Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Is ancestry, not natron, an explanation for fair haired children in Greco-Roman Egypt?

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In an examination of three unwrapped mummified children from the Graeco-Roman Period of ancient Egypt there was an unexpected finding of fair hair. In the majority of unwrapped ancient Egyptian mummified bodies the hair was not fair but rather dark brown or black. To determine if exposure to natron during the mummification process was responsible for the fair hair color an experiment was carried out to partially replicate the environment in which bodies were desiccated. Fourteen samples of modern hair from various age groups, sex and ethnicity were subjected to synthetic natron for a period of 40 days to replicate the time taken to mummify a body. Macroscopic and microscopic examinations of samples were employed to ascertain any significant changes in hair color after treatment. Ancient wigs were studied for evidence of post mortem changes to hair color since construction over 2,000 years ago. Results of the study showed no significant lightening of hair color and in several samples the hair significantly darkened as the result of exposure to the natron. There was not any evidence that hair lightened as the result of natural post mortem changes and this was confirmed by the study of the natural hair wigs that had not changed color post mortem. This study concluded that the fair hair observed in the three child mummies was not the result of exposure to natron or post mortem changes but rather it was probably due to ancestry because of the presence of diverse genomes that were introduced into ancient Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Referencest

  1. Smith GE. Egyptian mummies. JEA. 1914;1:189–96.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Ikram S, Dodson A. The mummy in ancient Egypt: equipping the dead for eternity. London: Thames & Hudson; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Dawson W, Gray PHK. Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British museum, mummies and human remains. London: The Trustees of the British Museum; 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Bowman AK. Egypt after the pharaohs. London: British Museum Press; 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Grenfell BP, Hunt AS. The Oxyrhynchus Papyri. London: Egypt Exploration Society; 1898.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Lichtheim M, editor. Ancient Egyptian literature: the new kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press; 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Taylor JH. Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. London: Bristish Museum Press; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Trigger BG, Kemp BJ, O'Connor D, Llyod AB. Ancient Egypt: a social history. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1983.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  9. Freeman C. Egypt, Greece and Rome. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Grimal N. A history of ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell; 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Schuenemann VJ, Peltzer A, Welte B, van Pelt WP, Molak M, Wang CC, et al. Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods. Nat Commun. 2017;8:15694.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Jones J, Higham TFG, Oldfield R, O'Connor TP, Buckley SA. Evidence for prehistoric origins of Egyptian mummification in late neolithic burials. PLoS One. 2014;9:e103608.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Lucas A. The use of natron by the ancient Egyptians in mummification. J Egypt Archaeol. 1914;1:119–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Lucas A. The occurrence of natron in ancient Egypt. J Egypt Archaeol. 1932;18:62–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Milroy C. Soft tissue pathology. In: Thompson T, Black S, editors. Forensic human identification : an introduction. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2007. p. 99–112.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wilkinson C. Facial anthropology and reconstruction. In: Thompson T, Black S, editors. Forensic human identification: an introduction. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 2007. p. 231–56.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Davey J, Taylor JT, Drummer OH. The utilisation of modern forensic imaging in the investigation of Graeco-Roman child mummies. J Egypt Archaeol. 2014;100:195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Buckley SA, Evershed RP. Organic chemistry of embalming agents in Pharaonic and Graeco/Roman mummies. Nature. 2001;431:837–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Abdel-Maksoud G, El-Amin AR. A review of the material used during the mummification processes in ancient Egypt. Mediter Archaeol Archaeom. 2011;11:129–50.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Herodotus. Herodotus the histories. Harmondsworth: Penguin; 1954.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Davey J, Drummer OH. The use of forensic radiology in determination of unexplained head injuries in child mummies - cause of death or mummification damage? J Forensic Radiol Imaging. 2016;5:20–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Cesarini JP. Hair melanin and hair color. Berlin: Springer; 1990.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  23. Ortonne JP, Prota G. Hair melanins and hair color: ultrastructural and biochemical aspects. J Invest Dermatol. 1993;1201:582–9.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Bertrand L, Doucet J, Dumas P, Simionovici A, Tsoucaris G, Walter P. Microbeam synchrotron imaging of hairs from ancient Egyptian mummies. Synchrotron Radiol. 2003;10:387–92.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Hill P, Brantley H, Van Dyke M. Some properties of keratin biomaterials: Kerateines. Biomaterials. 2010;31:585–93.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Lucas A. The use of natron in mummification. J Egypt Archaeol. 1932;18:125–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Kirkbride KP, Tridico SR. The application of laser scanning confocal microscopy to the examination of hairs and textile fibers: an initial investigation. Forensic Sci Int. 2010;195:28–35.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Edwards HG, Currie KJ, Ali HR, Jorge Villar SE, David AR, Denton J, et al. Raman spectroscopy of natron: shedding light on ancient Egyptian mummification. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2007;388:683–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Zimmerman MR, Brier B, Wade RS. Twentieth-century replication of an Egyptian mummy: implications for paleopathology. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1998;107:417–20.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Davey J, Bowyer GA, Hagenmaier C, Ranson D, Robertson S, et al. Standard of mummification in Graeco-Roman child mummies. In: Gill-Frerking H, Rosendahl W, Zink A, editors. Yearbook of mummy studies 2. Munchen: Verlag Dr Friedrich Pfeil; 2014. p. 81–6.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Cox JS. The construction of an ancient Egyptian wig (c. 1400 BC) in the British museum. J Egypt Archaeol. 1977;63:67–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Mayer RG. Emblaming. 2nd ed. Stanford: Appleton & Lange; 1996.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Tassie GJ. Ancient Egyptian wigs in the Cairo and other museums. In: Eldamaty M, Trad M, editors. Egyptian museum collections around the world. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities/AUC Press; 2002. p. 1141–53.

    Google Scholar 

  34. McCreesh NC, Gize AP, David AR. Ancient Egyptian hair gel: new insight into ancient Egyptian mummification procedures through chemical analysis. J Archaeol Sci. 2011;38:3432–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Tassie GJ. Hair in Egypt: people and technology used in creating egyptian hairstyles and wigs. In: Selin H, editor. Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-Western cultures. Dordrecht: Springer; 2008. p. 1047–52.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  36. Taylor JH, Antoine D. Ancient lives new discoveries. London: British Museum; 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Fletcher J. Hair. In: Nicholdon PT, Shaw I, editors. Ancient Egyptian materials and technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2000. p. 495–501.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Smith GE. The Royal Mummies. L'Institut Francais D' Archeologie: Cairo; 1912.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Massa RE. Early Egyptian mummy hairs: tensile strength tests, optical and scanning electron microscopy observation. A Paleobiological research. Hum Evol. 1980;9:133–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Wilson AS. Taphonomic alterations to hair & nail. In: Schotsman EMJ, Marquez-Grant N, Forbes SL, editors. Forensic analysis of the dead and the depositional environment. Chichester: Wiley; 2017. p. 81–91.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Watson EJ, Myers M. The mummy of Baket-en-her-nakht in the Hancock museum: a radiological update. J Egypt Archaeol. 1993;79:179–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Tridico SR. Intrepreting biological degradative processes acting on mammalian hair in the living and the dead: which ones are taphonomic? Proc Royal Soc. 2014:1–9.

  43. Sledzik PS, Micozzi MS. Autopsied, embalmed, and preserved human remains: distinguishing features in forensic and historic contexts. In: Haglund WD, Sorg MH, editors. Forensic Taphonomy. Boca Raton: CRC Press; 1997. p. 483–96.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Lubec G, Nauer G, Seifert K, Strouhal E, Proteder H, Szilvassy J, et al. Structural stability of hair over three thousand years. J Archaeol Sci. 1987;14:113–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Schuenemann VJ, Peltzer A, Welte B, Van Pelt WP, Molak M, Wang CC, et al. Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods. Nat Commun. 2017;8:1–11.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Watson T. Mummy DNA uravels ancient Egyptians. Nature. 2017;546:17.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank industrial chemist Alan Elliott for preparing the quantity of synthetic natron, Prof Olaf Drummer for his expert advice and proof reading and Dr. John H. Taylor of the Department of ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum for facilitating access to the child mummies and for his continuing support of research into ancient Egyptian mummies.

This research did not receive any specific grants from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not for profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forensic Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Janet Davey

  2. Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, 65 Kavanagh St., Southbank,, 3006 Victorian, Australia

    Janet Davey

  3. School of Science, RMIT University, 124 La Trobe St., Melbourne, 3000, Australia

    Gale Spring

Authors
  1. Janet Davey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gale Spring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Janet Davey.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Davey, J., Spring, G. Is ancestry, not natron, an explanation for fair haired children in Greco-Roman Egypt?. Forensic Sci Med Pathol 16, 207–215 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00225-4

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12024-020-00225-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation