A mummy referred to as the golden boy has not yet been opened. With a special examination method, a research team is now able to elicit the secrets of the 2,300-year-old mummy.
A boy in ancient Egypt was sent on his last journey with 49 valuable amulets. The mummy, called the “golden boy”, was around 2,300 years old and has never been opened, explains a research team in the journal “Frontiers in Medicine”. X-raying with a computer tomograph (CT) has now revealed the magnificent additions. Among other things, a golden tongue amulet was placed in the mouth of the deceased to enable him to speak in the afterlife.
Discovered in 1916 during excavations at Nag el-Hassay in southern Egypt, the mummy dates to the Ptolemaic period around 330 BC. Since it was found, it has been kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The CT scans led the researchers to conclude that it was the mummy of a boy around 15 years old and 1.30 meters tall. His body was in good condition with no signs of injury, illness or other obvious causes of death. Computed tomography is a 3D X-ray examination that can be used to create cross-sectional images of a body or other objects.
“The body of this mummy was extensively adorned with 49 amulets, beautifully stylized in a unique arrangement in three rows between the bandal folds and in the body cavity,” said Sahar Salim, professor of medicine at Cairo University and leader of the study. The amulets are made of gold, semi-precious stones, fired clay and ceramics. “Its purpose was to protect the body and give it strength in the afterlife,” said Salim. In addition, the body was covered with garlands braided from ferns. Such plant offerings had symbolic meaning in the beliefs of the Egyptians.
The ancient Egyptians believed that the spirit lives on in an afterlife after death. According to belief, however, access was only gained after a dangerous path through the underworld and after the verdict of a final judgement. Relatives and embalmers therefore endeavored to make it possible for the deceased to arrive in the afterlife and to protect his body.
The “Golden Boy”, who probably had a high social status at the time of his death, also received shoes for it. “The sandals should probably allow him to walk out of the coffin,” Salim said. It is similar in the Book of the Dead of ancient Egyptians. The boy also wore a gilded mask and breastplate. According to the research team, the brain was removed through the nose and the skull filled with resin. Except for the heart, the internal organs were also removed.
The Great Egyptian Museum is currently under construction in Cairo and is scheduled to open this year. However, many artefacts are still located in the ancient Egyptian Museum in central Tahrir Square. The “Golden Boy” is now to be exhibited there in the main hall – together with some of the CT scans.
