The mummy of Amenhotep I was never before unwrapped.
The royal mummies of the 19th and 20th centuries have been opened for study. The mummy of Pharaoh Amenhotep I has never been opened because of a mythical curse. For the first time, scientists from Egypt have used three-dimensionalCT scanning to unwrap a royal mummy. They report their findings in a journal.
This was the first time Amenhotep's mummy had been opened in three thousand years. His original mummification and burial took place in the 11th century BCE. During the 21st dynasty, priests restored and reburied royal mummies from other ancient dynasties to repair the damage done by grave robbers.
The fact that Amenhotep I's mummy had never been unwrapped gave us a unique opportunity to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death.
Saleem said that they could study the well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail by unwrapping the mummy and peeling off its virtual layers.
The mummy shows his shrunken skull and skeleton. S. Saleem and Z. Nuwass were credited.
When Amenhotep died, he was 35 years old. He had good teeth and was 169 cm tall. He wore a golden girdle with gold beads and 30 amulets.
Amenhotep had a narrow chin, a small nose, curly hair, and some jutting upper teeth.
Saleem said that they couldn't find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death. His brain and heart were not removed by the first mummifiers.
The mummy of Amenhotep I was found in the Deir el Bahari archeological site in southern Egypt. The second pharaoh of Egypt's 18th dynasty, Amenhotep, ruled from 1525 to 1504 BCE, after his father Ahmose I, who had expelled the invading hyksos and reunification Egypt. Egypt was prosperous and safe, while the pharaoh ordered a religious building spree and led successful military expeditions to Libya and northern Sudan. His mother Ahmose-Nefertari was worshiped as a god after his death.
The pharaoh's teeth are in good shape. S. Saleem and Z. Hawass were credited.
The main intention of the restorers from the 11th century was to reuse royal burial equipment for later pharaohs, according to the authors. They disprove their theory here.
Saleem said that the priests of the 21st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers, restored his mummy to its former glory, and preserved the magnificent jewelry and amulets in place.
More than 40 royal mummies of the New Kingdom were studied by Hawass and Saleem. The mummies of Amenhotep I were transferred to a new museum in Cairo in April 2021. The face of the mummy of Amenhotep I with its mask was an icon of the 'Royal Golden Mummy Parade' on March 3rd, 2021.
Saleem and Hawass said that they showed that it was possible to useCT in anthropological and archeological studies on mummies.
The Digital Unwrapping of the Mummy of King Amenhotep I was published in 2011. The DOI is 10.3389/fmed.2021.778498.
The mummy of pharaoh Amenhotep I was unwrapped by scientists for the first time in 3000 years.
The document is copyrighted. Any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research cannot be reproduced without written permission. The content is not intended to be used for anything other than information purposes.
