Decipher the mystery of how to preserve the fetus in a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy

Archaeologists from the Polish Academy of Sciences carried out the Warsaw Mummy Project – scanning all the mummies in the museum and discovered the world's first fetal mummy.

The team examined the mummy, its coffin and its cover.

The world's first fetal mummy was unearthed in the 1800s and displayed at the National Museum in Warsaw (Poland). At the end of 2016, archaeologists scanned the fetal remains of about 26 to 30 weeks old in a 2,000-year-old Egyptian female mummy through CT scans and X-rays. At that time, no researchers could solve the mystery of how to preserve the fetus in the womb of the surrogate mother. Usually, when the Egyptians mummified their bodies, they removed all the organs and left only the heart inside the mummy.

A female mummy carefully wrapped in cloth and decorated with 'amulets' motifs unearthed from the Royal Tomb of the ancient city of Thebes in Upper Egypt, dating from the first century BC – the period Queen Cleopatra reigned. Researchers believe that this female mummy belonged to the upper class of society at that time.

 
The team scanned several times the world's first found pregnant female mummy.

Recently, researchers have solved the mystery of how to preserve the fetus inside the uterus of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy. To dry the corpse, the embalmers covered the woman's body with a natural compound of sodium salts called natron.

This natron powder is used as baking soda in cooking, medicine, agriculture, especially widely used in prehistoric times in Egypt, the Middle East, and Greece in the production of glass and embalming. .

The belly of the mummy has amulets.

 
The abdomen of the mummy in a series of scans of scientists. The fetus can be seen as a light colored mass in the image.

Natron acts as a natural antiseptic and desiccant (drying), after natron penetrates the body of a pregnant woman, 'it makes formic acid and other synthetic substances' work inside the uterus created the perfect conditions for preserving the stillbirth in the mummy. The perfectly preserved fetus in the womb of a female mummy has further demonstrated the skillful mummification techniques of the ancient people.