In the popular imagination, the discovery of mummies is an adventurous business, carried out by pith-helmeted explorers fastidiously brushing and tapping under the torrid Egyptian sun.
This week, the University of Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum found one – the smallest ever discovered – under quite different circumstances: Researchers realized they already had it in their possession.
In 1907, British archaeologists working in Egypt uncovered a 17-inch coffin at Giza. The next year, they passed the artifact, which likely dates to the sixth or seventh century B.C., to the museum at Cambridge, where it remains. Until this week, the museum assumed that the box contained sundry organs removed during someone’s mummification.
New findings, however, rewrite the coffin’s story: A micro CT scan performed at the Cambridge Department of Zoology revealed the remains of a tiny 16- to 18-week-old fetus, likely the result of miscarriage.
“Using non-invasive modern technology to investigate this extraordinary archaeological find has provided us with striking evidence of how an unborn child might be viewed in ancient Egyptian society,” Julie Dawson, head of conservation at the museum, said in a statement. “The care taken in the preparation of this burial clearly demonstrates the value placed on life even in the first weeks of its inception.”
Other preserved Egyptian fetuses have been discovered before, although not this small or young.
The CT scan images reveal a clearly identifiable skeleton, its arms crossed.
The mummy will be on display at the museum through May 22.
