New scanning technique reveals secrets of Egyptian mummies

British scientists have developed a scanning technique that makes it possible to read the words on papyrus sealed inside the sarcophagus of an Egyptian mummy without opening it. Thanks to this technique it will be possible to read ancient texts without destroying valuable monuments.

Papyrus in ancient Egypt was a valuable material. That’s why it was used repeatedly in rótional purposes. Most often documents were drawn up on it, rór, such as letters or tax returns, but it was also sometimes used to wrap the bodies of people and animals during mummification. Of course, it had previously been richly decorated depending on how august a personage was to be wrapped with it. Only then was the mummified corpse placed in a sarcophagus.

On papyrus, whichóryme was used to wrap the deceased, his name was written in hieroglyphs. According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, once a name was spoken, the deceased gained eternal life. It was also believed that if a mummy was desecrated, the gods would not recognize the soul of the deceased, whichóra will wander between the worlds of the living and the dead for eternity.

Thanks to a new scanning technique developed by British scientistsów from University College London that it is now possible to read these papyri without having to unwrap them and destroy the mummies in the process. Until now, the only way to see what was written on them was to destroy these precious objectsów, which was quite a dilemma for Egyptologistsów. Now they will be able to sleep soundly.

The technology gives historians a glimpse into daily life in ancient Egypt. Hieroglyphs on the walls of the tombóin and on monuments depict the life histories of individualólnych rulersów and how rich and powerful they were, or rather, how they wanted to be portrayed. Many researchers, however, believe it is an ancient form of propaganda. And thanks to the new technique, it will be possible to learn the true history of ancient Egypt.

As mentioned earlier, before the corpse was wrapped in papyrus, it had previously served other purposes. – This is one of the best libraries of antiquity. These papyrus scraps are actually waste. Had they not been wrapped with them, the corpses would have been discarded – explained Professor Adam Gibson of University College London, który led the development of the new technique. – They are likely to contain information on individual waspsób and their daily lives – added.

The new technique involves bombarding mummies with light about róof different frequencies. This process makes the hieroglyphs visible during scanning and can be read. Not even the glue and pastes used during mummification bothered me.

Researchers have already had time to test the new method. It scanned a sarcophagus located in a museum at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent County. This made it possible to read the name of a mummy from 3,000 years ago. It turned out that inside the sarcophagus rests a person named Irethorru. Egyptologists say it is quite a popular name in ancient Egypt. Means "eye of Horus is against my enemies".

– I was horrified to see how these precious items were destroyed to get to the text. This is a crime. Sarcophagi and mummies are limited resources, and now we have the technology thatóra makes it possible to preserve these beautiful objects, as well as to look inside them – admitted Kathryn Piquette, whoóra also took part in the research.