Archeologists discover possible cause of death for pregnant mummy

After years of several mysteries surrounding the life of the world’s first-known pregnant mummy, archeologists have discovered another clue into what happened to the so-called “Mysterious Lady,” revealing she likely died of nasopharyngeal cancer.

Polish archeologists at the Warsaw Mummy Project found a lesion, roughly 7 millimetres in diameter, around the mummy’s eye socket, which they say was likely left from a tumour, along with several cavities in the skull.

“We thought it was damages made by the guys who did the mummification process, but when I looked closer I saw there aren't many bones behind the orbit (socket) and in the nasal cavity,” archeologist and co-director at the Warsaw Mummy Project (WMP), Marzena Ozarek-Szilke told CTVNews.ca in a Zoom interview on Tuesday.

Ozarek-Szilke said they were able to make a 3D print of the mummy’s skull with CT scans and a virtual autopsy they had originally conducted to discover a fetus inside the mummy. The woman was between the age of 20 and 30 when she died and her cancer was likely metastasis as the disease had spread to her right eye socket.

• How the fetus from a pregnant mummy was preserved

While several mummies in the past have been discovered to have had cancer, the study’s authors say their findings are rare as the scientists were able to examine the mummy’s soft tissue.

“The cases with preserved soft tissues are less common,” Wojciech Ejsmond archeologist and co-director of the WMP told CTVNews.ca on Tuesday in a Zoom interview.

“Usually what we have are changes on the bones, so marks indicating that a person was suffering from cancer and here we have one of those rare cases when we actually can observe the soft tissue. But we still need to make a further, histopathological research to fully confirm our case and determine the exact nature of the cancer.”

The archeologists have already begun working with oncologists and medical professors in Warsaw as they theorize their discovery could help with cancer research.

“We would like to compare the ancient cases with the modern ones so you can actually check… how the cancer was evolving. Therefore, you can find a key or reason to the origin of the sickness and how to prevent it and how to cure it,” Ejsmond said.

MORE MYSTERIES AHEAD

Dubbed the “Mysterious Lady” for puzzling archeologists for years, this discovery is one of the few known details of the mummy’s life as the mummy was originally found in a coffin belonging to a priest named Hor-Djehuty, who lived in Thebes in the first century BC.

“This mummy surprised us three times,” Ozarek-Szilke said. She explained how archeologists originally thought the mummy was a male, but upon further research not only did they discover she was female, but also pregnant.

Archeologists at the WMP initially speculated the mummy lived in the first millennium, but as their research continues, they say she might have lived earlier than 1,000 BC. The relationship between her and the priest remains unknown, but it could be possible she was laid in his coffin due to looters during the 19th century who often sold mummies and coffins separately.

Currently, the archeologists are working on facial reconstruction in hopes of getting an idea of what the mummy might have looked like. Ejsmond says the goal of their research is to humanize the “Mysterious Lady” in hopes others can relate to the lives mummies once lived.

“All of us are afraid to die, especially from cancer, which is one of the most common causes of deaths and the fact that she was pregnant makes this very tragic and very relatable for all of us,” he said.

“But also, her death could be helpful for us future generations to try to fight cancer.”