Known as ‘The Mysterious Lady’, the embalmed woman was analyzed last year by a team of Polish researchers
The face of the world’s first pregnant ancient Egyptian mummy has been reconstructed by forensic scientists.
Known as “The Mysterious Lady”, the embalmed woman was analyzed last year by a team of Polish researchers, who found a fetus inside her stomach. They believe she died around 2,000 years ago while she was 28 weeks pregnant and was probably between 20 and 30 years old.
Now, experts have used her skull and other remains to create two images, showing what she might have looked like when she lived in the first century BC.
THE Chantal Milani, an Italian medical examiner and member of the Warsaw Mummy Project, said: “Our bones, and especially the skull, give a lot of information about a person’s face. Although it cannot be considered an exact portrait, the skull, like many anatomical parts, is unique and shows a set of shapes and proportions that will appear in the final face.”
He added: “The face, which covers the bone structure, follows different anatomical rules, so standardized procedures can be applied to reconstruct it, for example to define the shape of the nose.”
The “Mysterious Lady” is said to have been found in royal tombs in Egypt. The mummy was discovered in the early 1800s and dates back to the first century BC, when Cleopatra was queen.
The mummy was brought from Egypt to Warsaw in December 1826, around the time some of the most important discoveries from the Egyptian Valley of the Kings were made.
Her body had been carefully wrapped in cloth and a rich array of amulets had been left to accompany her in the afterlife.
The mummy is believed to be the first embalmed specimen known to contain a fetus and is currently on display at the National Museum in Warsaw.
Coroner Hew Morrison said: “Reconstructing a person’s face from their skull is often seen as a last resort in an attempt to establish who they were.”
Dr Wojciech Ejsmond, an archaeologist from the Polish Academy of Sciences, added: “For many people, ancient Egyptian mummies are something of a curiosity and some tend to forget that they were once living people, who had their own separate lives, loves and tragedies.” .
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