Scientists have discovered a pregnant Egyptian mummy, the world's first case of its kind

According to scientists working on a project around the mummy in Warsaw, the woman was between 20 and 30 years old and 26 to 30 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

Photo released April 29, 2021 by the "Warsaw Mummy Project" of the Egyptian mummy of a pregnant woman before being x-rayed on December 15, 2015 at a medical center in Otwock, near Warsaw, Poland.

Polish scientists said on Thursday they had discovered a pregnant Egyptian mummy, the first such case in the world, by performing X-rays on the 2,000-year-old remains housed in the National Museum in Warsaw. "My husband Stanislaw, an Egyptologist, and I, while examining X-ray images, noticed in the belly of the deceased woman a familiar sight for parents of three children - a small foot!" , told reporters Marzena Ozarek-Szilke, an anthropologist and archaeologist at the University of Warsaw.

Further analysis revealed the presence of an entire fetus. According to scientists working on a project around the mummy in Warsaw, the woman was between 20 and 30 years old and 26 to 30 weeks pregnant at the time of her death.

File photo released April 29, 2021 by the 'Warsaw Mummy Project' of X-ray images of a pregnant Egyptian mummy, on December 15, 2015 at a medical center in Otwock, near Warsaw, Poland (Warsaw Mummy Project/ AFP - -)

"We don't know why the fetus was not removed from the womb of the deceased during the mummification"

"We don't know why the fetus was not removed from the womb of the deceased during the mummification" , acknowledged Mr. Wojciech Ejsmond of the Polish Academy of Sciences, who is participating in the same project. "This mummy is truly unique. We have not been able to find any similar cases. This means that +our+ mummy is the only recognized one in the world with a fetus" , he said.

Ms Ozarek-Szilke speculated that there may have been an effort to "camouflage the pregnancy...or, perhaps, it had some significance related to beliefs and rebirth in the afterlife". Based on an analysis of the hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus, the mummy was initially believed to be that of a priest who lived between the first century BC and the first century AD.

"This is the first known case of an embalmed body of a pregnant woman..."

Scientists now believe that it could be even older and are trying to find out the possible causes of death. The mummy was not opened but an x-ray showed the woman had long, curly hair that reached down to her shoulders. The discovery was announced in the latest issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science , a peer-reviewed journal.

"This is the first known case of an embalmed body of a pregnant woman...It opens new possibilities for research on pregnancy in ancient times and practices related to motherhood" , indicates the article.

The mummy was brought to Poland in the 19th century and is part of the University of Warsaw's collection of antiquities. It has been kept at the National Museum since 1917, and exhibited with the sarcophagus.