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Submitting a pharaonic mummy that inhabited Egypt 2,600 years ago to a modern medical examination can yield important surprises. This has happened with Takabuti, a twenty-year-old woman whose bruised body has resided in Northern Ireland for the past 185 years. His recent analysis has revealed that he was the victim of a murder and that he was genetically closer to Europeans than to the current Egyptians .
"This new study helps us to understand Takabuti, but also to broaden the historical context of the times in which he lived. The surprising and important finding of his European heritage sheds light on a crucial moment in the history of Egypt," says Rosalie David, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester and one of the team members who signed the research.
For months, Takabuti - who was probably a housewife and lived in ancient Thebes, the current Egyptian city of Luxor, during the XXV dynasty (732-653 BC) - has stoically overcome a succession of X-rays, CT scans, tests DNA, hair analysis and radiocarbon dating . A complete check whose result has surprised the conservatives of the Ulster museum, in whose rooms it is exposed as one of the jewels of the collection.
"The H4a1 genetic footprint of Takabuti is relatively rare because it has not been found in any ancient or modern Egyptian population ," argues geneticist Konstantina Drosou. "My results, however, are consistent with previous studies that suggest that the ancient Egyptians were genetically more similar to Europeans than to the current Arabs," the scientist emphasizes.
The exam has also opened a slit for an unsolved homicide. The mummy has a wound in the upper back, near the left shoulder caused by a brutal stabbing that was fatal, as he has discovered the scan. "The CT scan reveals that Takabuti had a serious wound in the upper left part of his back , which should have caused him to die quickly," confirms surgeon Robert Loynes.
"The scan also reveals rare and unusual characteristics of the embalming process," the doctor adds. The team that prepared the corpse for his life after the earth filled the cavity produced by the knife with certain material. An operation that for decades led scientists to think that it was the space from which the heart had been removed.
An organ whose presence has now revealed the investigation. "The importance of confirming the existence of the heart cannot be underestimated because in ancient Egypt this organ was removed in the afterlife and heavy to decide if the deceased had had a good life. If he weighed too much, the Ammut demon ate him and the journey into another life would fail, "says Greer Ramsey, curator of the Norwegian museum.
A tooth more than normal
The puzzles solved by technology are not here. Takabuti, which was acquired in 1834 by the rich Irishman Thomas Greg and sent to Belfast, has a more normal tooth -33 instead of 32-, "something that only happens in 0.02% of the population," he emphasizes the study. "The new research has allowed us to know fascinating things like the way in which her red hair was combed and curly . This must have been an important part of her identity, since it was a rejection of the typical curly head style," slides the bioarchaeologist Eileen Murphy.
When he landed in Belfast, Takabuti received a shower of flashes and caused media fever. Poems were written in his honor and rivers of ink ran in the newspapers as a posthumous recognition.
"It had often been said that he was projecting a peaceful countenance lying inside his coffin but now we know that the final moments of his life had nothing to do with peace and that he died at the hands of another human being, " Murphy concludes.
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