Dr. Stephen Buckley
Following the first part of this article by Jo giving the background to our work on the royal mummies of the Amarna Period, it is now possible to discuss our recent mummification project, the science involved and the wider implications for mummy studies and indeed Egyptology.
As Jo and I discussed during our lectures to TESSA in September 2010, we have been working on this major project since 2003 when we re-examined three royal mummies in KV.35 in the Valley of the Kings. Using portable digital X-ray equipment to study these three mummies, whose identities we suggested to be Tiy, Nefertiti and prince Tuthmosis, we noticed what we described as a ‘snowflake effect’ within the images.
These speckled white markings were clearly visible on the X-rays beneath the skin within the soft tissues, yet at the time we could not explain what they were. It was not permitted to take samples from the mummies, so we needed to find another way of explaining this very distinctive feature which seems to have escaped previous notice.
So on our return to the UK, we continued our research by scrutinising every available X-ray of all the royal mummies which had first been published in book form in 1980. These revealed the ‘snowflake’ feature was clearly present in royals of the 18th dynasty, yet was completely absent in those from the 19th and 20th dynasties.
A major clue in finding out what the white speckles actually represented came from the findings of chemist Alfred Lucas (1867-1945), whose pioneering chemical analysis of tissue samples from these same royal mummies revealed the key ingredient of natron salt, deep within the mummified tissues.
It was a subject in which Lucas himself was uniquely qualified, having begun work for the Egyptian Salt and Soda Company in 1898 before his eventual position as head of the government’s analytical laboratories and chemist to the Egyptian Department of Antiquities. And with his further interest in forensic science earning him the title ‘the Sherlock Holmes of Egypt’, Lucas’ experiments into body preservation and analysis of mummified tissue led to his discovery of salt crystals within 18th dynasty royal mummies.
Yet his findings intrigued us, since the crystals were simply too large to have penetrated the skin as a result of drying out the body beneath a pile of dry natron. They could only have permeated in liquid form, ie. via a natron solution.
Although placing a body in water might seem completely counter-intuitive, the use of a natron solution had been initially suggested in early 19th century translations of the Greek writer Herodotus, which claim that a natron bath had been used to preserve Egyptian mummies. Yet in his original Greek text, Herodotus simply states that bodies were preserved in the same way fish are preserved; since some cultures salt their fish while others pickle them, this seems to be where the confusion first arose.
With Lucas’ initial findings of salt crystals within the tissue supporting the idea of a natron bath, he decided to test the theory further by conducting a series of experiments, placing bird carcasses in both dry and liquid natron. Yet having used only quite weak concentrations of the solution, the results were largely unsuccessful and Lucas himself began to doubt its effectiveness. Then as his experiments were replicated in experiments with rats in the 1970s, Egyptologists announced only dry natron could have been used, a conclusion also followed in 1994 when the American Bob Brier mummified an anonymous human donor using natron in its dry form.
Yet despite such received wisdom, the presence of the salt crystals in the 18th dynasty royal mummies could only be explained by the use of a natron solution, something we could only prove conclusively by carrying out our own experiments. So using pigs as a human proxy, we carried out almost 200 separate tests using varying concentrations of natron solution, as well as using formulas of natron in dry form. Discovering the optimum concentration was able to remove bodily fluids while also transforming the body fat into a highly stable form, it was also highly caustic and dramatically bleached the skin. So in order to prevent this bleaching, we followed the ancients’ example and prior to submersion coated the skin in a specific blend of oils and resins. This was the same blend we had discovered during our own scientific analysis of mummy samples, which effectively created a barrier while still allowing the dissolved salts to penetrate the body’s tissues.
Having finally perfected this technique based on evidence from the royal mummies made during the 18th dynasty when the embalmers’ so-called ‘art’ was at its peak, the final step was to mummify a human body in the same way. So in consultation with the British Medical Association and the Human Tissue Authority, we were able to secure specialised mortuary facilities and the expert guidance of Home Office pathologist Professor Peter Venezis and Professor Bill Bass, founder of the Forensic Anthropology Centre (better known as the ‘Body Farm’) at the University of Tennessee. Yet the most crucial individual was the body donor, 61 year old Alan Billis who volunteered for the process after a diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Following Alan’s untimely death in January 2011, our assembled team of pathologists and technicians began to transform his body using techniques last used 3,500 years ago to preserve Egypt’s royal dead. With the whole process filmed to create a permanent record for future study, the internal organs were removed through a small incision in his left side, the skin coated in a protective golden mixture of sesame oil, beeswax and conifer resin and the eviscerated body submerged in a solution of liquid natron.
Although based on sound – if surprising – scientific principals, the techniques also brought together the key elements of ancient Egypt’s ritual landscape, in which the sun and water were believed to combine to create life in an eternal cycle of rebirth and regeneration. This notion of rebirth was certainly emphasised as the solution turned bright red as a result of the haemoglobin leaching from the body, making the moment when Alan’s body was brought out of the water in some ways comparable to the moment of birth itself.
The body was then placed in a specially constructed drying unit designed to maintain the high temperature and low humidity of the ancient landscape, allowing it to stabilise and dry out gradually before being wrapped in several layers of linen.
At this point, the wrapped body would have been buried, but in order to test the effectiveness of the procedure it was necessary for us to carry out an examination of the body via X-ray, CT scans and by the unwrapping of the head, hands and feet which were all well preserved.
Having overturned much of the long-held scientific and scholarly understanding of Egyptian mummification, this research also has profound implications for other areas of mummy studies, particularly DNA analysis. Already considered highly dubious by ancient DNA experts given Egypt’s highly problematic environmental conditions, our new research also raises questions about recent findings discussing the DNA of Tutankhamen and his family, surely the least likely of all royal mummies to yield genuinely ancient DNA since water is highly damaging to DNA.
As the scientists responsible for this DNA study say themselves, the “mummification process protected the DNA from degrading in the hot tomb by removing water, which is required for the main mechanism of DNA decay…”. They also state that “the Egyptians really knew how to preserve a body….they got rid of water very fast”. Yet the evidence actually shows that these very same mummies were actually immersed in water, specifically in an alkaline solution, for 35 to 40 days, thereby seriously damaging if not completely destroying the original DNA.
Nevertheless, while the liquid natron technique may destroy such biomolecular evidence, it is a highly successful means of preserving the body itself and explains the superb levels of preservation found among the 18th dynasty royal mummies and now in the case of Alan Billis.
With his body rewrapped and placed in secure storage, awaiting future study according to his wishes and those of his family who can request his body for burial at any time, it seems fitting to end this two-part article with Alan’s own words:
“I’d like to hope I’m going to be missed. I’ve had quite a good life. I’m going to be hanging around a bit longer that’s all. It’s my legacy I suppose”, a legacy he shares with the greatest of Egypt’s ancient pharaohs.
Dr. Stephen Buckley is a Research Fellows at the University of York and a founder member of the University of York’s Mummy Research Group. He has studied human remains around the world and lectures widely on the subject.
Further Reading:
J. Harris & E. Wente, 1980, An X-Ray Atlas of the Royal Mummies, Chicago (University of Chicago Press)
A. Lucas, 1911, Preservative Materials used by the Ancient Egyptians in Embalming, Ministry of Finance Survey Department Paper No.12, Cairo (National Printing Department)
A. Lucas (and J.R. Harris), 1989, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, London (Histories and Mysteries of Man)
M. Gilberg, 1997, Alfred Lucas: Egypt’s Sherlock Holmes, Journal of the American Institute for Conservation Vol. 36, No.1, p.31-48
M.T.P Gilbert et al. 2005, Long-Term Survival of Ancient DNA in Egypt: Response to Zink and Nerlich (2003), American Journal of Physical Anthropology Vol.128, p.110-114
E. Davies, 2010, The Bones of it, Chemistry World Vol.7, No.11, November 2010, p.44-48
Z. Hawass et al, 2010, Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamen’s Family, Journal of the American Medical Association Vol.303, No.7, p.638-647
E. Lorenzen & E Willerslev, 2010, King Tutankhamen’s Family and Demise, Journal of the American Medical Association Vol.303, No.24, p.2471
J. Marchant, 2011, Curse of the Pharaoh’s DNA, Nature Vol.472, No.7344, p.404-406
J. Marchant, 2011, Death on the Nile, New Scientist no.2795, p.42-45
J. Marchant, 2011, Egyptian Mummification Method Resurrected in the UK, New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/10/egyptian-mummification-method.html