In 2021, Polish scientists discovered a mummy that kept the fetus in its womb for 2,000 years. However, they didn’t know why there was no skeleton
In April 2021, researchers at the Warsaw Mummies Project, Poland, published a paper announcing the discovery of the first known pregnant mummy, which they dubbed the Mysterious Lady. Now, after an exhaustive study of the fetus, they are trying to explain why it lacks bony structures.
The monk was a woman
The mummy, dated to the 1st century BC, was found inside a coffin believed to belong to an Egyptian priest, but CT scans of the mummy revealed that the remains belonged to a woman. The scans also highlighted a structure in the mummy’s abdomen that the researchers concluded was a fetus at about 28 weeks.
In the new study, carried out by the same team that found the monk was actually the Mysterious Lady, they explain why the fetus has no skeletal bones or a defined body shape.
The Polish team proposes that the mother’s uterus would have become acidic over time due to the mummification process, and that the acidity would have slowly dissolved the fetus’ bones, leaving behind a misshapen chunk of mineralized tissue, which is what it is. seen in mummy scans.
The researchers explain that the process that destroyed the fetus is similar to how an egg can be preserved. “It’s not the most aesthetic comparison, but it shows the point,” the team wrote in a blog post .
The acid decomposed the fetus’ skeleton
The Polish team’s new proposal is based on the idea that the human body becomes more acidic (or has a lower pH) as it breaks down. Without oxygen entering the body, the chemical reactions that take place produce acidic compounds such as formic acid. “The pH of blood in cadavers, including the contents of the uterus, drops significantly and becomes more acidic,” the researchers write.
The researchers explain that the acidification process is more severe in mummies because natron, a natural salt that accumulates in and around the body during the mummification process, creates a barrier that retains acid within certain places, such as the uterus. .
What if it’s not a fetus?
However, there is a more mundane explanation, which wraps up the mystery of the pregnant mummy. The main critic of the study was Sahar Saleem, a mummy expert and professor of radiology at Cairo University in Egypt. Saleem was skeptical that the fetus was legitimate due to the lack of physical evidence such as bones. And despite the new article, Saleem is unconvinced and questions whether the mummy was pregnant.
Saleem suggests that the mineralized structure within the mummy’s abdomen is likely embalming packets, which were often placed in the mummies’ abdomen after the interior had been emptied.
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