Wednesday, January 29, 2020

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND—A 2,600-year-old Egyptian mummy brought to Belfast and unwrapped in 1835 has undergone additional testing, according to a statement released by the University of Manchester. Researchers from the National Museums Northern Ireland, the University of Manchester, Queen’s University Belfast, and Kingsbridge Private Hospital collected samples for DNA analysis from the mummified woman, who is known as Takabuti, and found that her mitochondrial DNA lineage is more similar to that usually found in European populations. A review of CT scans of her body identified an object in her body cavity, which had previously been thought to be her heart, as material that was used to pack a fatal knife wound in her back, near her left shoulder. Her heart, however, was also discovered in her body and found to be perfectly preserved. It was also revealed that Takabuti had 33 teeth, rather than the usual 32, and an extra vertebra. To read about a 4,300-year-old painted burial chamber of an Egyptian dignitary at Saqqara, go to "Old Kingdom Tomb," one of ARCHAEOLOGY's Top 10 Discoveries of 2019.