Egyptian woman’s image drawn from 2300-year-old head

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 24

Egyptian woman’s image drawn from 2300-year-old head

By

WOODY BAIRD

of Associated Press (through NZPA) Memphis She was wealthy and in her 30s, but her teeth were worn because her diet included too much sand and an oral infection caused her a lot of pain. She was not a Cleopatra, but she may have turned at least some heads in Egypt 2300 years ago. Her mummified head —

brought from Egypt by a traveller more than a century ago, stored in a hatbox and taken to school occasionally for “show and tell” — has been under study by more than 12 scientists. They presented their first findings at Memphis State University recently. “The head is one of the best-preserved in the United States,” said an Egyptologist, Rita Freed. “A rosette or flower design on the side of the head indicates the woman died about 300 BC. ‘The head was gilded during mummification and the woman’s hair dyed red,” Ms Freed said. “There’s no doubt in our minds that she was well off.” The woman was 30 to 40 years old when she (died,

said Hugh Berryman, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Tennessee centre for the health sciences. He directed the team of scientists.

Medical illustrators have drawn a colour portrait of what the woman looked like alive, which will be displayed with the head at Memphis State University. “She wasn’t a Cleopatra, but she probably wasn’t unattractive,” Mr Berryman said. “The woman’s teeth were badly worn, probably from eating rough foods accidentally laced with desert sand,” said an oral pathologist, Dr James Hamner.

“She had an infection on the left side of her mouth and had to eat on the right side. She only had two of her 12 molars left,” he said. The cause of death could not be determined, but the woman’s infected teeth meant she was in a good deal of pain, Mr Berryman said. “Keep in mind there were no antibiotics 2300 years ago.”

Tests did not disclose the chemicals used to preserve the mummy, he said.

The scientists found what

appeared to be a parasite egg in the tissue of the head, but more tests would be needed to determine what it was, he said.

Mr Berryman said the head was cut off after the woman was mummified, and the surgery was far from delicate. “A number of cuts were made in the back of the neck. The head and the neck were pushed forward and literally torn off the body,” he said. “The brain was pulled out through the left nostril during mummification.”

Dr Joel Kahane, a speech pathologist, said the dimensions of the larynx would be run through a computer to try to determine what the woman’s voice sounded like. The head belongs to the family of Donald Austin, a Memphis contractor, and was brought back from Egypt by his great-uncle, an amateur explorer. It is on loan to the university. Ms Freed said it was common for American travellers to bring back Egyptian artifacts in the eighteenth and nineteenth centupes.