IV.

Opening the Tombs

Since ancient times mummies have fascinated visitors to Egypt. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus gave a comprehensive account of the mummification process in the 5th century bc. Some Greeks and Romans living in Egypt were mummified in the Egyptian fashion, even into the 5th century ad, when Christianity had taken hold in Egypt. Over time, however, the practice of mummification ended, and many grave sites fell into disrepair. In some cases grave robbers stole valuable items or the mummies themselves. They took the mummies because beginning in the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century), people mistakenly believed that mummia, a highly sought after medicinal substance, could be obtained by grinding up mummies.

In the 1600s and 1700s many travelers from Europe bought mummies from Egyptians and took them home, where the mummies became the centerpieces of cabinets of curiosities—small private museums maintained by collectors. The study of Egyptian antiquities, called Egyptology, emerged as an academic discipline in the 1800s. During this time, explorers such as Italian archaeologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni took mummies and other antiquities from Egypt and provided them to European museums. Unwrapping mummies also became a popular attraction at European exhibitions.

The discovery of two groups of royal and priestly mummies at the turn of the 19th century provided Egyptologists with much data about the preparation of mummies from wealthy classes. In 1896 British archaeologist William Flinders Petrie began using X-ray techniques to examine mummies without unwrapping them. During the early 1900s the pace of archaeological discoveries quickened. Archaeologists such as Howard Carter and George Herbert, 5th earl of Carnarvon, both of Britain, made many archaeological discoveries in Egypt, including the tombs of King Thutmose IV and Queen Hatshepsut. In 1922 the discovery of the largely undisturbed tomb of Tutankhamun provided scholars with their first view of an undisturbed royal mummy.

In 1965 more than 5,000 well-preserved mummies from Nubia (southern Egypt) were studied to established their relationship to the modern population of Egypt. Two years later, the first comprehensive X-ray study of the mummies in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, was undertaken by a team from the University of Michigan. Since that time, electron probe analysis of hair has been employed to establish family relationships between individual mummies.

Beginning in the early 1970s scientists began to use computed tomography, or CT scans, to study mummies. This technique provided information about wrapping and embalming processes by producing computerized three-dimensional reconstructions of mummies. During the 1980s and 1990s scientists began experimenting with the recovery of DNA from Egyptian mummies. Scientists hoped these techniques would yield information about ancient diseases, the genetic characteristics of the ancient Egyptians, and patterns of settlement and migration.

Increasingly, teams who study mummies are interdisciplinary, and are made up of Egyptologists, specialists in ancient languages, physical anthropologists, physicians, and radiologists. Recent recoveries of mummies from the Sinai Peninsula, the eastern delta of the Nile River, and desert oases have provided information about regional styles of mummification. The discovery and translation of texts dealing with mummification have complemented this archaeological work, giving scientists a more complete understanding of the practice of mummification.