(Observer News) Combined with the BBC and the British "Guardian" april 29 news, Polish researchers said they found the world's first known well-preserved ancient pregnant woman mummy. The woman was 26-30 weeks (about 7 months) pregnant, but the cause of her death and why the fetus was not removed when it was mummified is unknown.
The mummy found a fetus in the body, the source of the relevant paper
This was reportedly discovered by researchers at the Warsaw Mummy Project. The "Warsaw Mummy Project", which began in 2015, brings together a wide range of archaeologists to examine the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw using technical means.
Because the coffin and inscription are well-made, the mummy was previously thought to be a male priest. But now scans show that it is a woman in the third trimester of pregnancy. Based on the fetal head circumference, the researchers estimate that the mother was 26 to 30 weeks pregnant at the time of death, probably in the 1st century BC, but the cause of death is unknown.
The "Warsaw Mummy Project" also announced the news to the public on social media
The researchers said the woman may have had a high social status before her death, ranging in age from 20 to 30. It is unclear why the fetus is not extracted from the womb and treated individually. Presumably, this may be due to some kind of spiritual belief about the afterlife, or it is difficult to remove it in itself.
The paper was published in the journal of archaeological science website screenshot
The researchers say this is the only known example of a "mummified pregnant woman" and the first radiographic image of such a fetus. Wojciech Ejsmond, a member of the research team, told The Associated Press: "This is our most important and meaningful discovery to date, completely unexpected."
One of the researchers, Marzena Ozarek-Szilke, a scholar at the University of Warsaw, said the team hopes that the cause of death of the woman could be determined later by studying a small amount of tissue from the mummy.
According to the website information, the Journal of Archaeological Science, which published the paper, was founded in 1974, and its editorial board members came from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, the Australian Museum, the British Museum (in the United Kingdom), the University of Leuven in Belgium, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States, Tel Aviv University in Israel and the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (cha) and other units and institutions.