It turns out that the identity of what was regarded as "mummy of hawk" was actually a fetal mummy of anencephaly

A survey using ultra-high-resolution CT scan that the mummy, which had been regarded as a "mummy of hawk" made in Egypt before 2100 years ago, was actually a fetal mummy that was stillborn with anencephaly It became clear from.

Micro-CT scans show 2, 100-year-old 'hawk' mummy a stillborn baby - Media Relations
http://mediarelations.uwo.ca/2018/05/31/micro-ct-scans-show-2100-year-old-hawk-mummy-stillborn-baby/

This 'Hawk Mummy' Was Actually Human
https://www.livescience.com/62705-hawk-mummy-was-human.html

"The upper part of the head of this fetus has not been completely formed," said Andrew Nelson, a biological archaeologist who conducted the survey and professor of anthropology at the University of Western Ontario. The fetus is considered to have been stillborn at the stage of 23 weeks to 28 weeks of pregnancy with the earlobe being positioned in the back of the head without the formation of a part "spinal column" of the spine which should be made in the process of growth It is.


Mr. Nelson talks about the situation of the mummy with the following movie along with actual CT scan data and so on.

'Bird mummy' mystery - solved - YouTube


"Hawk's mummy" was donated by a local doctor to the Maidstone Museum in the UK in 1925. It was thought that "Taka's mummy" was contained as an offering to God, as it was drawn with a pattern that looks like a hawk in the container


Mr. Nelson's research team initially attempted internal investigation of this mummy using the CT scan of the facility.


However, because the resolution of the device we used was low and we were not able to get satisfactory results, Nelson and colleagues, in collaboration with Nikon UK, decided to perform a 3D scan of the mummy with a very high resolution CT scanner Did.


As a result of the scan, it turned out that the container contained in the container was not a mummy of hawk, but a mummy of a fetus stillborn during pregnancy.


From another CT image, you can see that the skeleton was a fetus that was coming up.


However, this fetus has been found from the CT image that the cranial bone did not sufficiently develop, and the brain was anencephaly with loss of the brain.


The fetus is believed to have been made mummified after careful treatment after stillborn baby. Mr. Nelson says "This mummy would have been a very special thing for families who have had stillbirth in a non-normal condition, so it was a tragic event."



On the mummy's coffin, the god of the dead world in Egyptian mythology "Osiris"Is lying, the state where Isis and the goddess of Nifis stand on it. In addition, the appearance of a bird with a human head, representing "bar (soul)" which was considered as one of the elements that constitute a human being together with "name" "body" "shadow" "car (spirit)" is Osiris' A state of flying above and on itHorus' eyesIt is said that there is a pattern of eyes called also an ancient Egyptian symbol called. A family who lost an important baby seems to carefully handled the bodies.