Researchers discover how ancient Egyptians put the mummy of a noblewoman into a seemingly seamless coffin.
Mummy of Lady Chenet-aa. Image: Field Museum
The Field Museum in Chicago is home to more than a dozen ancient Egyptian mummies, but one mummy in particular has puzzled researchers for years. Now, the mystery of the burial process of the mummy named Lady Chenet-aa seems to have been discovered thanks to computer tomography, Popular Science reported on October 29.
Lady Chenet-aa lived 3,000 years ago during the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period. Not long after her death, funeral experts prepared to transport her to the afterlife by creating a cartonnage, a papier-mâché-like material, to contain her body. However, Chenet-aa’s case lacks any visible signs of seams, so Egyptologists wonder exactly how the embalmer placed her inside the box.
“The cartonnage coffin on the inside appears to be one piece and smooth without any outer seams (unlike the outer coffin made from wood). If you look at the shape of the cartonnage box, the opening at the base too narrow for the mummy’s shoulders to fit through,” said HP Brown, conservation expert at the Field Museum.
Computed tomography (CT) creates 3D images of objects by digitally stacking thousands of X-ray scans on top of each other. Over four days, researchers transported 26 mummies (including Chenet-aa) to a mobile machine parked outside the Field Museum. The images obtained help them speculate how the burial participants placed Chenet-aa inside the seemingly one-piece box.
According to Brown, ancient people made incisions in the back of the cartonnage and softened the material with moisture to make it supple. After standing the mummy upright and tying it to a pole with a thin rope. Brown believes they lowered the coffin over Chenet-aa’s head before connecting the incision with twine. After the cartonnage coffin became solid, they poured plaster on top,” Brown explained. The paint on the outer cartonnage layer was decorated and polished while the mummy was still placed in an upright position. After completion. , Chenet-aa was ready for burial.
CT scans provide new details about Chenet-aa’s health in the final days of his life. According to the research team, the noblewoman died in her late 30s or early 40s, although they have not been able to determine the cause of her death. Some of her teeth were missing when she died, while the remaining teeth showed signs of wear. Experts believe that the cause lies in a diet that includes salt grains in food that are too rough for tooth enamel.
Next year, researchers hope to continue examining thousands of CT scans to learn more about life in ancient Egypt.