it certainly didn't affect Emil Brugsch, who removed the entire cache from TT320 in 1881 and went on to live another 49 years.
Re: (Score:2)
Genuine tomb curses are rare finds in Egyptology.
The curse is where the nose is smashed off. This is a spiritual form of desecration which prevents the soul from returning to the body.
You see it on statues and other artifacts.
3 Comments (Score:1)
1) His father, Ahmose the 1st, witnessed the effects of the eruption of Thera (now San Torini).
2) Amenhotep is a likely candidate for the Pharaoh who ordered the death of all newborn male Hebrews.
3) Please don't cite wikipedia as a source of Egyptian chronology; the subject is far more "hotly contested" than "settled science".