The Egyptian mummy that was adorned with the portrait of the woman was a surprise – the body of a child who died when he was only 5 years old.
Now, scientists have learned more about the mysterious girl and her burial, thanks to high-resolution scans and X-ray “microbeams” that have targeted very small regions in intact artifacts.
X-ray tomography (CT) computed by the mother’s teeth and femur confirmed the girl’s age, although they did not show any signs of trauma to her bones that could indicate the cause of her death.
The targeted, high-intensity X-ray also revealed a mysterious object object that was placed on the baby’s abdomen, scientists have reported in a new study.
The scans performed on the mummy almost two decades ago were less contradictory, and many details were difficult to see. For the new analysis, the researchers performed a new CT scan to fully visualize her mom’s makeup.
They then focused on specific regions using X-ray scattering, in which the X-ray tightly centered beam bounces molecules in crystalline structure; Disruption pattern displays show what type of material the material is made of.
This is the first time that X-ray diffraction has been used on intact mummies, according to lead study author Stuart Stock, a research professor of cell and developmental biology at the Feinberg School of Medicine Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago.
The mummy, known as the “Howrah Portrait Mummy No. 4”, is in Northwestern University’s Block Museum of Art. It was excavated from the ancient Egyptian site of Hawara between 1910 and 1911, and
“During the Roman era of Egypt, they began making mummies with portraits attached to the front surface,” Stoke told Live Science.
“Many thousands were created, but most of the mummies we have are portraits – maybe only 100 to 150 portraits with mummies are attached,” he said.
Although the portrait on Mummy No. 4 showed an adult woman, the small size of the mummy hinted otherwise – and the scans confirmed that the mummy was a child, still so small that no one came out of its permanent teeth.
The portrait, clearly showing an adult woman. (Stuart R. Stock)
Inches (777 millimeters) were measured from the top of his skull to the soles of his feet, and these wrappings add another inch of inch (mm0 mm) of research.
Researchers also found 36 needle-like structures in this case – 11 around the head and neck, 20 near the legs and five through the torso. X-ray diffraction determined that these were modern metal wires or pins that could be added at some point during the last century to stabilize the artifact.
One surprising discovery was that mummy wrappings had irregular levels of silt, suggesting the mud, used by potential priests to protect the mummy’s bandage, stock.
Another surprising discovery was a small, elliptical object about 0.3. inches inches () mm) long, which researchers found wrapped around mom’s wrists on her belly, the Inc. bj “Inclusion f.”
(Stuart R. Stock)
X-rays showed the difference that it was made of calcite – but what was it? One possibility is that it may contain an amulet because the baby’s body was damaged during the mummification, Stoke said.
After such a tragedy, the clergy placed a scarb-like amulet on the damaged body part to protect the person in the afterlife, and the new France calcite “blob” was about the right size and a protective scarab, stock explained to be in the right condition.
However, the resolution of the CT scan was not enough to show the details engraved in the budget, so it is impossible to say for sure what it might be, he added.
“Every time you go to a study like this you get good answers. But then you just raise more questions,” Stoke said.
The findings were published on Nov 25 Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
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