The mummy buried 2,300 years ago in Egypt with a “heart of gold”

BBC General

Posted on 20230126 7:33 PM / Updated on 20230126 7:34 PM

Researchers in Egypt discovered a heart of gold and several other treasures inside a boy who was mummified 2,300 years ago.

The body of the young man, estimated to have died between the ages of 14 and 15, was found in 1916. However, the remains, along with dozens of others, remained in the depositories of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum for more than a century, without having been closely scrutinized by experts.

That changed when a team led by Cairo University’s Sahar Saleem decided to examine the mummy with a CT scanner.

Images obtained showed that the body contained 49 amulets of 21 different types, many of them made of gold. That’s why the mummy was baptized “Golden Boy,” Saleem announced in an article published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine.

The discovery earned the mummy a room in the Egyptian Museum, where it is on display.

hidden treasure

The tests determined that the young man was of upperclass origin, as “he had sound bones and teeth, with no signs of malnutrition or disease”.

His remains underwent a “high quality mummification process that included the removal of the brain and entrails”.

Courtesy of SN Saleem, SA Seddik, M elHalwagy A team of Egyptian researchers used a CT scanner to examine a 2,300yearold mummy that had been kept in Cairo’s museum for over a century

The images showed that beneath the shrouds covering the young man’s body was an object next to the penis, a gold tongue in his mouth and a heartshaped object, also made of gold, below the chest cavity.

Saleem recalled that the ancient Egyptians placed amulets on the bodies of their dead to “protect them and give them vitality” in the afterlife.

“The golden tongue in the mouth is supposed to ensure that the dead can speak in the afterlife,” explains the expert.

The images also revealed that the young man’s body was clad in sandals and adorned with garlands of ferns.

The mummy believed to be from the late Ptolemaic period (c. 33230 BC) was found at Edfu in southern Egypt in 1916 in the Valley of the Kings.

The boy’s remains were protected by two sarcophagi. On the outside was a Greek inscription. The interior was made of wood. The corpse had a golden mask on its head.

seek without destroying

Saleem believes his discovery is just the beginning of more to come.

SN Saleem, SA Seddik, M. elHalwagy Research has shown that the deceased was a member of the ancient Egyptian elite

“Extensive excavations were carried out in Egypt in the 19th and early 20th centuries, resulting in the discovery of thousands of surviving ancient bodies, many of which were still wrapped and in their coffins,” she says.

“Since it opened in 1835, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has served as a repository for these finds, and its basement is filled with many of these mummies that had been locked away for decades without being examined or displayed.”

In the past, bandages were removed from mummies and the bodies subjected to invasive dissection for research and entertainment purposes, the researcher says.

But now, computed tomography could be a great tool for searching many of these remains without damaging them, something that will allow us to delve “more into the health, faith, and abilities of the people of antiquity.”

“Computed tomography represents a significant advance in radiology. Instead of using a single image, hundreds of projections of thin slices (slices) of the body can be combined into a complete threedimensional model,” concluded the specialist.

This text was published at https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral64410536