The mummy turned out to be the embalmed body of a pregnant mummy. Polish scientists have discovered that the mummy they have hitherto considered a male religious leader is, in fact, an embalmed pregnant mummy.
This was revealed by researchers working on the Warsaw Mummy
Project in an article published in the scientific journal Journal of
Archaeological Science. The project, launched in 2015, aims to test the
technology used in artifacts housed in the National Museum of Warsaw.
The article states that the mummy was previously identified
as a male religious leader, but a recent scan revealed that it was not actually
a male mummy but a female mummy in the last days of her pregnancy.
According to experts, the mummy belongs to a high-ranking
woman between the ages of 20 and 30, who died between a century BC.
Dr. Marzina Ozarik, a researcher involved in the study, said
radiological images of the mummy showed the presence of a fetus in her womb.
The circumference of the fetal head suggests that the baby was 26 to 30 weeks
old before the mother died.
Experts say it is not yet clear for what reasons the baby
was not removed from the mother's womb and embalmed, but further research is
underway.
