The research team’s work revealed that the boy was aged about 14 or 15 and came from a wealthy family
(Picture: Frontiers)A teenage boy who was mummified nearly 2,300 years ago has been digitally unwrapped by a team at Egypt’s Cairo University.
The scientists, led by a professor of radiology at the university’s faculty of medicine, Sahar Saleem, used CT scans to examine what was wrapped inside the mummies. This avoided having to physically damage the historically priceless findings.
The technique allowed them to study a mummy they have now named “Golden Boy”. He was initially discovered at a cemetery in southern Egypt during the First World War in 1916.
Until now, Golden Boy had been stored in the basement of Cairo’s Egyptian museum.
The research team’s work revealed that the boy was aged about 14 or 15 and came from a wealthy family. His body was adorned with 49 precious amulets, including a heart scarab stuck down his throat and a golden tongue inside his mouth.
“Many were made of gold, while some were made of semi-precious stones, fired clay or faience,” Mr Saleem said. “Their purpose was to protect the body and give it vitality in the afterlife.”
He said that the amulets were “beautifully stylised in a unique arrangement of three columns between the folds of the wrappings and inside the mummy’s body cavity”.
Mr Saleem added: “These include the eye of Horus, the scarab, the akhet amulet of the horizon, the placenta, the knot of Isis and others.”
The team believes his family clearly wanted to ensure that his journey to the afterlife was safe. Aside from the amulets, the boy was also found to be wearing sandals. These were thought to be his parents’ way of trying to help him to walk out of his coffin with ease as a divine being.
Given the Golden Boy’s lack of circumcision, the team believes that he may not have been Egyptian. This which would add to the findings that outsiders were also mummified in Ancient Egypt.
