A study published in December may finally put to rest the debate over the death sequence of a mummy found in Egypt in 1908.
When the headless, mummified remains of a teenage girl were uncovered in 1908, archaeologists found the bandaged body of a newborn infant and a placenta between her thighs, according to Live Science. The girl was around 14 to 17 years old, and the baby was somewhat obviously hers. The woman lived sometime between the Late Dynastic period of the ancient Egyptian Empire (roughly 712 to 332 B.C.) and the Coptic Period (A.D. 985 to 642).
Initial studies suggested the child and her mother died due to complications during childbirth. And while this is still the case, data published in December in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology showed a second fetus was mysteriously lodged inside the girl’s chest.
Ancient Egyptian teenager died while giving birth to twins, mummy reveals https://t.co/OTdPxTvlG8
— Live Science (@LiveScience) January 4, 2024
“When we saw the second fetus we knew we had a unique find and a first for ancient Egyptian archaeology,” lead author Francine Margolis said of her discovery. (RELATED: Mysterious Mummy Reveals Lost City Never Found On Any Maps)
Margolis and her coauthor, David Hunt, found the girl died when the head of the first baby became trapped inside her birth canal. Babies need to tuck their heads toward their chest to move through the pelvis, but it’s believed the baby was in an untucked position and was too broad to exit its mother safely.
It’s unclear how the second fetus ended up inside the girl’s chest, but it may have happened post-death during the mummification process. As her head is missing, there’s no way to figure out what this girl’s diet was and how her overall health may have contributed to this devastating situation.