Egypt

In Egypt, the abundance of human and animal remains, both as skeletons and as mummies, provides a rich source of information concerning the ancient Egyptian culture, environment and people. These have been intermittently studied in the past, and have become a focus of attention from the middle of the 20th century onward. A study of skeletal material provides the same sort of data as it does anywhere else: age, sex, disease; and additionally, depending on sample size, relationship, epidemiological or population studies can be executed. Holistic studies of mummies yield information about technology, disease, diet, medical science, aesthetics (cosmetics, tattooing and hairstyles), religious beliefs and customs, diachronic change in mummification technology, specific materials used in manufacturing mummies, embalming ateliers, trade, social and religious divisions, and the environment of ancient Egypt. The history of the study of human remains in Egypt is varied, with little rigorous scientific

work being carried out until the 20th century, although an increasing number of medical-style autopsies were carried out on mummies in the second half of the 19th century (Ikram, in press). These included examination by X-rays, with the first royal mummy (Thutmose IV) being X-rayed by Dr Khayrat in 1903 (Smith 1912: iii-iv). Interest in human remains increased during the early years of the 20th century (Smith and

Dawson 1924). Mummies, defleshed mummies (skeletons), and skeletal remains were examined by doctors primarily, as well as by anthropologists. Generally, small samples were examined, although, on occasion, larger cemetery studies were instituted, such as the 6000 bodies excavated and examined by G.E. Smith, W. Dawson, and F.W. Jones (Smith and Wood-Jones 1910), in the hope of a broader understanding of a population, rather than the medical history of one specific individual. With the advent of palaeopathology, tissue samples from mummies were analysed to identify organs as well as to isolate diseases (Ruffer 1921). Initially, human remains were studied primarily by medical examiners: doctors, anatomists

and (palaeo)pathologists. These scholars, as one might expect, were trying to identify diseases, establish dietary patterns, in addition to establishing the sex and age of the body. Anthropologists were also involved with the study of human remains, but to a lesser extent. Anthropologists (some as early as 1844) were subjecting ancient Egyptians’ skulls to craniometric analysis to identify and better understand and identify racial characteristics on the skeleton. It

was not until the latter half of the 20th century that physical anthropologists entered the fray as members of excavation teams to work on skeletal remains. Mummies and skeletons have not been treated in the same way; one has tissue, the other, not.

Thus, a variety of technologies, mainly adopted from the medical profession, have been used to study the former in particular, while the latter is examined in a standard manner (sex, age, disease), depending on the scientists’ training, inclination, access to the bones, and time. For mummies, additional analysis includes tissue sampling to identify diseases, CT-scans (computed tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), and ultrasound imaging whenever possible. Diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, and trichinosis (Deelder et al. 1990; Nehrlich and Zink 1999; Miller et al. 1994: 31-32, 1992) have been identified frommummies. Stable isotope analysis is used on bone or tooth enamel in an effort to better understand ancient diets. Mummification materials have been isolated and identified using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (Buckley and Evershed 2001; Buckley et al.1999, 2004: 294-99). Currently DNA work is also being carried out on mummified remains, particularly the royal mummies. This work is spearheaded by the Director General of Antiquities, Dr Zahi Hawass. Currently, permission for DNA work is restricted to Egyptian-led groups of scientists and the analysis itself is carried out primarily in Egypt.