Scientists: The fetus inside the mummy of the mysterious Egyptian lady is preserved because it was “pickled”
Scientists: The fetus inside the mummy of the mysterious Egyptian lady is preserved because it was “pickled”
– A new study by Polish scientists shows that an embryo inside a 2,000-year-old pregnant mummy found last year, known as the Mysterious Lady, was preserved because the woman’s body was oxidized as it decomposed.
In April 2021, Polish archaeologists presented for the first time the discovery of a mummified fetus in the womb of its ancient Egyptian mother. Who this woman was and how she died is still a mystery, but now it is possible to find out how the fetus was preserved.
According to the researchers, this process is similar to pickling an egg. “The fetus remained in the healthy womb and began, for example, ‘pickled.’ This is not the most aesthetic comparison, but it conveys the main idea,” bioarchaeologist Marzena Ozarek-Zelke of the University of Warsaw and archaeologist Wojciech Esmond of the Polish Academy of Sciences write in their blog.
The acidity of the blood in corpses, including the contents of the uterus, increases over time with an increase in the concentration of ammonia and formic acid. Placing the body and filling it with natron (a natural mixture of salts collected from the bottom of a dry lake, which the ancient Egyptians used to dry and disinfect corpses) significantly limited the access of air and oxygen. The end result of this process is an airtight uterus that contains the fetus.”
The fact that Polish archaeologists actually found the fetus was questioned by radiologist Sahar Salem of Cairo University in Egypt, who indicated that there were no visible bones in the mummy photos, so identification of the fetus seemed doubtful.
But Marzina Ozarek and her group assure that there is nothing unexpected in this. Fetal bones are very weak in minerals, which means they are difficult to detect after undergoing preservation operations. Fetal bones are rarely found even in traditional archaeological excavations.
In addition, the oxidative processes that were supposed to take place inside the mysterious lady’s body as her body was decomposing had further demineralized the already delicate bones of the fetus. This is similar to the natural mummification process that occurs in peat bogs, where the highly acidic environment “picks” the soft tissues but strips minerals from the bones.
Previous analysis showed that the mystery lady was between 20 and 30 years old when she died, her pregnancy lasted from 26 to 30 weeks, and the death did not occur during childbirth.
An article about this was published in the Journal of Archaeological Sciences.
