For almost 130 years, the 3000 year old mummified remains of a man, his face contorted into an agonising scream, has perplexed scientists and Egyptologists alike. Does modern science now have the answers about this tormented soul?
In 1881, 300 miles south of Cairo in the Deir El Bahri valley, tombs, hidden from the world for centuries, were uncovered.
Here were discovered the remains of some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs: Rameses the Great, Seti I and Tuthmosis III.
Yet puzzlingly amongst these great pharaohs in an unmarked and unadorned sarcophagus lay the body of a man whose face was frozen in agony.
In 1881, 300 miles south of Cairo in the Deir El Bahri valley, tombs, hidden from the world for centuries, were uncovered.
Here were discovered the remains of some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs: Rameses the Great, Seti I and Tuthmosis III.
Yet puzzlingly amongst these great pharaohs in an unmarked and unadorned sarcophagus lay the body of a man whose face was frozen in agony.
The hands and feet were bound and the body was uncharacteristically wrapped in a sheep or goat skin:surprisingly, as this was seen as being ritually unclean.
In 1886 three men tried to uncover the mystery on “man E” as he was now called.
They were Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the physician Fouque and chemist Mathey. During the autopsy they reported that he smelled worse than usual and his internal organs had been unusually “flash mummified” with quick lime rather than by traditional methods. Fouque concluded that he had been poisoned,
“the last convulsions of horrid agony can, after thousands of years, still be seen”
But who was he, and why had he been bound so tightly that the binding marks were visible on his bones? Why had he been entombed in such a way that his soul would be damned and barred from everlasting life?
read more digg story
In 1886 three men tried to uncover the mystery on “man E” as he was now called.
They were Gaston Maspero, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, the physician Fouque and chemist Mathey. During the autopsy they reported that he smelled worse than usual and his internal organs had been unusually “flash mummified” with quick lime rather than by traditional methods. Fouque concluded that he had been poisoned,
“the last convulsions of horrid agony can, after thousands of years, still be seen”
But who was he, and why had he been bound so tightly that the binding marks were visible on his bones? Why had he been entombed in such a way that his soul would be damned and barred from everlasting life?
read more digg story
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