pickled fetus there is a special radiology machine at the department of archaeology
at the university of warsaw in poland one that x-rays the bones and organs of the dead
rather than the living it is part of the warsaw mummy project that was established
in 2015 to study 40 ancient human and animal mummies that were kept in the national museum
of warsaw the project's mission to study diseases that might have occurred in antiquity
including bone diseases metabolic disorders vascular issues parasitic diseases and cancer
a respected radiology team dedicates their days to the specific art of taking x-rays and cat scans of
egyptian mummies mostly these mummies are all the same embalmed with the same materials and
dead from the usual causes smallpox polio kidney disease and black lung however sometimes a warsaw
team investigation reveals an astonishing surprise a perfectly preserved one-of-a-kind fight such as
the two humans found in a sarcophagus that was supposed to contain the holy remains of a priest
the egyptian mummies that are delivered to the warsaw mummy project from the warsaw
national museum are thousands of years old and very delicate their bodies are shipped
in their original sarcophagus wrapped in linen layers packed with sawdust
their torsos are stuffed with myrrh cassia and nyle mud the goal is to disturb these precious
corpses as little as possible before returning them to their original display cases at the museum
the warsaw mummy project offered researchers the opportunity to practice non-invasive archaeology
because they did not have to touch the corpse after all there is always the risk
that the disturbance of the linens could cause the ancient embalmed human remains to crumble to dust
you can tell a mummy by its coffin one of the purposes of using radiology to examine mummies
is to identify the deceased nobody knows exactly who they once were or where they were from as
centuries of tomb robbing and conquest resulted in corpses being switched from one coffin to another
this means that anybody from a pharaoh to a slave to a conquering greek or roman warrior
could be found inside the many sarcophaguses delivered to the warsaw lab
however in april 2021 the team of radiologists belonging to the warsaw mummy project
accepted a mummy into their lap whose remains were believed to date back to the first century bc
the decorative sarcophagus was discovered in thebes in 1826 the warsaw team first
thought the mummy was a somewhat poorly male mostly because there was an inscription on
the sarcophagus that identified the contents as being the remains of an egyptian priest however
x-rays and cat scans soon revealed the truth of what was inside the linen funerary wrappings
this mummy turned out to be a mommy initial scans revealed that this mummy had very long curly hair
that flowed past her shoulders which was not unusual for a male egyptian in 1st century bc
the warsaw team then noticed that the mummy was lacking a male genital which was not that unusual
either as castration was a common form way to make a man into a loyal slave in a royal or high-class
household however what really made them realize that they had found something truly unusual
was the fact that they could see a tiny foot a little arm and then the head of the fetus
this discovery was a complete surprise because we were looking for ancient
diseases or causes of death stated wojcie esman co-director of a warsaw mummy project
instead of the expected priest whose name was hor jihudi they found the world's first
mummified pregnant woman lurking in the lower torso although the skeletons of pregnant egyptian
women have been found before there has never been one with a fetus with embalmed tissue
this pregnant female was believed to be between 20 and 30 years old when she died
based on the measurement of the circumference of its head the fetus was believed to be 6.5 to
7.5 months old which means that she was not that far away from giving birth when she expired
the fact that the fetus was already a formed person in her womb also makes this discovery
the first time scientists have found two people together in the same sarcophagus
the mysterious lady of the national museum in warsaw
the strange circumstances that led to this young pregnant woman's internment of a high priest's
sarcophagus earned her the nickname the mysterious lady of the national museum in warsaw however as
the warsaw team continued to study her remains they found out a few more curious things about her
first of all the researchers noticed that the fetus had never been removed from the body
wrapped in linens and then returned to the body as would be the usual way to handle a uterus
the scans showed the usual four mummified bundles inside of her body the lungs liver stomach with
intestines and heart however for some reason the embalmers did not touch the uterus or the fetus
inside of it one theory that a baby without a name may have not been considered a distinct individual
and thus not yet human the embalmers may have left the fetus attached to the body of the mother
so that the gods in the afterlife could decide what to do with it yet another theory is based
on the idea that the embalmers were forbidden to damage a corpse during the funerary process
the uterus supporting a fetus of that age would have been very thick and hard
and difficult to remove without damaging the mother's uterus another suggestion is that this
particular infant was a secret that could be named perhaps the embalmers were paid off to ignore the
fetus as if it wasn't there if the pregnancy threatened a rich man's career the priests may
have agreed to conceal her identity by burying her and her fetus in one of their own sarcophaguses
it is not clear why she or her fetus died but it is apparent that she had a high social standing
because she was buried with a rich set of amulets to protect her during her journey
through the afterlife the next step in revealing the secrets that this lady took to her grave
would be for the scientists to do blood tests and analyze the fetus tissue to discover why she
died and how the fetus managed to stay so well preserved in her uterus without mummification
the fetus was pickled inside its egyptian mummy in january 2022 archaeologists were still conducting
their investigation of the mysterious lady of the national museum in warsaw using
tomographic technology and a three-dimensional reconstruction of the body of the dead woman
they have yet to determine the mother's cause of death or whether or not the fetus is a girl or boy
however they were able to determine that the fetus survived intact for centuries
because it was pickled in the womb according to new research by the warsaw mummy project
the baby was pickled in the womb thanks to the egyptian habit of embalming corpses with netron
this is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate
neutron was harvested directly from dry lake beds near indonesia and used to dry
out corpses natron is also a natural desiccant which would aid in the drying out of corpses
as sodium is basically salt it began to mix with the blood ph of the mysterious lady's corpse
becoming more acidic and forming a protective seal around the uterus preventing the fetus from being
rotted away by oxygen however the bones of the fetus did demineralize and completely dissolve
in this acid brine the warsaw team also determined that the mysterious lady did not die in childbirth
instead mother and child somehow died together only to be discovered 3 000 years later by
modern tomography the secret infant is huddled deep inside its eternal cradle with its remains
still undisturbed thanks to the miracle of modern technology while still interred in its mysterious
thebe and mother the fetus will probably end up on display in the national museum of warsaw
along with the rest of the country's collection of 40 egyptian mummies