CT scan 'digitally unwraps' Amenhotep I mummy for first time

Dec. 28 (UPI) -- Scientists used a computed tomography scan to "digitally unwrap" the 3,500-year-old mummy of Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep I, revealing new details about his death, burial and early restoration efforts, a research paper released Tuesday shows.

It was the first time anyone's had a look underneath the linen of the carefully preserved mummy since the 11th century B.C., when embalmers rewrapped the pharaoh after it was damaged by grave robbers.

"This fact that Amenhotep I's mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death, by High Priests of Amun," said Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University and the radiologist of the Egyptian Mummy Project.

Saleem was the lead author on the findings, published in Frontiers in Medicine.

"By digitally unwrapping of the mummy and 'peeling off' its virtual layers -- the face mask, the bandages, and the mummy itself -- we could study this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail," she added.

The CT scan showed that Amenhotep I had "good teeth" at the time of his death, indicating he was around 35 years old. He was 5 feet, 6 inches tall and his remains showed no obvious cause of death.

"Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father: he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair and mildly protruding upper teeth," Saleem said.

Within his wrappings, he had 30 amulets and his arms were crossed, the earliest known example of a New Kingdom mummy with this positioning. The mummy was covered by a mask made of cartonnage -- layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster -- with inlaid stone eyes.

Researchers said the body showed signs of damage by grave robbers which was later repaired by 21st Dynasty embalmers. The embalmers reattached Amenhotep I's head and neck to his body, covered a defect in the abdominal wall and wrapped a detached arm to the body.

"This study may make us gain confidence in the goodwill of the reburial project of the Royal mummies by the 21st dynasty priests," the article states.

Archaeologists discovered the mummy of Amenhotep I in 1881 among other reburied royal mummies at Deir el Bahari, a location where many royal mummies were taken for protection from grave robbers. The mummy was one of few to be left untouched by researchers because of its remarkably intact condition.

It is kept at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo.