A Closer Look at the World's First Pregnant Egyptian Mummy

The Warsaw Misery Project is a part of the Alejandro Leydo Foundation.

The story "Who's Your Mummy?" was originally published in our May/ June 2022 issue.

Researchers at Poland's National Museum in Warsaw thought that the ancient Egyptian mummy was a male priest and kept its identity a secret for nearly two centuries. Scientists discovered that the specimen is the world's first known pregnant mummy after a recent round of X-rays andCT scans.

The high-status woman died between the ages of 20 and 30 and was likely embalmed in Thebes during the first century B.C., according to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science last spring. The fetus, estimated to be 26 to 30 weeks old, was not mummified separately. The ancient Egyptians believed that they could travel to the afterlife.