Ancient Mummy Found Entombed in Strange Cocoon Never Seen by Archeologists
LAURA GEGGEL, LIVE SCIENCE
4 FEBRUARY 2021
The discovery of a rare mud mummy from ancient Egypt has surprised archaeologists, who weren t expecting to find the deceased encased in a hardened mud shell.
The mud carapace is an unparalleled find; it reveals a mortuary treatment not previously documented in the Egyptian archaeological record, the researchers wrote in the study, published online Wednesday (Feb. 3) in the journal
It s possible the mud wrap was used to stabilize the mummy after it was damaged, but the mud may have also been meant to emulate practices used by society s elite, who were sometimes mummified with imported resin-based materials during a nearly 350-year period, from the late New Kingdom to the 21st Dynasty (about 1294 BCE to 945 BCE), the researchers said.