A 5-Year-Old Egyptian Girl, Standing 1.20 Meters Tall: Scientists Use X-Rays to Uncover Surprising Insights
The young girl passed away during her childhood. Her organs were completely removed, and her body was embalmed with fragrant substances, then wrapped in cloth and covered with a hard layer resembling cardboard. This mummy is over 2,000 years old and is housed at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California, USA. In recent months, the mummy has been named Sherit (which means “the child” in ancient Arabic) and has been brought to NASA’s National Biometric Center at Stanford, near Palo Alto. There, doctors and scientists, working alongside imaging experts from Silicon Graphics, are studying the mummy. They utilized over 60,000 high-resolution X-ray images to gather information that is 35 times more detailed than what was obtained during the examination of King Tutankhamun’s mummy in early 2005. The research team has reconstructed three-dimensional images of this young Egyptian girl.
Through the examination of bones, scientists determined that Sherit was capable of walking normally and did not suffer from any chronic illnesses. It is highly likely that the girl died from an infection or was poisoned by contaminated water or food. Approximately 50% of children in ancient Egypt faced such fates within the first one or two years after weaning.
The analysis of her bones and teeth also aided in determining her age: her wisdom teeth had not yet erupted. A gold mask indicates that her parents were wealthy. Through the hieroglyphs found on the inner lining of the wrapping, scientists and archaeologists hope to soon unveil the mystery and identify the name of this little girl.
