Proof that Neanderthals ate crabs is another ‘nail in the coffin’ for primitive cave dweller stereotypes

90,000 years ago, Neanderthals based in Portugal harvested and roasted brown crabs

In a cave just south of Lisbon, archeological deposits conceal a Paleolithic dinner menu. As well as stone tools and charcoal, the site of Gruta de Figueira Brava contains rich deposits of shells and bones with much to tell us about the Neanderthals that lived there – especially about their meals. A study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology shows that 90,000 years ago, these Neanderthals were cooking and eating crabs.

“At the end of the Last Interglacial, Neanderthals regularly harvested large brown crabs,” said Dr Mariana Nabais of the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA), lead author of the study. “They were taking them in pools of the nearby rocky coast, targeting adult animals with an average carapace width of 16cm. The animals were brought whole to the cave, where they were roasted on coals and then eaten.”

Catching crabs in Paleolithic Portugal

A wide variety of shellfish remains were found in the archeological remains Nabais and her colleagues studied, but the shellfish in the undisturbed Paleolithic deposits are overwhelmingly represented by brown crabs. Their size was estimated by calculating the size of the carapace relative to the crabs’ pincers, which preserve better than other parts of the crab, so are more likely to survive to be found by scientists. The archeologists assessed the breakage on the shells, looked for butchery or percussion marks, and determined whether the crabs had been exposed to high heat.

Nabais and her colleagues found that the crabs were mostly large adults which would yield about 200g of meat. By studying the patterns of damage on the shells and claws, they ruled out the involvement of other predators: there were no carnivore or rodent marks, and the patterns of breakage didn’t reflect predation by birds. Crabs are evasive, but Neanderthals could have harvested brown crabs of this size from low tide pools in the summer.

Accumulations of shellfish which are caused by hominins are identified by their association with stone tools and other hominin-made features like hearths, surface modifications like the burns found on approximately 8% of the crab shells, and evidence of intentional fractures; the fracture patterns on the crabs at Gruta de Figueira Brava suggested they’d been broken open for access to the meat. The expectation is also that larger individuals will be overrepresented, as at Gruta de Figueira Brava, reflecting hominins choosing animals which offer more meat.

Shellfish on the menu

The evidence indicated to Nabais and her colleagues that Neanderthals weren’t just harvesting the crabs, they were roasting them. The black burns on the shells, compared to studies of other mollusks heated at specific temperatures, showed that the crabs were heated at about 300-500 degrees Celsius, typical for cooking.

“Our results add an extra nail to the coffin of the obsolete notion that Neanderthals were primitive cave dwellers who could barely scrape a living off scavenged big-game carcasses,” said Nabais. “Together with the associated evidence for the large-scale consumption of limpets, mussels, clams, and a range of fish, our data falsify the notion that marine foods played a major role in the emergence of putatively superior cognitive abilities among early modern human populations of sub-Saharan Africa.”

The authors cautioned that it was impossible to know why Neanderthals chose to harvest crabs or whether they attached any significance to consuming crabs, but whatever their reasons eating the crabs would have offered meaningful nutritional benefits.

“The notion of the Neanderthals as top-level carnivores living off large herbivores of the steppe-tundra is extremely biased,” said Nabais. “Such views may well apply to some extent to the Neanderthal populations of Ice Age Europe’s periglacial belt, but not to those living in the southern peninsulas — and these southern peninsulas are where most of the continent’s humans lived all through the Paleolithic, before, during and after the Neanderthals.”

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology

DOI

10.3389/fearc.2023.1097815 

Prehistoric human migration in Southeast Asia driven by sea-level rise,

 

IMAGE: FIGURE A: A PALEOGEOGRAPHIC MAP OF SOUTH ASIA AND THE SUNDALAND IN SOUTHEAST ASIA OVER 20,000 YEARS AGO. THESE LANDS WERE OCCUPIED BY THEIR RESPECTIVE EARLIEST SETTLERS. FIGURE B: RISING SEA LEVEL FLOODED THE SUNDALAND, REDUCED THE LAND AREA AND CAUSED LAND SPLITS INTO SMALLER ISLANDS, INFLUENCING MULTIPLE POPULATION DISPERSAL AND POPULATION SURGE, ESPECIALLY IN THE ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIAN REGION. FIGURE C: OVERPOPULATION IN THE ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIAN REGION DROVE THE MALAYSIAN INDIGENOUS GROUP (MALAYSIA NEGRITO, OR COMMONLY KNOWN AS ‘ORANG ASLI’) TO MIGRATE BACK NORTHWARDS, TOWARDS MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA AND SOUTH ASIA. view more 

CREDIT: NTU SINGAPORE

An interdisciplinary team of scientists at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU, Singapore) has found that rapid sea-level rise drove early settlers in Southeast Asia to migrate during the prehistoric period, increasing the genetic diversity of the region today.

The Malay Peninsula and the islands of Sumatra, Borneo, and Java were originally part of a large landmass of rainforests and coastal mangroves in the South Asia continental shelf known as ‘The Sundaland’ some 26,000 years ago (Figure a).

But during the last major period of global warming in Earth’s history, from the Last Glacial Maximum period (approximately 26,000 - 20,000 years ago) to the mid-50 Holocene (approximately 6,000 years ago), sea level rose 130 metres. The rise in sea level flooded and submerged half of The Sundaland, breaking land bridges and splitting the large landmass into smaller islands of the region today.

To understand the impact on humans living in The Sundaland during one of the most dramatic sea-level rises in the Earth’s history, the team of NTU Singapore scientists reconstructed the history of the landmass using two different approaches: paleogeography – the study of historical physical landscapes, and population genetics.

Lead investigator, Assistant Professor Kim Hie Lim from NTU’s Asian School of the Environment (ASE), and the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) at NTU said, “Environmental changes have profound impacts on human history, driving population migration, growth, and distribution. However, less discussed is how environmental changes can shape the genetics of populations. Our work is the first reported instance to provide proof that sea-level rise changed the genetic makeup of human populations in Southeast Asia – a legacy that continues to impact current populations.” 

Using data for Southeast and South Asia’s sea-level history, including ancient Singapore records established by the NTU’s Earth Observatory of Singapore (EOS) and ASE[1], the research team constructed paleogeographic maps dating from 26,000 years ago to the present.

The NTU team also used whole-genome sequence data from 59 ethnic groups, including that belonging to populations native to Southeast and South Asia from 50,000 years ago. By analysing the high-quality genome data, the team was able to infer the genetic ancestry and demographic history of the groups, including their population size and distribution.

While researchers elsewhere have studied population history based on genetics, most of them used mitochondrial DNA (genes inherited from the mother), which does not tell the full picture of individual ancestry. 

By using whole-genome sequence data – precise information of an individual's entire genetic makeup inherited from both the mother and the father – the NTU study offers an unbiased demographic history of the indigenous populations inhabiting The Sundaland.

The whole-genome sequence data was generated by the non-profit organisation GenomeAsia 100K. Launched in 2016 and hosted by NTU, the initiative aims to better understand the genome diversity of Asian ethnicities by sequencing 100,000 genomes of people living in Asia.

Contributing author, Professor Stephan Schuster, President’s Chair in Genomics at NTU’s School of Biological Sciences, Research Director of SCELSE, and Scientific Chair of GenomeAsia 100K, said, “GenomeAsia 100K systematically generates maps of Asian human genetic diversity, including indigenous ethnicities who have occupied the region for a long time. Integrating those maps with paleoclimatic data allows us now to understand exactly how past climatic events have resulted in ancient human migrations, as well as their impact on today's population structure.”

The research is aligned with the NTU 2025 strategy, where the University adopts more collaborative, global and interdisciplinary means of research to address Singapore’s national research priorities, such as health & society.

 

Piecing together the story of human migration in ancient Sundaland

Combining findings from the two approaches, the scientists inferred the changes in population density from the high quality historical paleogeographic maps generated.

The map paints a picture of prehistoric human migration in The Sundaland, showing that the earliest documented instance of forced human migration was driven by sea level rise.

The scientists found that two periods of rapid sea level rise (rates of sea level rise at46 mm/year and 22 mm/year)[2] promoted the separation of populations into smaller groups across The Sundaland, as the large landmass became split into smaller islands, forcing people to disperse.

Even as the landmass decreased after the rapid sea level rises, temperature increased from the Last Glacial Maximum, creating a favourable living environment to support human population growth. This caused population density to surge by at least eight times from the Last Glacial Maximum, especially in the Island Southeast Asian region, including Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo (Figure b).  

As a result, overpopulation drove people to migrate in search of new places to settle and the people in The Sundaland later migrated back northwards, towards Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia (Figure c).

This finding is supported by evidence of migration by the ancestors of the Malaysian indigenous group (Malaysia Negrito, or commonly referred to as ‘Orang Asli’) into South Asian tribal groups (Austroasiatic speakers). Genetic analysis confirmed common genetic ancestry between the Malaysian and South Asian indigenous groups.

The entire process of migration therefore shaped the diverse ethnicities across Southeast and South Asian regions, as early settlers of The Sundaland interbred across different indigenous groups.

Co-author of the study, Dr Li Tanghua, Senior Research Fellow at NTU’s EOS said, “Based on our findings, the Orang Asli Malaysian indigenous group can be considered the first ‘casualties’ of sea-level rise, or what are known as ‘climate refugees’ today. The population had no choice but to move from their original territory due to environmental pressures. This forced migration caused an indelible change to the genetic footprint of South Asians, contributing to one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world.”

 

Findings useful to understand impact of sea level rise on human ancestry

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Communications Biology in February, is the first to trace the impact of prehistoric sea level rise to human ancestry in Southeast Asia.

Co-author of the study, Professor Benjamin Horton, Director of NTU’s EOS, said, “The study of past sea levels is essential to predicting how increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide will alter Earth's climate and raise future sea levels. These projections inform how societies can mitigate and adapt to climate change impacts.”

Moving forward, the NTU team is looking to extend their research, to trace the story of human migration from North Asia to America, and other parts of Southeast Asia.

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[1] NTU scientists establish new records of Singapore’s sea-level history, going back to 10,000 years ago

[2] In comparison, the current rate of sea level rise is 3.7mm/year, according to the IPCC 6th assessment report (AR6)

Vikings crossing the North Sea to Britain brought their horses, dogs and other animals

Evidence suggests Vikings arrived in Britain with animals from Scandinavia as early as the ninth century AD

 

IMAGE: FRAGMENT OF CREMATED BONE FROM THE HORSE. view more 

CREDIT: LÖFFELMANN ET AL., 2023, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

An analysis of cremated bone fragments from burial mounds in Derbyshire, UK, provides the first solid evidence that Vikings crossed the North Sea with horses, dogs and other animals as early as the ninth century AD. The study is published in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Tessi Löffelmann of the University of Durham, UK, the Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium, and colleagues. The researchers analyzed samples of human and animal remains, finding that they most likely originated from Scandinavia and that they died soon after arrival in Britain.

Heath Wood in Derbyshire has 59 burial mounts, twenty of which have been investigated, mostly in the 1940s and 50s. A contemporary source states that in AD 873, the Viking Great Army went to winter in Repton, close to Heath Wood. Remains there have been carbon dated to between the eighth and tenth centuries, but the origins have not been clear.

The researchers sampled small, cremated fragments of femur and cranium bones from the remains of two adults and one juvenile, as well as three animal remains: a horse, a dog and probably a pig. The fact that these remains were cremated suggests a strong Scandinavian influence as inhumation burial was the contemporary mode in Britain.

Samples were tested to determine ratios for strontium — a trace element present in rocks, soil, waters, plants, and animals — and these ratios were compared with those in the local area. The strontium in one adult and the animals differed from local strontium ratios, while the other adult and infant human samples were consistent with local ratios. These data suggest that there are people with different histories at the burial site, and if they belonged to the Great Viking Army, this band was made up of different populations.

The authors suggest that their research presents the first solid evidence for the transport of animals from Scandinavia to the heart of England in the ninth century. This differs from contemporaneous reports in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which states that horses were taken by the Scandinavians from the local population in eastern England upon arrival.

The authors add: “Our study shows for the first time that Vikings brought animals, specifically horses and dogs, to Britain in the 9th century. Most likely, they were travelling alongside humans on ships.” 

 The freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0280589

Viking brutality failed to wipe out monk community, dig finds

 

 

IMAGE: THE EXCAVATION AT LYMINGE, KENT view more 

CREDIT: DR GABOR THOMAS

Anglo-Saxon monasteries were more resilient to Viking attacks than previously thought, archaeologists have concluded.
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Lyminge, a monastery in Kent, was on the front line of long-running Viking hostility which ended in the victories of Alfred the Great. The monastery endured repeated attacks, but resisted collapse for almost a century, through effective defensive strategies put in place by ecclesiastical and secular rulers of Kent, University of Reading archaeologists say.
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The new evidence is presented after a detailed examination of archaeological and historical evidence by Dr Gabor Thomas, from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading.
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“The image of ruthless Viking raiders slaughtering helpless monks and nuns is based on written records, but a re-examination of the evidence show the monasteries had more resilience than we might expect,” Dr Thomas said.
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Despite being located in a region of Kent which bore the full brunt of Viking raids in the later 8th and early 9th centuries, the evidence suggests that the monastic community at Lyminge not only survived these attacks but recovered more completely than historians previously thought, Dr Thomas concludes in research, published today (30 January 2023) in the journal Archaeologia. 
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During archaeological excavations between 2007-15 and 2019, archaeologists uncovered the main elements of the monastery, including the stone chapel at its heart surrounded by a wide swathe of wooden buildings and other structures where the monastic brethren and their dependents lived out their daily lives. Radiocarbon dating of butchered animal bones discarded as rubbish indicates that this occupation persisted for nearly two centuries following the monastery’s establishment in the second half of the 7th century. 
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Historical records held at nearby Canterbury Cathedral show that after a raid in 804 CE, the monastic community at Lyminge was granted asylum within the relative safety of the walled refuge of Canterbury, a former Roman town and the administrative and ecclesiastical capital of Anglo-Saxon Kent.
​
But evidence from Dr Thomas’s dig shows the monks not only returned to re-establish their settlement at Lyminge, but continued living and building for several decades over the course of the 9th century. Dateable artefacts such as silver coins discovered at the site provided Dr Thomas with an insight into the re-establishment of the monastic community.
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Dr Thomas said: “This research paints a more complex picture of the experience of monasteries during these troubled times, they were more resilient than the ‘sitting duck’ image portrayed in popular accounts of Viking raiding based on recorded historical events such as the iconic Viking raid on the island monastery of Lindisfarne in AD 793.
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“However, the resilience of the monastery was subsequently stretched beyond breaking point. 
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“By the end of the 9th century, at a time when Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great was engaged in a widescale conflict with invading Viking armies, the site of the monastery appears to have been completely abandoned. 
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“This was most likely due to sustained long-term pressure from Viking armies who are known to have been active in south-eastern Kent in the 880s and 890s. 
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“Settled life was only eventually restored in Lyminge during the 10th century, but under the authority of the Archbishops of Canterbury who had acquired the lands formerly belonging to the monastery.”
​
The latest research article is based on the results of over a decade of archaeological  research at Lyminge, directed by Dr Thomas. The village was first established by Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century.

Thomas, G. (2023) In the shadow of saints: the long durée of Lyminge, Kent, as a sacred Christian landscape, is published today (30 January 2023) in the Society of Antiquaries online open access journal Archaeologia: 
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JOURNAL

Archaeologia

DOI

10.26530/20.500.12657/60888 

Amarna – City of the Sun God

 The Glyptotek is providing a rare glimpse not only of the absolute monarchy and lifestyle of a famous pharaoh, but also of the lives and dreams of the people of ancient Egypt. The special exhibition ‘Amarna – City of the Sun God’ will run from 26 January to 18 June 2023.

What happens when a new pharaoh takes over as ruler and sets a completely different agenda? He replaces magical animal gods with the sun god Aten, heralding the start of a brand new religion and social structure. The year is 1350 BCE, and we are in ancient Egypt. The pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti are in power. The sun god Aten is now the sole permitted god, and the new cult leads to major social upheaval. The royal couple move 250 km along the Nile and build a magnificent new royal seat – Amarna.

“For about 15 years Amarna reflected a vision of the ultimate society, dedicated to the ideal of the sun as the paramount, life-giving god. The newly founded city housed temples for the new god, palaces for the royal family, residential areas, workshops and burial grounds for the people. However, following the death of Akhenaten, Amarna was destroyed and abandoned, and Egypt turned its back on the new religion. It also meant that the city was forgotten for posterity. No new buildings were constructed on top of the ruins, so they are very well preserved,” says Tine Bagh, the Glyptotek’s Egyptologist.

Unique work connected for the first time in more than 3,000 years
The age of Amarna is also the story of a city’s sudden collapse. It was barely 20 years before the dream city turned into a ghost town. Because, when the pharaoh Akhenaten died, the city was destroyed and abandoned, and those that followed attempted to erase all traces of the period. But the brief life of the city makes Amarna a treasure trove for archaeologists, and excavations have revealed countless fragments of the city’s history.

Amarna had to be built quickly, using small blocks of stone covered in decorative motifs. As the city disintegrated, the blocks got scattered all over the place, and it was not until 2015 that the Egyptologist Raymond Johnson discovered that one of the blocks on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York matched a block and a motif in the Glyptotek’s collection. One block features Kiya, Akhenaten’s second wife; the other Akhenaten himself. The exhibition reunites them for the first time since c. 1350 BCE.

The Glyptotek’s special Amarna exhibition recreates parts of the city using photos, drawings and a 3D video, providing insight into the magnificent city, its history and the dreams and way of life of the people of ancient Egypt. But it also reveals how tough life was for many of the inhabitants, who slogged away during the construction of the city.

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun
The exhibition will spotlight the distinctive visual style of the period, while solar anthems, the development of a new musical style and ordinary everyday objects will provide a sense of religious and secular life at the time. A presentation of the protagonists in their familiar setting will paint a vivid picture of Amarna. The Amarna era ended with the spotlight on the child king Tutankhamun. As the son of Akhenaten, he grew up in Amarna. During his reign, the decision was made to return to the ancient deities and the former residence in Thebes. So, the exhibition also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun on 4 November 1922.

The Glyptotek has an impressive collection of artefacts from Amarna, which will bring the place and its fascinating history to life. They will be accompanied by selected loans from abroad – including museums in New York, Paris and Berlin – and from the National Museum of Denmark and the Royal Cast Collection in Copenhagen.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Study offers new insight on what ancient noses smelled

Scientists compare humans' extinct genetic relatives to present-day people

 

IMAGE: A RECONSTRUCTION OF A NEANDERTHAL WOMAN view more 

CREDIT: <A HREF="HTTPS://COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG/WIKI/FILE:RECONSTRUCTION_OF_NEANDERTHAL_WOMAN.JPG">BACON CPH</A>, <A HREF="HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/2.5">CC BY 2.5</A>, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

It sounds a little like Stone Age standup: A Denisovan and a human walk past a bees’ nest heavy with honeycomb. What happens next?

According to a study led by University of Alaska Fairbanks biological anthropologist Kara C. Hoover and Universite Paris-Saclay biochemist Claire de March, the Denisovan, with the species’ greater sensitivity to sweet smells, may have immediately homed in on the scent and beat the human to a high-energy meal.

"This research has allowed us to draw some larger conclusions about the sense of smell in our closest genetic relatives and understand the role that smell played in adapting to new environments and foods during our migrations out of Africa,” said Hoover, a professor in the Department of Anthropology at UAF.

A paper on the research, recently published in iScience, was written by collaborators from UAF, Duke University, Universite Paris-Saclay, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and the University of Manchester. The study investigated whether humans share a sense of smell with their now-extinct Denisovan and Neanderthal cousins, who left Africa about 750,000 years ago. Contemporary humans left Africa about 65,000 years ago.

To recreate the noses of our extinct genetic relatives and compare them to those of present-day people, the research team used publicly available genome sequences from multiple Neanderthals, one Denisovan and one ancient human. They used data from the 1000 Genomes project to represent modern humans.

They then compared 30 olfactory receptor genes from each group. The team found that 11 of the receptors had some novel mutations present only in extinct lineages. In the largest study of its kind to date, the team created laboratory versions of those 11 olfactory receptors and then exposed them to hundreds of odors at different concentrations. 

When the receptors detected an odor, they literally lit up. The speed and brightness of the luminescence told the scientists whether, how soon and to what degree each “nose” could smell the odors. While the receptors could detect the same things as modern humans, they differed in sensitivity to many of the odors.

“We literally reproduced an event that hadn’t happened since the extinction of Denisova and Neanderthal 30,000 years ago: an extinct odorant receptor responding to an odor in cells on a lab bench,” de March said. “This took us closer to understanding how Neanderthal and Denisova perceived and interacted with their olfactory environment.”

Neanderthals, who lived in Eurasia between 430,000 and 40,000 years ago, had the poorest sense of smell. For example, the Neanderthal from the Chagyrskaya Cave couldn’t detect the sex steroid androstadienone, which smells something like sweat and urine. That may have been useful, Hoover said, given that they were trapped in close quarters in caves during glacial maximums, when the ice sheets from the poles expanded southward and made many areas uninhabitable.

Denisovans have left behind less physical evidence than Neanderthals. They are known mostly from modern-day Siberia, where remains in the Denisova Cave were dated to between 76,200 and 51,600 years ago. Denisovans were generally more sensitive to odors than humans and much more sensitive than Neanderthals. They were most responsive to sweet and spicy smells like honey, vanilla, cloves and herbs. That trait could have helped them find high-calorie food.

Present-day humans fell somewhere in the middle.

“This is the most exciting research I have ever been involved in,” said co-author Matthew Cobb from the University of Manchester. “It shows how we can use genetics to peer back into the sensory world of our long-lost relatives, giving us insight into how they will have perceived their environment and, perhaps, how they were able to survive.”

In many species, olfactory receptors have been linked to their ecological and dietary needs.

"Each species must evolve olfactory receptors to maximize their fitness for finding food," said co-author Hiroaki Matsunami in a Duke University news release. "In humans, it's more complicated because we eat a lot of things. We're not really specialized."

Smell is integral to the human story, Hoover said. “Such a strongly overlapping olfactory repertoire suggests that our generalist approach to smelling has enabled us to find new foods when migrating to new places — not just us but our cousins who left Africa much earlier than us!”

 

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JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2022.105908 

‘Golden boy’ mummy was protected by 49 precious amulets, CT scans reveal

 

IMAGE: THE MUMMY WAS GARLANDED WITH FERNS AND WORE A GILDED FACE MASK. view more 

CREDIT: SN SALEEM

Scientists used CT scans to ‘digitally unwrap’ the approximately 2,300-year-old undisturbed mummy of a teenage boy of high socioeconomic status. The body was equipped with 49 amulets of 21 different types, many of which were made of gold, which had been carefully placed on or inside the body. These included a two-finger amulet next to the uncircumcised penis, a golden heart scarab placed inside the thoracic cavity, and a golden tongue inside the mouth. He was clad in sandals and garlanded with ferns, with ritual significance. This mummy is a showcase of Egyptian beliefs about death and the afterlife during the Ptolemaic period.

Main text: The ancient Egyptians believed that when we died, our spiritual body sought out an afterlife similar to this world. But entry into this afterlife wasn’t guaranteed: it first required a perilous journey through the underworld, followed by an individual last judgment. For this reason, relatives and embalmers did everything they could to ensure that their loved one might reach a happy destination.

Here, scientists from Egypt used computerized tomography (CT) to ‘digitally unwrap’ the intact, never-opened mummy of a 2,300-year-old teenage boy of high socioeconomic status. They found that this ‘Golden boy’ is an undisturbed showcase of ancient Egyptian beliefs about life after death. For example, he was sent on his way with no fewer than 49 amulets of 21 types to promote his bodily resurrection. He wore sandals and was garlanded with ferns, rich in ritual meaning. These results provide a unique insight into mummification procedures and beliefs about the importance of grave ornaments during the Ptolemaic period. They are published in Frontiers in Medicine.

“Here we show that this mummy's body was extensively decorated with 49 amulets, beautifully stylized in a unique arrangement of three columns between the folds of the wrappings and inside the mummy’s body cavity. These include the Eye of Horus, the scarab, the akhet amulet of the horizon, the placenta, the Knot of Isis, and others. Many were made of gold, while some were made of semiprecious stones, fired clay, or faience. Their purpose was to protect the body and give it vitality in the afterlife,” said Dr Sahar Saleem, the study’s first author and a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Cairo University, Egypt.

Sandals to walk to the afterlife

The ’Golden boy’ mummy had been found in 1916 at a cemetery used between approximately 332 and 30 BCE in Nag el-Hassay in southern Egypt. It has been stored unexamined in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo until the present study.

The mummy was laid inside two coffins, an outer coffin with a Greek inscription and an inner wooden sarcophagus. Within, he wore a gilded head mask, a pectoral cartonnage that covered the front of the torso, and a pair of sandals. Apart from the heart, the viscera had been removed through an incision, while the brain had been removed through the nose and replaced with resin.

“The sandals were probably meant to enable the boy to walk out of the coffin. According to the ancient Egyptians’ ritual Book of The Dead, the deceased had to wear white sandals to be pious and clean before reciting its verses,” said Saleem.

No wisdom teeth 

The CT scans showed that the boy was 128 cm tall, not circumcised, and without any known cause of death other than natural causes. From the degree of bone fusion and the non-erupted wisdom teeth, the authors estimate that the boy was between 14 and 15 years old. His teeth were good, with no evidence of caries, tooth loss, or periodontal disease.

Ferns were garlanded around the mummy’s outer surface. “Ancient Egyptians were fascinated by plants and flowers and believed they possessed sacred and symbolic effects. Bouquets of plants and flowers were placed beside the deceased at the time of burial: this was done for example with the mummies of the New Kingdom kings Ahmose, Amenhotep I, and Ramesses the Great. The deceased was also offered plants in each visit to the dead during feasts,” said Saleem.

The amulets are a testament to a wide range of Egyptian beliefs. For example, a golden tongue leaf was placed inside the mouth to ensure the boy could speak in the afterlife, while a two-finger amulet was placed beside his penis to protect the embalming incision. An Isis Knot enlisted the power of Isis in the protection of the body, a right-angle amulet was meant to bring balance and leveling, and double falcon and ostrich plumes represented the duality of spiritual and material life. A golden scarab beetle was found placed inside the thoracic cavity, of which a copy was 3D printed by the researchers.

Scarab to silence the heart

“The heart scarab is mentioned in chapter 30 of the Book of the Dead: it was important in the afterlife during judging the deceased and weighing of the heart against the feather of the goddess Maat. The heart scarab silenced the heart on Judgement Day, so as not to bear witness against the deceased. It was placed inside the torso cavity during mummification to substitute for the heart if the body was ever deprived of this organ,” explained Saleem.

Based on these exciting results, the management of the Egyptian Museum decided to move the mummy to the main exhibition hall under the nickname ‘Golden boy’. In its new location, visitors can admire the mummy next to CT images and a 3D printed version of the heart scarab amulet, to get as close as possible to the glories of ancient Egyptian civilization.

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