'Transgender' Mummy Discovered in Birmingham Museum Collection

Submitted by Ann on Fri, 07/10/2009 - 12:36

Not even a month after 4 brave mummies left the Brooklyn Museum to have themselves scanned, and 'Lady Hor' proved to be a male mummy - "scrotum and penis pretty well preserved", another round of mummy CSI uncovered yet another case of 'transgender' behaviour amongst mummies. The Birmingham Museum took three mummies to the Stafford Hospital in a bid to understand how these ancient Egyptians, whose bodied were later mummified, died.

One of the mummies, from the Namenkhetamun of the 26th Dynasty (664-525BC), was described as 'the daughter of Amunkhau' on the coffin lid. But the scan has revealed the mummy is male. Researchers also discovered another mystery - an unexplained hole in the mummy's back, about the size of a fist.

Museum staff also wanted to learn more about a 'metallic' object in the neck of a Graeco-Roman mummy, discovered on x-rays in 1995. The head contains three or four fragments of a dense unidentified material lodged in the base of the skull. This was previously thought to be an arrowhead but no entry or exit wounds are visible. The brain has been completely removed via the nose. Instead, the CT-scans have revealed the object is in fact one of three or four fragments - probably metal - lodged in the base of the skull.

Scans of Padimut, priest of the goddess Mut and probably of the 21st Dynasty (1085-935 BC), showed evidence of high quality mummification - including removal of the brain and 'false eyes' plates in front of the real eyeballs. These are possibly made from stone or glass.

Birmingham Museum’s curator of world cultures, Adam Jaffer, said: “This scanning has produced views of the museum’s mummies which have never been seen before. “We have been able to ‘virtually unwrap’ them without causing any damage. “But scanning poses new questions about the life and death of these ancient Egyptians which we will try to find the answers for.”

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Ann Wuyts (follow me: e-mail or

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Unique Iron Age Hoard goes on display at Ipswich Museum | Royal Artefacts - Including King Tut's Golden Trumpet - Returned to Egyptian Museum Cairo | SCA releases full list of treasures missing from the Cairo Museum

Ann 'Vint' Wuyts is looking after the Heritage Key community and avatar health & entertainment. She is slightly fascinated by everything to do with 3D technology and what's commonly defined as 'Web 2.0'. When she grows up, Ann - eventually - wants to be a mummy. Favourite game: Buzzword Bingo /…

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<p>Two other mummies from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s collections<a href='http://www.dominateseo.net/customer/index.php?linkwheel-link-wheel-service&cid=236'>,</a> called Padimut and Namenkhetamun, and two mummified heads were also CT scanned at the hospital on Friday. As well as providing 3D images, the X-rays could offer information on how old the people were when they died, their gender, what they may have looked like, their skeletal structure, their teeth and other fascinating facts about their lives. The scans, which have been partly funded by an anonymous sponsor, may also reveal jewellery and other trinkets that could be concealed within the mummies’ wrappings. Stafford Hospital’s strict infection control procedures were strictly observed throughout the procedures, with the mummies kept inside sterile body bags to prevent dust escaping from the ancient remains. Results from the imaging will now be analysed by a crack team of forensic Egyptologists from Birmingham Museum, but it could still be several weeks before the mystery is finally solved.</p>

Wed, 12-10-2011 07:40

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