Pregnant Egyptian Mummy Initially Thought to be a Male Priest from 2,000 Years Ago

Experts from the Polish Academy of Sciences recently reported the first-ever mummified body of a pregnant woman from 2,000 years ago. When the mummy was first found in the 1800s they thought that it was a male priest but recent analysis showed it was actually a woman.

According to MailOnline, the pregnant Egyptian mummy was 28 weeks into her pregnancy and only in her 20s when she died based on the X-rays and CT scans the researchers conducted.

The experts were working as part of the Warsaw Mummy Project which aims to scan all mummies in museums and work to discover more about the first-ever pregnant Egyptian mummy found in history.

This discovery has opened new questions to answer, like why was the fetus was left inside the body and not mummified separately. But researchers think that perhaps because it was too young to have a name, it would need to travel to the afterlife with its mother.

Scientists say they discovered the world's first known pregnant mummy.

The 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy is in Poland, where scientists spotted a fetus in X-rays. They speculated it was not removed during embalming to "camouflage the pregnancy."

(📷: Warsaw Mummy Project) pic.twitter.com/hkaT5p9C7J
— AJ+ (@ajplus) April 29, 2021

First-Ever Pregnant Egyptian Mummy

The mummified body of the pregnant woman was discovered in Egypt and brought to Warsaw in 1826, NY Post reported. Polish researchers from the Polish Academy of Science examined the body in Poland, having originally believed it was a mummified male priest.

But the CT scans and X-rays revealed the remains of a fetus around 26-28 weeks old inside the mummy's body. Archaeologist Marzena Ozarek-Szilke told AP that their first surprise in the scans was that it had no penis but instead had breast and long hair, then they found a little foot and hand of the fetus that left them shocked.

The researchers wrote in their study, entitled "A pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy from the 1st century BC" published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, that the mummy was wrapped in fabrics and was entombed with amulets that represent the four sons of the Egyptian god of kingship and the sky, named Horus.

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Mysterious Lady of the National Museum in Warsaw

BBC News reported that the experts in the mummy project dubbed the mummified woman as the Mysterious Lady of the National Museum in Warsaw because of her unknown and conflicting origins.

Experts said that the remains were donated in the 19th century which the donor allegedly said that it was found in the royal tombs in Thebes. However, experts noted that it was common in the 19th century to falsely ascribe antiquities to famous places to increase their value.

The researchers from the 20th century think that the inscriptions in the woman's coffin and the sarcophagus were that of a Hor-Djehuti, a male priest.

But since it was identified as a female, they believe that perhaps the mummy was placed in the wrong coffin at some point by antiquity dealers during the 1800s, a time when looting and rewrapping of remains are widely common.

Nonetheless, experts said that the remains were "well-preserved" although there are some damages in the neck wrappings that suggest it was a target for its valuables in the past.