Date of sighting: Jan 24, 2023
Two Golden Mummies Found - One Wrapped in Gold Leaf May Be Oldest Ever


The Saqqara necropolis at Egypt's ancient capital of Memphis has been an archeological gold mine recently … and to prove it, one of the latest discoveries there is covered with gold leaf. Gold seems to be the theme when it comes to mummies these days as the mummified remains of a boy that was never unwrapped was digitally unwrapped with a CT scanner and it show the boy covered with 49 golden amulets, including a gold tongue and a gold cover for his private part. Will this trigger a ‘gold rush’ of mummy hunters to Egypt?

“This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date.”
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the director of Egyptian excavation team which discovered the gold-covered mummy, made the announcement this week at the site of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, near Cairo. This has been a year-long excavation which also uncovered a 52-foot-long papyrus containing the complete Book of the Dead. However, that discovery pales in comparison to the finding of the mummied remains of a man named Hekashepesy. Hawass told the media that the mummy was found at the bottom of a 49-foot (15 meters) shaft in a group of tombs dating back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom – putting them in the 2500 BCE to 2170 BCE timeframe. The tombs are near the Step Pyramid of Djoser, which was completed around 2650 BCE. That gave Hawass and his team a good idea how old the limestone sarcophagus might be when they pulled it up from the shaft. While the coffin was sealed in mortar, Hawass was able to inspect its interior. (Photos can be seen here.)
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: a beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold. This mummy may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date.”


It is a challenge to accurately determine the age of Egyptian mummies. A naturally mummified body was found in a near Gebelein (now called Naga el-Gherira) in 1896 – the so-called Gebelein Man was estimated to have died around 3400 BCE and is nicknamed ‘Ginger’ for his red hair. The mummified body of Lady Rai, the nursemaid to Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, the first Queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, was found in 1891 and dates to around 1530 BCE. The mummy of Amenhotep I is considered to be the oldest royal Egyptian mummy, dating to about 1506 BCE. Based on that, Hekashepesy is certainly in the running, if not the current leader, in the ‘oldest Egyptian mummy’ contest. Hawass stresses the significance of this discovery is not in its age or gold leaf but in the fact that Hekashepesy and the others found there were ordinary Egyptians.
“The most important tomb belongs to Khnumdjedef, an inspector of the officials, a supervisor of the nobles, and a priest in the pyramid complex of Unas, the last king of the fifth dynasty. The tomb is decorated with scenes of daily life.”
The team found another shaft that was 30 feet deep and contained three other tombs and many wooden statues. In addition to Khnumdjedef, they found the mummified remains of Meri, the “keeper of the secrets and assistant to the great leader of the palace” who oversaw the Pharaoh's archive documents, which were considered to be magic to common Egyptians who could not read. The wooden statues were of individuals and families, not just gods, and included three of one person, a judge and writer identified as “Fetek,” which were next to his mummy. Finally, this ancient burial site contained burial artifacts - amulets, stone vessels and other items.
While the discovery of the gold-covered mummy was significant, it didn’t overshadow an announcement just a few days before of another mummy taking a lot of gold into the afterlife.
"Here we show that this mummy's body was extensively decorated with 49 amulets, beautifully stylized in a unique arrangement of three columns between the folds of the wrappings and inside the mummy's body cavity."
In an interview with CNET, Sahar Saleem, a radiologist at Cairo University, explains how she and her team revealed new information about another old mummy – one which has been stored and unexamined in the Cairo Egyptian Museum since 1916. Saleem is the first author of the research paper, “Scanning and three-dimensional-printing using computed tomography of the “Golden Boy” mummy.” Published in the journal Frontiers of Medicine, which describes how she and her team used Computed Tomography (CT) and 3D-printing to scan the mummified remains and learn enough to call it the “Golden Boy.”
“Biological sex could be determined from the presence of male genitalia; epiphyseal fusion and tooth eruption indicated an approximate age at death of 14–15 years.”
The CT scan provided a non-invasive view of the body and the 3D printing helped to digitally reconstruct the boy’s bones, blood vessels, soft tissues and more. It showed he wore a pair of white sandals, which appear to be the least expensive part of his burial outfit. The amulets, many made of solid gold, included the Eye of Horus -- a scarab beetle inside his chest – and a two-finger amulet beside his penis. (Many photos can be seen here.) The amulets were placed in specific areas in accordance with the aforementioned Egyptian Book of the Dead. A gold tongue amulet was placed inside the mouth to ensure the deceased boy could speak in the afterlife, and the two-finger amulet by the penis was to protect the embalming incision. The mummy’s eye lines and eyebrows were inlaid with stones, and the eye pupil was made of black obsidian.

Other amulets included a gold double-falcon-plume, gold scarab, stone serpent head, and a gold double ostrich plume, and the Golden Boy’s face was covered with golden head mask. On the medical side, the CT scan showed the boy had excellent teeth and had no signs of trauma, so the researchers assume the cause of death, even at such a young age, was natural. The mummy and coffin were discovered in 1916 at a necropolis in Nag el Hassaya, the cemetery of the city of Edfu. The scan helped date the boy’s death to between 330 BCE and 30 BCE, and the gold mask indicated he was of high status.
The mystery of ancient Egyptian mummification continues to unfold and goes on to fascinate us. These recent discoveries of a complete Book of the Dead, the gold-covered oldest known mummy and the Golden Boy show the Egyptians long had a strong belief in the afterlife and a reverence for the dead – and not just the deceased of the royal families but of ordinary Egyptians as well. We would do well to follow their examples rather than portray their mummified deceased in horror movies.

























