ARCE 2025 Session Schedule is Now Live!

arce 2025 annual meeting This year's ARCE In-Person Annual Meeting Session Schedule and Meeting Schedule are now live*. We are looking forward to a rich schedule of sessions across interests and disciplines. The meeting will feature over 100 presentations under various themes such as archaeological sciences, Greco-Roman Egypt, art history, Nubia, philology, religion, and more!  Additionally, this year's special events include the Teaching Workshop: Translating the Book of the Dead in the 21st Century, led by Rita Lucarelli, and the Dessert Reception at the Legion of Honor Museum (Ticketed Offsite Event). Visit www.arce.org/annual-meeting to register and learn more.  For assistance, please email AMHelp@arce.org  *Schedule is subject to change View Schedule

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These crocodile mummies are unraveling a mystery

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/crocodile-mummies-ancient-egypt

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'Pregnant' ancient Egyptian mummy with 'cancer' actually wasn't pregnant and didn't have cancer, new study finds | Live Science

https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/ancient-egyptians/pregnant-ancient-egyptian-mummy-with-cancer-actually-wasnt-pregnant-and-didnt-have-cancer-new-study-finds

'Pregnant' ancient Egyptian mummy with 'cancer' actually wasn't pregnant and didn't have cancer, new study finds

News

By Kristina Killgrove published yesterday

The mummy of a first-century-B.C. individual found in Egypt was not pregnant and did not have cancer, according to a new CT study.

The "Mysterious Lady" mummy viewed in a mixed-reality system reveals different aspects of the inside of her body. (Image credit: Ł. Kownacki)

An ancient Egyptian woman thought to have been pregnant and dying of cancer was actually just embalmed with a technique that mimicked these diagnoses, researchers have concluded, settling a four-year scientific debate.

Nicknamed the "Mysterious Lady," the first-century-B.C. mummy was found in the Egyptian city of Luxor (ancient Thebes) but was brought to the University of Warsaw in Poland in 1826. The mummy was not scientifically studied for over a century.

In 2021, experts with the Warsaw Mummy Project concluded that, contrary to their assumption that the mummy was a male priest based on the sarcophagus, it was actually the remains of a woman in her 20s who was 6.5 to 7.5 months pregnant.

In the first published study of the mummy, researchers used X-ray imaging and CT scans to identify several bundles of mummified organs in her abdomen. They also suggested that a poorly preserved fetus, around 28 weeks in gestational age, could be seen on the scans.

In a second study, the research team proposed that the reason no fetal bones could be clearly identified was that the mother's uterus lacked oxygen and had become acidic over time, essentially "pickling" the fetus. And finally, the team suggested that they had found evidence of potentially fatal nasopharyngeal cancer in the mummy's skull.

These interpretations were controversial, however. Radiologist and mummy expert Sahar Saleem told Live Science in 2022 that the Warsaw team failed to "identify any evidence of anatomical structures to justify their claim of a fetus." Instead, Saleem was convinced the mysterious structures in the mummy's abdomen were embalming packs.

To settle the debate, a team of 14 researchers with varied expertise led by archaeologist Kamila Braulińska of the University of Warsaw studied the Mysterious Lady and published their findings in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences last month.

CT scan of the "Mysterious Lady" showing four distinct "bundles" in the pelvis that are not a fetus and are most likely related to the embalming process. (Image credit: Ł. Kownacki)

Members of the research team each examined more than 1,300 raw CT image slices of the mummy produced in 2015 to determine whether there was any radiological evidence of a pregnancy or of cancer.

Every expert who reanalyzed the CT scans concluded that there was no fetus and that the material assumed to be a fetus was actually part of the embalming process. Further, the suggestion that the fetus' skeleton and soft tissue did not show up on the scans because the body was "pickled" is impossible, the researchers noted in the study, because acids within the human body are insufficient to dissolve bone, especially after a body is embalmed.

Similarly, none of the experts on the new study could identify clear evidence of cancer in the mummy. Some suggested instead that the damage to the woman's skull most likely occurred when her brain was removed during the embalming process.

Given the diagnostic consensus of the international panel of experts, the researchers concluded in the study that "this should resolve once and for all the discussion of the first alleged case of pregnancy identified inside an ancient Egyptian mummy, as well as the dispute about the presence of nasopharyngeal cancer."

But given the public's intense interest in the "case of the pregnant mummy" over the past four years, the researchers suggested that, going forward, additional focus should be given to questions of maternal and pediatric health in ancient Egypt.

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Kristina Killgrove

Staff writer

Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Killgrove holds postgraduate degrees in anthropology and classical archaeology and was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.

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Latest Northern California ARCE lecture, by Kara Cooney, is now available on YouTube

Kara Cooney's  "Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches," the latest lecture sponsored by the Northern California chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt, is now available on our YouTube channel. To view it, please go to https://youtu.be/TsSZxLZ0RbE .

To see what else is available on the ARCE-NC channel, and to subscribe to the channel, please go to https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaARCE . If you subscribe, you will be notified whenever a new lecture is posted on the channel.

Glenn Meyer
ARCE-NC Publicity Director

Reminder - Northern Cal. Egyptology Lecture Sunday by Kara Cooney: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt

The American Research Center in Egypt, Northern California chapter, and the UC Berkeley Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures invite you to attend a Zoom lecture by Dr. Kara Cooney, UCLA: Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches Sunday, March 9, 2025, 3 PM PDT (Note the change to Daylight Savings Time) This virtual lecture will be recorded. Register in advance for this lecture: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CwscA3JIRcqFh9owR0q6_Q After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. There are a few things you should know before you join the lecture: * Advance registration is required. When you click on the link to "Register in advance for this lecture" you will receive instructions by email on how and when to join, along with a link on which you will click to join the meeting. Save the email, as you will need the link it contains to join the meeting. Please register now. Please do not share the join link with anyone, it is unique to your email address. Try to join at least 10 minutes before the meeting. When you do join the meeting, be prepared to be put in the waiting room until the lecture starts at 3 pm.  This is a security measure. * If you haven't already installed Zoom, I recommend that you download and install the Zoom program (app) well before you try to join the meeting. There IS an option to use your web browser to join the meeting instead of the Zoom program, but the browser interface is limited and depends greatly on what browser and what operating system you're using. * For tutorials on how to use Zoom, go to https://learn-zoom.us/show-me. In particular, "Joining a Zoom Meeting" should show you what you need to do to join our lecture. * All meeting attendees can communicate with everyone, or with individual participants, using the chat window, which can be opened by clicking on the chat button and which you can probably find at the bottom middle of your Zoom viewing screen. Participants will be encouraged to hold their questions for the speaker until after the lecture, and will also be encouraged to address their questions for the speaker to everyone, not just to the speaker, so that all can see them. "Everyone" is the default chat option. If you have any questions, please email me at arcencZoom@gmail.com. Glenn Meyer ARCE-NC ePublicity Director About the Lecture: In this lecture Kara Cooney will discuss her latest book, Recycling for Death, a meticulous study of the social, economic, and religious significance of coffin reuse during the Ramesside and early Third Intermediate periods. Funerary datasets are the chief source of social history in Egyptology, and the numerous tombs, coffins, Books of the Dead, and mummies of the Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties have not been fully utilized as social documents, mostly because the data of this time period are scattered and difficult to synthesize. This book is the culmination of fifteen years of coffin study, analyzing coffins and other funerary equipment of elites from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties to provide essential windows into social strategies and adaptations employed during the Bronze Age collapse and subsequent Iron Age reconsolidation. About the Speaker: Kara Cooney is a professor of Egyptology at UCLA and Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. Specializing in social history, gender studies, and economies in the ancient world, she received her Ph.D. in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University. Her popular books include The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt, When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt, and The Good Kings: Absolute Power in Ancient Egypt and the Modern World. Her latest books include Ancient Egyptian Society: Challenging Assumptions, Exploring Approaches (Routledge, 2023) and Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches (The American University in Cairo Press, October 2024). About ARCE-NC: For more information, please visit https://facebook.com/NorthernCaliforniaARCE,  https://www.youtube.com/@NorthernCaliforniaArce, or http://khentiamentiu.org. To join the chapter or renew your membership, please go to https://arce.org/membership/ and select "Berkeley, CA" as your chapter when you sign up.