Pregnant mummy may have hid ‘negative’ secret from embalmers. Now, researchers spot it

Brendan Rascius
Wed, December 27, 2023 



A pregnant mummy may have kept a secret for thousands of years — one that went undiscovered by ancient embalmers and 20th century archaeologists.

But now, upon re-examining the mummy, researchers revealed she had been carrying a second, hidden fetus, according to a study published on Dec. 21 in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology.

The mummy was unearthed at the Bagawat Cemetery in southern Egypt during a 1908 archaeological expedition and dates to the Late Dynasty, which spanned from 404 to 343 B.C.

It was found wrapped in sheets and layered with “a great quantity of salt,” researchers said.

Estimated to have been between 14 and 17 years old, the mummy was found with a partial fetus lodged in her pelvic cavity surrounded by numerous bandages.

Researchers determined the woman died during childbirth, when the baby’s head became stuck in the birth canal.

“This is a rare find,” Francine Margolis, one of the study authors, told McClatchy News. “There are several examples of women dying during childbirth in the archaeological record (one was a twin pregnancy). However, there has never been one found in Egypt.”

The second, previously unidentified fetus was found mysteriously lodged in the mummy’s chest cavity using CT scans and radiographs.

It’s not clear how it ended up there, but researchers ventured a hypothesis.

“One possibility is that the second fetus was not known to exist to anyone at the time, including the embalmers,” researchers said. “It was uncommon in this later Dynastic period to remove organs during the mummification process.”

The unknown fetus could have been unknowingly mummified alongside the mother’s internal organs. During the process — which involved dissolving the diaphragm and other connective tissue — the fetus could have “migrated” into the chest cavity.

The discovery emphasizes how dangerous childbirth was during ancient Egyptian times, researchers said.

Twins, in particular, were considered to be “negative” and were hoped to be avoided.

“We hypothesized that the Egyptians knew twin births carried more risk and complications and therefore tried to protect against it,” Margolis said.

In fact, a spell found on an ancient papyrus said, “We shall (cause her) to conceive male children and female children. We shall keep her safe from a Horus-birth, from an irregular birth and from giving birth to twins.”

Other ancient cultures too, including the Babylonians and Greeks, considered twins to be a bad omen, according to “The Newborn: A Cultural Medical History.”

“Reasons included the infants’ morbidity and prematurity, the difficulty of breastfeeding two infants for longer, and the belief in superfecundation: more than one father was held responsible for procreating twins,” the authors said.