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The Handbook of Mummy Studies pp 1–65Cite as

Mummified Human Remains from Ancient Egypt and Nubia: An Overview and New Insights from the British Museum Collection

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Abstract

Grounded in new research from recent analyses of the mummified individuals curated at the British Museum, this chapter provides an overview of the evolution of mummification in the Nile valley. Featuring Ameniryirt, a Twenty-Sixth Dynasty Theban official who lived around 600 BC, it outlines the varying methods employed to preserve human remains in ancient Egypt, as well as the modern approaches used in their analysis. From the natural mummies of the Predynastic Period to those of medieval Nubia, advances in CT-scanning and three-dimensional visualization technology have allowed us to investigate their mummified remains without the need to unwrap them. Many are remarkably preserved and were embalmed with great care and expertise to ensure their survival in the afterlife. A range of approaches – spanning several thousand years – were successfully used to preserve their bodies, with organs treated in numerous ways and great variety in the use of unguents, packing, and wrappings. Bioarchaeological methods are employed to determine their approximate age-at-death, confirm their sex, and provide new insights into their lives and state of health. Applying new analytical techniques to long-held collections continues to advance our understanding of ancient beliefs and practices, as well as provide a unique understanding of the lives of individuals from the distant past.

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Acknowledgments

This new research was made possible thanks to the help of our British Museum colleagues and the excellent 3D visualization work of Benjamin Moreno (IMA Solutions, Toulouse, France) using the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust CT scanner on days that did not impact patient use.

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  1. Department of Egypt and Sudan, The British Museum, London, UK

    Daniel Antoine & Marie Vandenbeusch

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  1. Daniel Antoine
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  2. Marie Vandenbeusch
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Correspondence to Daniel Antoine .

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  1. Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Dong Hoon Shin

  2. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

    Raffaella Bianucci

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© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Antoine, D., Vandenbeusch, M. (2021). Mummified Human Remains from Ancient Egypt and Nubia: An Overview and New Insights from the British Museum Collection. In: Shin, D.H., Bianucci, R. (eds) The Handbook of Mummy Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1614-6_17-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1614-6_17-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-15-1614-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-15-1614-6

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