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Your Mummy and Your Health: The Swiss Mummy Project Unravels Ancient Illnesses

Shemsu Sesen — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:52:44 +0000

The Swiss Mummy Project has been reviewing all of the studies performed on mummies in the last three decades and has compiled a wealth of data about how the ancient Egyptians lived and died. They discovered that in addition to bad dental health, the ancients suffered from a wide range of maladies which we normally associate with modern life.

So, what did the mummies have to say about living well?

3000 Mummies Agree: Brush Your Teeth!

That winning smile—Many ancient Egyptians suffered from horrible tooth pain (Photo courtesy of Henry W. Schmitt)

The Swiss Mummy Project has found that about eighteen percent of the more than 3,000 mummies they examined lived miserable—and probably shorter—lives due to bad dental health. A big part of the problem was stone-ground flour, which deposited sandy grit in their bread and weakened their tooth enamel. Cavities, abscesses, and periodontal disease conspired against the smiles of royalty and commoners alike (Source: MSNBC: “Bad teeth tormented ancient Egyptians”).

Headed up by Dr. Frank Ruhli of the University of Zurich, The Swiss Mummy Project recently made headlines by mummifying a human leg using what they believe were the same processes used by the ancient embalmers. Basing their work on that of Dr. Bob Brier and Dr. Ronald Wade, who mummified an entire human body in 1994, Dr. Ruhli seeks to apply the most current medical and scientific instruments to the task of prying away the mummies’ secrets. As he explained to Discovery News back in October:

We are trying to improve on that important experiment using the most up-to-date methods, such as radiological technology, magnetic resonance imaging and computer tomography. It’s a unique project, the first of its kind. (Source: Discovery News: “Body Part Mummified With Ancient Egyptian Recipe”)

Dr. Frank Ruhli of the Swiss Mummy Project (right) prepares a mummy (center) for a CT scan. In this case it is a 1,000-year-old mummy from Peru, but the process is the same (Photo courtesy of Siemens AG)

The project has discovered a variety of ailments that plagued the ancient Egyptians, sometimes literally. Seven of the mummies, for instance, showed signs of having contracted the most deadly species of malaria. Infectious diseases were widespread. But the ancient Egyptians also suffered from problems we normally associate with modernity.

Listen to Your Mummy: Watch Your Fat Intake and Avoid Second Hand Smoke

In a separate study recently conducted by Siemens AG and the Mid-America Heart Institute, CT scans were conducted on 22 mummies from the Museum of Antiquities at Cairo. The heart specialists were surprised to find that atherosclerosis—hardening of the arteries—was observed in more than half of the mummies from which they were able to extract heart and circulatory tissue (Source: Discovery News: “Ancient Mummies Show Signs of Heart Disease”). Dr. Ruhli’s numbers were considerably lower. Out of a sample of 85 mummies, atherosclerosis was only found in four, but the Swiss team found another surprisingly modern problem in the sample.

Eleven cases exhibited signs of pulmonary diseases such as emphysema. The source of their breathing problems: air pollution. “Interestingly, most pulmonary affections were related to the presence of anthracotic pigment [carbon] in the lungs,” Dr. Ruhli said. “This suggests air pollution by smoke from fires or oil lamps” (Source).

The mummy of Tao II—Care to take a stab at the cause of death? (Photo courtesy of G. Elliot Smith)

Bone trauma was also very common, the Swiss team discovered. Specific examples include a fracture to the left middle finger of Ramesses II and axe and spear wounds to Tao II’s skull, one of the few cases where a very likely cause of death was determined. For the most part, it was impossible to determine a cause of death because of the process of mummification itself.

Mummy’s Parting Wisdom: Die Young and Leave an Attractive Corpse

The Natron 40-Day Weight Loss Program works every time! (Photo by Keith Schengili-Roberts)

Although Dr. Ruhli’s team was able to conclude that most of the mummies died between the ages of 20 and 40, the very process that preserved their bodies in such an uncorrupted state also destroyed much of the evidence. As forensic anthropologist Gino Fornaciari put it:

The lack of information about the cause of death in Egyptian mummies can be explained by the embalming process itself, which removed the internal organs. Many diseases involving those organs could not be easily diagnosed. (Source)

The study conducted by Siemens AG and the Mid-America Heart Institute ran into similar problems. While they could find evidence of heart disease, they were unable to distinguish what role weight may have played in the cause of death (source). Want to shed a lot of weight in a relatively short period of time? Try packing yourself in 600lbs of natron for 30-40 days. There is no accurate way to estimate how much a mummified person may have weighed while alive.

Dr. Ruhli and team examine the CT scan of a mummy (Photo courtesy of Siemens AG)

The Swiss Mummy Project’s work is on-going. In addition to understanding the process of mummification and exploring the health problems of the ancient Egyptians, Dr. Ruhli hopes to arrive at a better understanding of disease in order to improve the quality of life for modern humanity. The Mummy Project is also developing forensic tools and software which may have applications for the living. After all, part of what we are seeking when we explore the ancients is a better understanding of ourselves.

King Tut’s Death: Solved, Resolved, or Just Restated?

Shemsu Sesen — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:27:21 +0000

King Tut is known as the Boy King for two reasons. The first is the young age at which he assumed the throne—around eight or nine. The second is that he died at around nineteen, so he never really reached adulthood. Why he died so young is a question that has been with us since his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.

In 2005 a team of top radiologists conducted a series of CT scans on Tutankhamun’s mummy, and when the results were announced the following year at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the results were not 100% conclusive. Most of the team felt they had settled the question of what had caused Tut’s early death, but there were some holdouts.

So when Zahi Hawass announced last August that he was on the verge of announcing the exact cause of Tut’s death, Em Hotep! took notice. So does a new article and video on Dr. Hawass’ website finally put the question to rest?

Pharaoh Tutankhamun (Photo by P. A. Hudson)

As Em Hotep! readers have been reminded, perhaps to the point of tedium, Dr. Zahi Hawass declared to a sold out crowd in Indianapolis on August 7, 2009, that the “exact cause” of Tutankhamun’s death would be revealed in ”one month.” This was exciting news because, despite the best efforts of the radiological team that conducted the 2005 CT scans, there was still just a tiny bit of doubt about the “exact cause.”

Of course, this wasn’t exactly what you might call a scandalous controversy. Most of us were fairly satisfied with the majority opinion of the team—that Tut had died of a secondary infection resulting from a traumatic compound fracture to his left thigh. But the fact that Dr. Hawass had raised the issue again, with a promise of a conclusive answer, led to speculation that some new study had been conducted that resolved any remaining doubt. We have been following the story very closely ever since.

In late November Dr. Hawass posted a story and video clip to his website entitled “VIDEO: How Did King Tut Die?” Following on his August announcement, the title seemed pretty self explanatory. But before we evaluate this latest offering, let’s have a quick review of the controversy, minor though it may be.

Murder Most Foul?

Ever since Howard Carter first introduced us to Tutankhamun in 1922, there has been conjecture regarding the cause of his death. Here we had an apparently healthy young man from the absolute top strata of privilege who died in his late teens. By itself this would have been unfortunate, but not unheard of. However, given the tumultuous political climate he had inherited from his heretical predecessor, and the Eighteenth Dynasty’s penchant for court intrigue, speculation of regicide was inevitable.

Pharaoh Akhenaten (Photo by Szczebrzeszynski)

Tutankhaten, as he was then known, grew up amidst controversy. His father (or older brother, by some accounts), Akhenaten, had made some rather unpopular changes in Egyptian politics and religion during his reign. He moved capital from Memphis to Amarna, and suppressed Egypt’s traditional religions in favor of a sort of monotheism based on Aten, the deification of the solar disk. Memphis had long been the administrative center of Egypt, and Thebes, the Holy City of Amun, was Her spiritual center.

This sudden disenfranchisement of the political and religious elite did not win Akhenaten many friends.

Young Tut spent the first decade of his life cloistered with his parents in a sort of counter-culture retreat. It is tempting to imagine Amarna as being like Southern California during the Sixties, when a lot of social elites joined new religions and moved to communes. Even the art of the Amarna Revolution went through a shift away from the conservative idealized forms of the past in favor of a radical new realism encouraged by Akhenaten and his glamorous wife, Nefertiti. Meanwhile, the elder statesman Ay, was the Richard Nixon waiting in the wings.

Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their children being blessed by Aten (Photo by Gerbil)

When Tutankhaten was only eight or nine years old, Akhenaten died and the Summer of Love came to an end. Monarchies abhor a vacuum, especially when the political and religious apparatus of the state, not to mention the citizenry, are already close to a revolution of their own. To preserve the peace (and the dynasty), Tut was hastily put on the throne through the machinations of his crafty grandfather, Ay.

Pharaoh Ay (Photo by Keith Schengili-Roberts)

Ay undoubtedly had political ambitions of his own dating back to his days of advising his son-in-law, Akhenaten, and he exerted his influence through Tut. On Ay’s advice, the Boy King moved the capital back to Memphis and began the process of restoring the old religion of Amun. He even changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun to reflect this return to the Good Old Days. But Ay was getting on in years, and if he was going to have his turn on the throne, it would have to be soon.

Fortunately for Ay, it was soon. Tutankhamun conveniently died at around age 19, allowing Ay to finally ascend to the throne, where he reigned as pharaoh for a grand total of four years before he died.

Given these circumstances, and Tutankhamun’s early demise, we can be forgiven for thinking the worst. When an X-Ray performed on his mummy in 1968 found a hole in the base of his skull, apparently delivered from behind, images of Caesar dead on the floor of the senate leapt into our fertile imaginations. We had our smoking gun.

Only, we didn’t.

New Study, New Conclusions, New Possibilities

When the radiology team conducted the CT scans on Tut in 2005, they also revisited the hole in his skull. On closer examination, it appeared that the hole was a result of either the embalming process or damage that occurred shortly after the mummy was discovered, most likely the latter.

The team found that the bone fragments from the hole were loose and rattling around inside Tut’s skull. If the damage had occurred prior to or during the embalming process, then the bone fragments should have been stuck in, or at least covered with, resin. Neither was the case.

“The damage probably occurred because of the bad handling of the mummy” says Ashraf Selim, a radiologist who worked with the team that conducted the scan (National Geographic News: “King Tut Died From Broken Leg, Not Murder, Scientists Conclude,” p. 2). So while the hole may have occurred during the embalming process, the most likely explanation seems to be Howard Carter’s notorious abuse of the mummy while trying to remove its wrappings (and gold).

So it seemed that Tutankhamun wasn’t murdered after all, at least not by a blow to the head. But the CT scans did raise another possible cause of death. Tutankhamun’s left thighbone had suffered a traumatic break which, if it had occurred while he was alive, would have caused a nasty puncture wound. Lacking effective antiseptic treatments, such a wound have become infected, likely resulting in his death.

So how does a healthy young regent acquire a deadly compound fracture?

In spite of the depictions of the young pharaoh riding into battle on his chariot, Richard Covington, writing for The Smithsonian, postulates that Tut probably spent much of his time attending to religious functions at Thebes, with the occasional hunting foray on the Giza Plateau (The Smithsonian Mysteries of the Ancient World, Fall 2009: “Looking into Tut,” p. 69).

Despite such valiant depictions as this, Tutankhamun was probably not a casualty of war (Photo courtesy of The Yorck Project)

A fall from a galloping horse, particularly if the horse ends up on top of you, could easily produce the sort of break found on Tutankhamun’s leg. So while Tutankhamun may not have suffered a mortal wound at the hands of the Nubians, it has been suggested that he may have died as a result of a hunting accident. But the question remains, did the wound occur before or after he died?

Pre- or Postmortem: That is the Question

When the radiology team analyzed their scans, they were looking for certain indicators that would tell the story of Tut’s life and death, and what happened to his body after he died. By observing the condition and location of the bone fragments in his skull, for example, they were able to conclude the hole was made after Tut had died. Because the fragments were not covered with embalming resin, they were able to conclude that the hole was likely a product of mistreatment rather than mummification.

The break in Tutankhamun’s thigh told a story as well. The job of the radiology team was to interpret the evidence in order to translate that tale. Most of the evidence seemed to indicate that the broken left thigh occurred prior to death. Two very convincing observations led the majority of the team to this conclusion.

First, there is the shape and appearance of the break. Living bone is moist and somewhat pliable. Like a living tree branch, when live bone breaks it tends to splinter and have ragged edges. Dead bone is dry and brittle. Like a dead twig, it tends to snap and leave sharp edges. Unlike the damage that was definitely caused by Carter, the broken thigh has ragged splintery edges. Tutankhamun’s thigh was more branchy than twiggy.

The second indicator of the fracture having occurred prior to death is the presence of resins inside the fracture itself. According to most of the radiology team, the embalming fluids could only have gotten into the break if it had occurred while Tut was alive.

If the break had been done by Carter, then the resin should have been on the surface only and the break should have been clean. Again quoting Ashraf Selim, “The resin flowed through the wound and got into direct contact with the fracture and became solidified, something we didn’t see in any other area,” (Source).

There is no sign of the break having begun healing, but the team offers two possible reasons for this. First, infection may have set in early causing a rapid deterioration and quick death. Second, the embalming process may have obscured any signs of healing.

But not every member of the team agreed with this interpretation. Some of the radiologists felt that the break could only have occurred as a result of Howard Carter’s mishandling of Tut’s mummy. Had the wound occurred while Tutankhamun was alive, they insist, there would have been clear evidence of hemorrhaging and/or hematoma in the scans. The lack of internal bleeding and massive bruising, they contend, point to the damage being postmortem (Source: “Press release, Tutankhamun CT scan, 8 March, 2005”).

As for the resin inside the fracture, they feel this could have occurred while Carter’s team was breaking the mummy apart. As the broken edges of the bone grated against the resin-coated surfaces, resin could have been deposited into the break. And the lack of healing seems to speak for itself—dead bones don’t heal.

So the CT scanning team offered a very probable answer to how King Tut died, but it still wasn’t quite conclusive. As National Geographic writer Brian Handwerk summarized it:

While scientists were unanimous in concluding that there was no evidence of head trauma, they differed when interpreting a fracture found in the mummy’s left thigh. Some researchers felt that the break represented a serious injury that Tut had sustained shortly before death, perhaps resulting in an open wound and the possibility of a life-threatening infection. Others dismissed the broken bone as yet another example of damage inflicted by Carter’s team. (National Geographic News: King Tut Not Murdered Violently, CT Scans Show)

So the story of the 2005 CT scans was essentially a story without an end, which brings us back to Zahi Hawass’ promise to reveal the “exact cause” of Tutankhamun’s death, supposedly in September, 2009.

The Wait

When Dr. Hawass promised back in August to disclose in one month what killed Tut, I took him at his word and reported the news both on Em Hotep! and in an article I wrote for Heritage Key (Lecture Review: Zahi Hawass’ Mysteries of King Tut Revealed). When one month came and went, I wrote a follow-up article (King Tut: And the Cause of Death is… To Be Announced) and continued my vigil.

Toward the end of September I assembled a list of items Dr. Hawass had “promised, hinted, or suggested” would occur by October, 2009 (A Banner Month for Egyptology? October Promises, Hints, and Teasers). The promised announcement of Tutankhamun’s cause of death was on the list.

A follow-up to this was written on November 4, 2009 (Nefertiti, the Life and Death of King Tut, and KV64: The October Checklist). As of then, despite several public speaking engagements, including the opening of the Carter House (named for Howard Carter, a rather obvious connection to Tutankhamun), no news of Tut’s cause of death had been made public.

Finally, without the customary fanfare of a Zahi Hawass announcement, an article and video clip entitled VIDEO: How Did King Tut Die? appeared on Dr. Hawass’ blog. So was this the revelation Dr. Hawass had promised three and a half months ago?

And The News Is: Old and Contradictory.

There is no new information in the article on Dr. Hawass’ website. He makes mention of a “recent” CT scan, which is apparently a reference to the scan that occurred in 2005. No new analyses are detailed, no new interpretation is offered. The video clip was recorded in March, 2008, nearly a year and a half before his announcement in August, 2009, that the “exact cause” of Tut’s death would be announced in “one month.”

With regard to the hole in the back of Tut’s head, Dr. Hawass states in his article that “studies of the CT scans show that this hole was made in the back of his head in order to pour the liquid used in mummification into his body after he died.” This is in contradiction to Ashraf Selim’s statement that the bone fragments were not covered in resin, and the hole probably occurred as a result of Carter’s mishandling of the mummy (source). In fact, due to how the resins pooled in the skull, the team concluded that the embalming fluids had been poured in through the nasal cavity once the brain was removed.

With regard to the fractured leg, Hawass states in the article on his site that “Previous scholars thought this fracture in the leg was caused by Howard Carter, but we discovered it was the result of an accident that happened shortly before [Tut] died.” This statement is troublesome on a number of levels.

The fracture was not detected until the 2005 CT scan, so who are the “previous scholars”? If the previous scholars are the members of the radiology team who held a dissenting opinion, then is Dr. Hawass saying that a new study has been conducted? When? Where? Who is the “we” who discovered that the cause of death was the broken thigh? If it is the radiology team that conducted the 2005 scan, then how can the dissenters be “previous scholars”?

Hawass offers more detail in the video, where he declares:

[Howard Carter] damaged the mummy to 18 pieces. And this is why many people could think that this fracture could happen because of that damage that Howard Carter did. But radiologists found that’s not true. They found that this fracture is an accident that happened to Tutankhamun one day before he died. (source—in the video)

But not all of the radiologists “found that’s not true.” Nowhere in the video (or the article) does Hawass mention that the “previous scholars” who disagreed were part of the radiology team itself. The team did not reach a consensus. They did not find that the fracture occurred before he died; most of the team interpreted the evidence as being consistent with a pre-mortem accident.

So how did Tutankhamun die?

Frankly, I agree with Zahi Hawass with regard to the cause. I believe that the majority opinion of the radiology team that conducted the 2005 CT scan is the most convincing interpretation of the evidence. I believe that Tutankhamun suffered some terrible accident before he died that resulted in a compound fracture which became infected, resulting in his death.

Where I disagree with Zahi Hawass is the level of certainty he claims for this conclusion. I do not believe we can prove with absolute certainty what killed Tutankhamun with the evidence that we posses and the tools at our disposal. I feel that a case has been made for the fracture-and-infection theory that is reliable and likely enough that I choose to believe it. I think that in the article on his website and in the 2008 video clip Dr. Hawass withholds some of the facts in an attempt to portray a level of certainty which is not there.

As for what Dr. Hawass had in mind on August 7, 2009, when he promised to reveal the exact cause of Tut’s death in one month, I can’t speculate. As I said above, I took him at his word and what he has offered us is a three-year-old theory and a year-and-a-half old video clip presented as something new. “At least we can know the cause of his death for the first time,” Dr. Hawass concludes in his video clip.

Why? Apparently because Zahi Hawass says so, and contrary opinions are to be dismissed for no good reason.

The Swiss Mummy Project Wraps Up Current Experiment

Shemsu Sesen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:10:07 +0000

The University of Zurich’s Swiss Mummy Project, headed by anatomist and paleopathologist Dr. Frank Ruhli , has succeeded in mummifying a human leg. Well, two legs, actually. Ok, to be honest, the test subject didn’t go so well, so I guess it was one leg after all.

Source article: Discovery News, Body Part Mummified With Egyptian Recipe

The good leg (the one that didn’t rot) was mummified using techniques that Egyptologists believe the ancient Egyptian priests used themselves. The other leg, which served as a control subject, was dried out in an oven that reproduced the natural conditions of the Egyptian desert. It didn’t last a week before decomposition set in.

(Note to self—do not spend Thanksgiving at the University of Zurich this year.)

The Swiss Mummy Project’s experiment, which builds on the work done by American scientists Ronald Wade and Bob Brier back in 1994, utilized the same tools which the ancients themselves would have used. The primary ingredient, natron, is a compound of four different kinds of salts—sodium chloride, sodium sulfate, sodium carbonate, and sodium bicarbonate—and is found in natural deposits along the banks of the Nile River. Natron is a drying agent which also has natural antibacterial properties, which makes it perfect for preserving organic material.

The work conducted by Dr. Wade and Dr. Brier involved mummifying an entire human cadaver, but the Swiss project was more focused and didn’t require as much material.

“We are trying to improve on that important experiment using the most up-to-date methods, such as radiological technology, magnetic resonance imaging and computer tomography. It’s a unique project, the first of its kind,” Ruhli told Discovery News. (source)

Dr. Ruhli is also focusing on the effects of mummification on DNA, which could have important implications for the current efforts to trace Tutankhamun’s family tree, and ultimately map out the genealogy of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The Egyptology community is currently awaiting word from Dr. Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities regarding DNA analysis conducted on a mummified fetus recovered from Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, and which could help in identifying the mummy of his wife, Ankhesenamun, his parents, even Queen Nefertiti (For more details read Zahi Hawass to Announce Results of DNA Tests this Fall).

The work of the Swiss Mummy Project continues, as does the work of Mr. Mummies, Bob Brier. Dr. Brier, incidentally, is also Jean-Pierre Houdin’s co-author with The Secret of the Great Pyramid (just released in paperback. Jean-Pierre’s work is currently being explored here at Em Hotep!, with the long-awaited Hemienu to Houdin Part One due out in mere hours. Really. Honest. Check back later today and see!

For the original Em Hotep! article on this project, read The Swiss Mummy Project Puts its Best Foot Forward.

Mummification – A New Video Clip Featuring Zahi Hawass

Shemsu Sesen — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:30:31 +0000

Mummies are always a source of wonder. Whether your interest is academic, spiritual, or just plain macabre, you can’t pass a good mummy by.

But how are mummies made? We have had a recent look at mummification thanks to the Swiss Mummy Project, and now Dr. Zahi Hawass contributes a short video clip.

In Mummification Featuring Zahi Hawass, no less a personage than the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities gives us a quick introduction to Mummy Making 101. I blog about the clip for Heritage Key under my daytime name, Keith Payne: Mummies and Mummification featuring Zahi Hawass: A New Heritage Key Video Clip.

Also in that blog I discuss how and where to look for a more complete picture of the process, as we seem to get the fast and dirty (albeit no gloves or masks required) version of how to send a loved one off to the afterlife. Sharp video production by Nico Piazza and the still photography of Sandro Vannini combine to make this clip a joy to watch, so check it out!

Photograph ”Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna 0189.JPG” by Gryffindor is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of those files under the conditions that you appropriately attribute them, and that you distribute them only under a license identical to this one. Official license

The Swiss Mummy Project Puts its Best Foot Forward

Shemsu Sesen — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:29:42 +0000

Care for a peek inside the mysteries of mumification?

Swiss mummy makers have sent a human leg into the afterlife, but it hasn’t exactly gone like clockwork. Plus, will their analysis of the degrading effects of mummi-fication on DNA prove more bitter than sweet for the genetic mapping of Tutankhamun’s family?

The Swiss Mummy Project has succeeded, more or less, in mummifying a human leg, although there is still some moisture present in the tissue, which has pushed the 70-day project into 80 days, with another month expected before the project is complete. Check out Heritage Key for the complete story, where I blog about it under my daytime name, Keith Payne: The Mummy Project: Swiss Anatomy Experts Mummify Human Leg.

The Swiss team will also be evaluating the effects of mummification on DNA, and whether or not degradation may be a factor in the genetic testing of mummies. So far the testing of deep and dense tissue, such as teeth and bones, seems to be fruitful, but unlike hieroglyphs, science is never written in stone. Revision is the rule, not the exception.

How will this portent for forensic mummy studies? Increased accuracy is always good for science in general, and so far it looks as if the science behind the genetic mummy studies will stand the test of time. As for the collateral damage to specific projects and theories, only time will tell.