'Strange bones' in Colchester Egyptian Mummy
Friday 25 June 2010
Latest in History
On Facebook
Life & Style blogs
Online House Hunter: Rugby – a Dickens of a town
Charles Dickens didn't think much of the railway town of Rugby in Warwickshire, calling it Mugby. Bu...
Online House Hunter: Mortgage relief
Banks would appear to be finally relinquishing their stranglehold on mortgages. Our Online House Hun...
Online House Hunter: Hard sell
How much would you reduce the price of your house by to achieve a sale? Our Online House Hunter look...
The skull of an ancient Egyptian mummy in Colchester is packed with 'strange bones', a CT-scan has revealed. The scan on 2,500-year-old Lady Ta-Hathor yesterday also revealed an odd bundle between her thighs, thought to be the remains of her organs.
Full results from the scan, made ahead of Ta-Hathor's display at Ipswich Museum's new Egyptian Gallery, are expected only after an assessment by a team in Manchester. Yet it immediately showed she was healthy with no bone defects, and had died of natural causes aged in her mid-twenties - not far off the era's life expectancy of 30. Ta-Hathor's heart had been placed back in her body, a vital step on her journey to the afterlife.
Yet the mysterious bones inside Ta-Hathor's skull will be of most interest to experts including Caroline McDonald, curator of archaeology at Colchester and Ipswich Museums. "It appears as if the skull cavity has been packed with linen," says McDonald. "There are some strange bone fragments in the skull that we can’t currently account for and we hope experts will be able to reveal this particular secret."
"There does appear to be a bundle of some description between (Ta-Hathor's) thighs which may be a parcel containing her other organs such as the lungs and intestines," adds McDonald. "In early Egyptian history these were placed in separate containers known as canopic jars but later they were simply wrapped and placed back in the body. Again, analysis will confirm this for us."
Ta-Hathor's brain was also removed during mummification. All organs would be removed in the process apart from the heart, which would be weighed against the 'feather of truth' according to to the Book of the Dead, ancient Egypt's most important funerary text. If the heart weighed less than the feather, the deceased could continue their journey. If not they would be eaten by a fearsome crocodile-headed god named Ammut.
King Tut died of genetic blood disorder, not malaria
Colchester shooting for UNESCO World Heritage List
Tutakhamun's Mummy cloned using 3D printing technology
- 1 The 10 best hair straighteners
- 2 Pucker up: The art of kissing
- 3 Chips are down as Britain's diners lose taste for eating out
- 4 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
- 5 The Ten Best Scotch Whiskies
- 6 The Ten Best Coffee Tables
- 7 The ten best Valentine's Day gifts for men
- 1 Eight arrests as Murdoch 'throws staff to the wolves'
- 2 I was born to be a killer. Every night I see the Devil in my dreams
- 3 Pucker up: The art of kissing
- 4 Lightning kills an entire football team
- 5 BBC to issue global apology for documentaries that broke rules
- 6 Rothschild loses libel case, and reveals secret world of money and politics
- 7 The artist vandalising advertising with poetry
- 8 Modern lovers: The 'sexual body warriors' and pioneers transforming 21st-century relationships
- 9 Spotify: 1 million plays, £108 return
- 10 The 10 best hair straighteners
Free trial of new Independent iPad app
Get your daily dose of the best of British journalism, sponsored by American Airlines
Win a three-week coastal jaunt
Spend three weeks exploring every nook and cranny of gorgeous Atlantic Canada.
Amazing restaurant offers
Three glasses of free champagne and a special menu at 46 top London restaurants.
Latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.
Commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Day In a Page
Silent revolution at the Baftas
The diva who had – and lost – it all
How Picasso won over (some of) the British

Comments