Digging Up Ancient Mysteries
Historians and archaeologists have been digging up a lot of mysteries from Egypt to this day. You would think there’s nothing buried anymore since many tombs have been researched, but let’s not forget Egyptians buried not just their dead.
You see, those of higher ranks, such as pharaohs, used to bury their workers within pyramids so the building’s secrets would be kept. There were also treasures and the insides of the pyramids were decorated with stories of the departed pharaoh…
A Challenging Task
With so many items and remains buried in the pyramids, archaeologists would face a challenging task of finding the lost artifacts and decipher their secrets. And since Egyptians were advanced in terms of technology and science, it made researchers’ task even tougher!
Knowing that Egyptians were ahead of their time, researchers had to rethink their strategies. One can only imagine how knowledgeable Egyptians were thousands of years ago when they built their pyramids to align with the stars…
Conspiracies Vs. Facts
Even that detail alone had made people think that Egyptians weren’t the ones that had built the pyramids. It could have been aliens! And to think that scientists still haven’t found out how the massive pyramids were built in those times…
But conspiracies aside, let’s talk facts and see what we know and how the discovery of a mummy could shed some light on the Egyptian people that lived 2,100 years ago.
Burying The Dead in Egypt
Back in the times of pharaohs, Egyptians had a certain method when it came to burying their dead. All of the internal organs of the departed were removed and carefully placed in jars. The body was then treated with special balms…
After embalming, the body was covered in linen and then placed in a sarcophagus. If the departed one had a low status, he would be buried in a common tomb. If it was of royal descent, he would be placed in a pyramid.
The Man From Thebes
So far, archaeologists have found both the mummies of royalty and common Egyptians. The ones of low status were buried all around Egypt. The latest mummy that has stunned the entire world was that of a man that lived around 2,100 years ago.
What made this mummy so intriguing was the cause of death and its age. You see, researchers studied it and concluded that the man had died in his youth. The cause of death was even more peculiar!
How To Begin Research On a Mummy?
Now you may think that since a mummy had been all wrapped in linen, you cannot really find out new information. Nearly 200 years ago, collectors bought mummies and held special events during which they’d unwrap the mummy…
People had been intrigued by what could lay under the bandages, but unwrapping the mummies was done for entertainment ad not the sake of science. Today, we’ve learned that it is essential to preserve the mummies and there’s a way to investigate without unwrapping them.
Crude Unwrappings
In an interview with the curator of physical anthropology at the British Museum’s Institute for Bioarchaeology (London), Daniel Antoine, we learn that those unwrappings by collectors “were crude and motivated by curiosity, providing little information.”
But now science has been able to tell us about the man from Thebes that was young and had died of a very strange illness. It was all done using CT scans. Their discovery was unexpected!
A Young Man
With the help of CT scans, researchers found out about this man’s last days on Earth. The man didn’t come from a royal family. He was a normal Egyptian that had a little more fortune than other workers had.
What was so intriguing was that he had died in his late 20s. Researchers were able to find everything out thanks to CT scans. Here is what it was revealed…
Human Remains
Vincent Mellnick, MD, from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has been conducting CT scans on mummies for quite some time. He and his team argue that these are human remains, and not a piece of art.
This is why Vincent says that it’s essential not to harm these bodies so that they can learn everything about them using CT scans. Conducting such research on ancient ‘patients’ will make researchers learn more about the “extinct societies.”
Solving the Mystery
With the help of CAT scans, scientists were able to find out the cause of death of this man. They also learned his age when he died and without lifting a single bandage or remove tissue, they found the cause of death!
The results of their research were so unexpected! This man had died of a common illness, but it was his condition that led to the discovery that Egyptians knew to perform a medical procedure, which was less likely to be known back then…
A Medical Procedure from the Ancient Egypt
Andrew Wade led the team of researchers that performed high-resolution CT scans of the mummy from Thebes. They didn’t expect to discover that Egyptians knew to perform such a medical procedure back then…
CT scans revealed that the man from Thebes had any dental issues: cavities and abscesses, among other dental ailments. It must have been very painful… Here is when everything becomes very interesting!
When You Have a Toothache...
What do you do when you have a terrible toothache? You go to a doctor! This is what the man from Thebes did. He saw a doctor and 2,100 year later, researchers were looking at the proof!
When it comes to ancient medicine, we know Egyptians dabbled in relieving pain, but it looks like there were dentists over two thousand years ago! Andrew Wade’s team found out some more details about this ancient dental work.
At the Dentist’s
You know how many different tool a dentist has nowadays. Imagine that Egyptians had to use whatever tools they could carve to get their work done. It’s safe to say going to the dentist wasn’t fun at all! But this man’s cavities were killing him, so he had to go and get treated!
The CT scans revealed that this problem the departed Egyptian had was overwhelming for the dentist. Today, this kind of cavities would be challenging to treat, even with the right knowledge and technology! But the Egyptian dentist did his best.
Fixing Cavities
One way to fix the Egyptian’s cavities was to place linen in the man’s cavities to keep food from getting inside the cavity. The CT scan shows linen mass stuck in the man’s teeth.
Researchers theorize that the dentist could have dipped the linen in cedar oil or fig juice to fix the cavity. This is what the research team had written in their paper which was published in the International Journal of Paleopathology…
The Ancient Dental Treatment
"The dental treatment, filling a large inter-proximal cavity [a cavity between two teeth] with a protective, likely medicine-laden, barrier is a unique example of dental intervention in ancient Egypt,” wrote the paper.
But the researchers’ work was only beginning. You see, the cause of death was indeed coming from the man’s teeth which were in a very bad condition and couldn’t be treated back then. This mummy held a lot more secrets, though!
Died of a Sinus Infection
The dental issue might have helped the patient, but in just a matter of weeks he probably died of a sinus infection. Thanks to high-resolution CT scans we learn about the body of the mummy and what embalmers did for the burial preparation.
It was intriguing to discover that the mummy’s heart was left inside. The brain and the other organs were taken out before embalming. Researchers knew that they were looking at an elite Egyptian!
Who Was The Man From Thebes
This elite Egyptian is known to come from Thebes. However, it was not this team of scientists that has discovered the remains. Where was it discovered?
In 1985, James Ferrier, who was a businessman and politician, brought the mummy from Thebes to Montreal, without a coffin! After the CT scans, the mummy was displayed in the Redpath Museum, at McGill University. Thanks to the advances in CT technology, researchers were able to discover all these essential details!
The CT Technology Reveals Incredible Details
When talking about the advances in CT technology, Wade explained that they had scanned this mummy 20 years ago but the resolution was so small they could not analyze it: "The technology's come a long way in the last 20 years.”
Now that the technology from today is six times more powerful, they were able to find what can be considered a breakthrough in the paleontological field!
Dental Work in Ancient Egypt
Who would have thought that ancient Egyptians were able to get some dental work? Considering their diet was pretty bad, it was obvious they’d need a dentist.
Unfortunately, when it came to painful interventions, Egyptians did not have anesthetics. Can you imagine how painful it was?
The Mythical Tooth Worm
Considering we’re talking about dental work from 2,100 years ago, Egyptians didn’t have a lot of knowledge about teeth.
This is why there even was a myth about a “tooth worm,” which was responsible for all those cavities. Sure, blame the tooth worm and not what you eat!
Scary Dentist
We can all agree that going to the dentist back in the Ancient Egypt was a lot scarier than today!
Another interesting fact about ancient dental work takes us to the Mayans, who placed precious gems in people’s teeth!
Bolting Your Teeth
Can you imagine people even had their teeth bolted into their gums without getting an anesthetic?
It must have hurt a lot! That would have been a very good reason to postpone you visit to the dentist’s!
An Interesting Time
It’s safe to say Ancient Egypt was an interesting time period. Even though we still haven’t learned its secrets, we’re taking it one step at a time.
Knowing that Egyptians from 2,100 were going to the dentist is quite an intriguing new fact.
Pioneers
Egyptians may have been pioneers when it comes to dental work and many other practices.
This ancient people will never stop from amazing us all. Discoveries like this one will forever be embedded in our minds!
Caring For Your Teeth
And back to our days, seeing how the man from Thebes struggled with his cavities 2,100 years ago, we should all learn an important lesson…
Brush your teeth at least twice a day or else you will have a very bad time if you don’t take care of them!