subject: Mummy Case Of An Infant [print this page] This mummy case contains the bones of an infant .The style suggests a date in the Twenty-second Dynasty .The deceased is shown with the usual large wig and a feather headdress; around the neck is abroad collar. On the chin is the curly divine beard of the transfigured deceased. Below the arms is the name is the a central column of hieroglyphs which gives a conventional prayer for offerings; if the name of the dead child was inscribed ,it would have been nearer the foot of the coffin ,now lost. Flanking the text are seated funerary deities , interspersed with birds with outspread wings all intended to protect the body inside the case. The most usual feature is the double plume on the top of the head. These plumes are typical of the figures of Ptah-Soker-Osiris ( a funerary deity) buried with many interments from the Third Intermediate Period down on Ptolemaic times . Several such figures were discovered by John Garstang in the excavations that yielded this mummy case. It would appear that the mummy case designed to resemble these figures, though it is not clear why.
The bones of the infant, whose sex is unknown, are so badly deformed that Garstang originally identified them as those of a monkey .In fact, the child suffered from the rare disorder ontogenesis imperfect ,also known as brittle bone disease, a condition caused by a genetic defect that reduces or damages the bodys production of collagen.
The result is inadequate formation of bone tissue, manifest in distortion or breaking of the bones; one from of this condition can develop in the womb .This can be seen clearly in this skull, of the has become very low and broad as the bones structure could not support the weight become of the cranial vault.Likewise, the bones of the upper arms, thighs, and lower legs have all become curved and would never have been able to bear any weight. The bones are so fragile that they can be fractured while the fetus is still in the womb, and , and the trauma of birth could have fractured all the bones in the babys body; it is very unlikely to have survived birth. Today, a baby with this disorder would be delivered by caesarean section; The site of Speos Artemidos is best-known for the rock temple of Hatshepsut. Garstang found many cemeteries here from the Third Intermediate to Roman times ; the better-known Eleventh and Twelfth dynasty cemeteries lie to the north at the main site of Beni Hasan .
Third Intermediate Period twenty-second Dynasty c945- 715BC
From speos Artemidos (south of Beni Hasan ) Cartonnage and paint; human remains
Length of mummy case 73cm EA 41603
read more about egyptian civilization here http://www.egyptianmade.org/antiques
