Researchers have used digital expertise to take the primary correct look inside the mum of King Amenhotep I, which has remained unwrapped in trendy occasions, in accordance with a examine printed on Tuesday.
The scans revealed particulars concerning the look and mummification of the 18th Dynasty king, who dominated Egypt from about 1525-1504 BC and was the son of New Kingdom founder Ahmose I.
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Amenhotep’s mummy, adorned with decorations on its linen wrapping and its funerary masks, was discovered together with these of different kings and queens in a cache in Luxor in 1881 and transferred to Cairo.
Due to efforts to protect the ornament, it was one in every of few royal mummies to not be bodily unwrapped and examined within the trendy period, in accordance with the examine in Frontiers in Medication, a peer-reviewed medical journal. (For a number of photos of the scans, see the examine.)
A scan of Amenhotep’s sarcophagus, displaying his skeleton inside, through ‘Frontiers in Medication.’.
Sahar N. Saleem and Zahi Hawass
In 2019, Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Cairo College professor Sahar Saleem used a computed tomography (CT) machine to “digitally unwrap” the mum earlier than it was moved to a brand new assortment at Cairo’s Nationwide Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
The outcomes of their examine, printed on Tuesday, confirmed that Amenhotep’s face resembled that of his father, and estimated his age at loss of life to be 35 years, although no reason for loss of life was clear, in accordance with an announcement from Egypt’s antiquities ministry.
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It appeared to point out that he was the primary king to be embalmed together with his forearms crossed on his physique, and proved that his mind was not eliminated, not like these of most New Kingdom kings.
The scans additionally revealed 30 amulets or items of knickknack buried with the mum, together with a belt of 34 gold beads, displaying that twenty first Dynasty clergymen who rewrapped the mum took care to protect its ornaments, the ministry assertion mentioned.
Throughout the reburial, the Theban clergymen re-attached Amenhotep’s head and repaired different postmortem accidents probably inflicted by tomb robbers, in accordance with the examine.