The mummy of King Amenhotep I (18th Dynasty c.1525–1504 BC) was reburied by the 21st Dynasty priests at Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache. In 1881 the mummy was found fully wrapped and was one of few royal mummies that have not been unwrapped in modern times. We hypothesized that non-invasive digital unwrapping using CT would provide insights on the physical appearance, health, cause of death, and mummification style of the mummy of King Amenhotep I. We examined the mummy with CT and generated two- and three-dimensional images for the head mask, bandages, and the virtually unwrapped mummy. CT enabled the visualization of the face of Amenhotep I who died around the age of 35 years. The teeth had minimal attrition. There was no CT evidence of pathological changes or cause of death. The body has been eviscerated via a vertical left flank incision. The heart is seen in the left hemithorax with an overlying amulet. The brain has not been removed. The mummy has 30 amulets/jewelry pieces including a beaded metallic (likely gold) girdle. The mummy suffered from multiple postmortem injuries likely inflicted by tomb robbers that have been likely treated by 21st Dynasty embalmers. These included fixing the detached head and neck to the body with a resin-treated linen band; covering a defect in the anterior abdominal wall with a band and placing two amulets beneath; placement of the detached left upper limb beside the body and wrapping it to the body. The transversely oriented right forearm is individually wrapped, likely representing the original 18th Dynasty mummification and considered the first known New Kingdom mummy with crossed arms at the chest. The head mask is made of cartonnage and has inlaid stone eyes. The digital unwrapping of the mummy of Amenhotep I using CT sets a unique opportunity to reveal the physical features of the King non-invasively, understand the mummification style early in the 18th Dynasty, and the reburial intervention style by 21st Dynasty embalmers. This study may make us gain confidence in the goodwill of the reburial project of the Royal mummies by the 21st dynasty priests.
Introduction
Amenhotep I ruled Egypt for about 21 years (c.1525–1504 BC). He was the second king of the 18th Dynasty to ascend the throne after the death of his father Ahmose I. Amenhotep I may have co-reigned with his mother Ahmose-Nefertari (1). The name Amenhotep means: “Amun is satisfied”. His throne name was Djeserkare: “Holy is the Soul of Re”. During his reign, Amenhotep I protected the territories of Egypt; he led a campaign to Kush and an expedition to Libya. Amenhotep I had a peaceful reign that enabled him to focus on the administrative organization and commission building work of temples. The most important temples built by Amenhotep I was the temple of Amun at Karnak, a temple in Nubia at Sai, as well as structures in Upper Egypt at Elephantine, Kom Ombo, Abydos, and the Temple of Nekhbet. After his death, Amenhotep I and his mother were worshiped in Deir El Medina (2, 3).
The original tomb of Amenhotep I has not yet been found in modern times. The mummy of Amenhotep I was discovered in 1881 at Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache in Luxor, where the officials of the 21st Dynasty hid the mummies of several New Kingdom kings and nobles to protect them from tomb robbers. The mummy of Amenhotep I was found wrapped inside a coffin (4). The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffin, dockets, confirmed the name of Amenhotep I and recorded the rewrapping of the mummy after being damaged by grave robbers. The mummy of Amenhotep I has been rewrapped twice by the 21st Dynasty's priests: by Pinedjem I, Theban High Priest of Amun, and a decade later by his son Masarharta (5–7).
Shortly after its discovery, the mummy of Amenhotep I was moved from Deir el Bahari to Cairo and was first kept at Boulaq Museum, then moved to a palace in Giza (for Ismail Pasha). In 1902, the Royal mummies, including that of Amenhotep I, were moved to the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir in Cairo. The mummy of Amenhotep I was one of the very few royal mummies that have not been unwrapped by modern Egyptologists. Gaston Maspero, the director of antiquities in Egypt at that time, decided to let the mummy remain untouched because of its perfect wrapping completely covered by garlands and its exquisite face mask. When the coffin of Amenhotep I was opened, a preserved wasp was found, possibly attracted by the smell of garlands, and was trapped (8).
In February of 1932, an X-ray study of the mummy of Amenhotep I was done at the Cairo Egyptian Museum after the removal of the mummy from its coffin. Douglas Derry, professor at the Kasr Al Ainy School of Medicine in Cairo, interpreted the X-ray and estimated the age of death of Amenhotep I to be between 40 and 50 years. Derry recorded residue inside the skull and a small amulet in the middle of the right arm (9). In 1967, the Michigan University expedition X-rayed the mummy of Amenhotep I. The X-rays estimated the age at death of Amenhotep I to be about 25 years. The age estimation was based on the good condition of the teeth with minimal attrition. However, the symphyseal surface which gives a more accurate estimation of age, could not be visualized. The radiological image showed a bead girdle on the King, the right forearm was seen flexed at the elbow and crossed the chest, while the broken left arm rested along the flank. The X-ray examinations of the mummy of King Amenhotep I failed to provide consistent data or detailed information on the mummy (10, 11).
In the plain x-ray examination, the three-dimensional (3D) information of the mummy is projected onto a two-dimensional X-ray film. The result is the superimposition of objects and bones which makes mummy characterization less satisfactory. CT is an advanced form of X-ray that obtains hundreds of thin sections (slices) of the body and provides more detailed reconstructed images of soft tissues as well as bones. CT is a non-invasive modality that has been used to examine the mummies of several ancient Egyptian royals. CT provided greater insight into the condition, mummification, health issues, and cause of death of the mummy (12).
In this study, we hypothesized that the CT study of the wrapped mummy of Amenhotep I would give more insights on the physical appearance, health, cause of death, and mummification of the King.
Materials and Methods
The mummy of Amenhotep I was located at the time of this study at the Gallery of Royal Mummies in the Cairo Egyptian Museum with the catalog code (JE 26211(b) CG 61058 SR 1/10194).
On May 4, 2019, we transferred the mummy to the multi-detector CT scanning machine (Somatom Emotion 6; Siemens Medical Solutions, Malvern, Pennsylvania, United States) installed on a truck in the garden of the Cairo Egyptian Museum. The mummy was physically inspected. We used the following CT parameters: kVp = 130 effective mAs ranged from 23 to 63; pitch ranged from 0.83 to 1.8; field of view (FOV) from 350 to 500; slice thickness from 0.6 to 1.25 mm; and reconstruction from 0.4 to 0.8 mm. Axial images were created. We used a special visualization software (OsiriX, Pixmeo SARL, Bernex, Switzerland) that automatically created a 3D data set. Once the latter was generated, the digital unwrapping of the mummy began by peeling off virtual layers using scalpel tools and by changing the window levels. We evaluated the CT images for foreign objects and amulets and recorded their location and metric measurement (in mm). We analyzed the CT images of the mummy to assess the preservation status, age at death, and pathologies according to protocols published before. We measured the CT density of the objects in Hounsfield units (HU) by placing a region of interest (ROI) within the object. The material of the object was determined according to its HU measurements: metal (>2,978 HU); quartz/faience (1,693–2,317 HU), stones (about 2,900–2,500 HU), and fired clay (1,116 HU SD 54.7) (17). We correlated the CT findings of the mummy with the available archaeological data and previous physical and radiological studies.
Results
Physical Inspection of the Mummy
The mummy of Amenhotep I is wrapped in linen and covered from head to feet in floral garlands of red, yellow, and blue color. The head is covered with a mask made out of painted wood and cartonnage. The face is painted pale yellow. The contour of the eyes and eyebrows are painted black. The black eye pupil is made of obsidian crystals. On the forehead is a separately carved painted cobra with inlaid stones. The cartonnage at the chest region is partly hidden by the overlying garlands and could not be inspected
