Mummies

Regardless of how laws might see mummies we still must address the issue of the damage that is done to mummies when they are studied. Is the damage done, if any, worth the knowledge gained?

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King Tutankhamun is arguably the most famous mummies in the world. In 1922, when he was found, his mummy was “broken or cut up into some 18 pieces, the damage being blamed on Howard Carter’s attempts to remove the king’s golden death mask and other treasures” ².  His body was exposed to the desert for several hours while hot knives were used to remove his mask. ³. The immense damage done to this mummy is an example, albeit an  extreme on, of why some people are wary of searching for answers in and on mummies. And while the concerns do have validity there are a number of newer ways of analyzing mummies that are non-intrusive even if they do require the movement of the mummy. And, even the ability to move and display a mummy has improved with humidity, moisture, temperature and light control set  to the needs of each mummy so as to optimize its preservation⁴. Some of the newer non-invasive procedures used to analyze mummies are X-rays, CT scans , and radiology⁵. None of these damage the mummy, while the minimally invasive tests such as serology, endoscopy and microscopy do not compromise the stability of the mummy as they only take a microscopic piece of it ⁶.  The scientist who perform these tests not only take great care in their treatment of the mummies but of the test samples they receive from the mummies, as “if so much as a single cell from a lab worker gets into a sample being analyzed, the results will be worthless” ⁷. I believe that this sentiment is enhanced by the frustration researchers feel with the hesitation of some who would prevent them from discovering what they could about our past. Paula Veiga, a member of  an anthropological team expresses this frustration in her paper “Studying Mummies and Human Remains:Some Current Developments and Issues”.

Bureaucracy and the fear of damaging artifacts should not impede scientific tests that might result in scientific progress today. Contemporary technologies used to diagnose and cure the living should also be made available to address the dead in order to bring history and facts into closer alignment. ⁸.

 Is she right? I believe so, current methods of examining mummies are very gentle on the mummy. The difficulty of getting the funding for these tests, some of which are very expensive, and the months it takes to examine one mummy is plenty to encourage restraint on the testing done on mummies. I do believe that the mummies that and as religious items should be left alone though, there are a great variety of mummies to test . It is also important to note that these tests are not all done to assuage someone’s curiosity, they are also done to assist in medical research that “may offer answers for contemporary ailments, thus pointing the way to the production of new medicines” ⁹. Thus, I believe that as long as the researchers are careful to treat the mummies well and respect the circumstances  from which they came, it is important for these tests to be performed so as to increase our knowledge of the past so as to help us in the future.