By Madeleine Fountain
For over a century the intact mummified body of a teenage boy was kept unopened in the basement of the Cairo University Museum.
Now, scientists in Egypt have used CT scans to 'digitally unwrap' the 2300-year-old mummy, without disturbing the body within. The non-invasive method of investigation has provided valuable insight into Egyptian burial methods in the Ptolemaic era.
Scans showed that the mummy, nicknamed Golden Boy, was 128cm tall and around 14-15 years old. Thought to be of high socio-economic status, the teen was buried within two coffins and garlanded with ferns, wearing sandals and a gilded head mask. The scans also uncovered gifts to ensure a peaceful afterlife.
"This mummy's body was extensively decorated with 49 amulets, beautifully stylized in a unique arrangement of three columns between the folds of the wrappings and inside the mummy's body cavity," said Dr Sahar Saleem, author of a study into Golden Boy published in Frontiers in Medicine. "Their purpose was to protect the body and give it vitality in the afterlife."
Among the amulets was a golden leaf placed on the mummy's tongue, with the purpose of allowing him to speak in the afterlife, and a golden scarab beetle amulet found in the chest cavity.
"The heart scarab silenced the heart on Judgement Day, so as not to bear witness against the deceased," explained Dr Saleem.
No cause of death for Golden Boy was clear. Following the publication of the study the mummy has been moved into the main exhibition hall of the museum.
