A team of researchers working on the Warsaw Mummy Project studying the Egyptian “Mysterious Lady” mummy has determined how a fetus was preserved in her womb for more than 2,000 years. The team discovered the fetus last summer using a CT scanner and published their results in the Journal of Archaeological Science. In this new effort they uncovered the reasons for the survival of the fetus and have published a follow-up in the same journal.
During their study of the mummy last summer, the researchers found that not only was she pregnant at the time of her death, she was also a member of the Theban community. She had also been very carefully mummified and adorned with amulets. They also estimated her age at between 20 and 30 years old when she died, and the fetus was between 26 and 30 weeks along. The find remains the only case ever found of an embalmed pregnant mummy. Read more.
