Ancient World Review

The Death Of Seqenenre Tao II

I'm constantly running into stories about Egyptian pharaohs and local leaders I've never heard of before. This isn't too surprising, though, because there were hundreds of them, most of them extremely obscure.

Sequenenre Tao II, for instance, ruled over the Theban region during the 17th Dynasty of the Second Intermediate Period. He may have come to power around 1560 BC. The situation in Egypt during this time is kind of confusing because the Hyksos had invaded and occupied part of the country.

According to Wikipedia, "The Hyksos did not control all of Egypt. Instead, they coexisted with the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Dynasties, which were based in Thebes." The Egyptians portrayed the Hyksos as foreign invaders -- they may have been Canaanites or the descendants of Canaanites who settled in Egypt and eventually gained enough political or military power to try to take over.

Sequenenre Tao II began the war to free Egypt. According to Wikipedia, he " is credited with starting the opening moves in a war of revanchism against Hyksos incursions into Egypt, which saw the country completely liberated during the reign of his son Ahmose I."

Judging by the condition of his mummy, discovered in 1881, Sequenenre himself was either killed during a battle or was the victim of some kind of murderous conspiracy:

"...it is not known whether he fell upon the field of battle or was the victim of some plot; the appearance of his mummy proves that he died a violent death when about forty years of age. Two or three men, whether assassins or soldiers, must have surrounded and dispatched him before help was available. A blow from an axe must have severed part of his left cheek, exposed the teeth, fractured the jaw, and sent him senseless to the ground; another blow must have seriously injured the skull, and a dagger or javelin has cut open the forehead on the right side, a little above the eye. His body must have remained lying where it fell for some time: when found, decomposition had set in, and the embalming had to be hastily performed as best it might." -- G. Maspero, History of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 4.

New Analysis Reveals More About Tollund Man's Last Meal

"A re-analysis of the stomach contents belonging to a naturally mummified Iron Age man is providing new insights into his surprisingly nutritious final meal and compromised state of health." Source: Gizmodo.

"Tollund Man died around 400 BCE in what is now the Jutland peninsula of Denmark. He died by hanging, in what is believed to be a ritual sacrifice. His body was preserved in a Danish bog for 2,400 years, allowing for an analysis of his stomach contents."

Though not identified, I'm pretty sure the bog body featured here is Tollund Man.

"The new findings, published in Antiquity, suggest Tollund Man ate his final meal some 12 to 24 hours before his death and that it consisted of porridge and fish—both common dishes during the Danish Early Iron Age. It was a nutritious, likely tasty meal, but Tollund Man was not in the best of health, as he was infected with several parasites. The new research was led by archaeologist Nina Nielsen from the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark."

Cashel Man - One Of The Oldest Bog Bodies In The World

I believe this report is from 2011.

Notes: The bog-preserved remains of Cashel Man were discovered in 2011. According to Wikipedia, "Radiocarbon dating places the man as having died around 2000 BC, making him one of the oldest bog bodies in Europe" and the oldest in Ireland. He is also one of the oldest bog bodies in the world and the "oldest known preserved body with the flesh still intact."

According to the National Museum of Ireland, "The remains are those of a young adult male and wounds noted on the body suggest that one is dealing with a victim of human sacrifice ... In Ireland, the ritual killing of young men was previously known to have occurred during the Early Iron Age and the discovery of an Early Bronze Age victim, apparently killed in accordance with the same ritual, brings the practice back in date by at least a millennium and a half."

This ultra-dramatic clip (2013) from a National Geographic documentary describes the discovery of Cashel Man.

According to the BBC (2013), Cashel Man may be the body of an Irish king sacrificed because of his failure to cope with a natural disaster like a crop failure or plague. The evidence for this is missing, however. "It is uncertain whether Cashel Man was one of these unfortunate kings," according to Irish Central (2013). "A milling machine destroyed his chest when he was found and researchers cannot examine his nipples [which are apparently always mutilated in king sacrifices].

The Huldremose Woman - Ritual Sacrifice?

The Huldremose Woman probably didn't die a natural death. According to the National Museum of Denmark, "Her hair was tied up with a long woolen cord, which was also wrapped around her neck several times. However, there are no marks on her throat or elsewhere, which can be interpreted as signs of strangulation. Perhaps instead the cord was of symbolic significance? Strangled people are known from other Danish bog finds. This applies to, amongst others, the bodies from Elling and Borremose, and the famous Tollund Man [who was hung or otherwise strangled in an apparent human sacrifice]."

Note: According to the National Museum of Denmark, one of the Huldremose Woman's arms was almost cut off before she died, but according to Wikipedia "it is thought that the arm was damaged by a shovel during excavation." Nobody knows exactly how she died, but "one possible interpretation is that she was killed and then placed in the bog as a sacrifice." (National Museum of Denmark)

Related: A thread to the past: the Huldremose Woman revisited (PDF).

 

First-Known Pregnant Mummy Discovered In Egypt

"Researchers have discovered the world's first-known pregnant mummy, dating from the first century in Egypt. The find was unexpected, as inscriptions on the mummy's coffin suggested the remains inside belonged to a male priest, according to a new study." Source: Live Science.

"... The mummy turned out to be the remains of a female who died when she was between 20 and 30 years of age and was about 6.5 to 7.5 months pregnant, based on the circumference of the fetus's head."

Note: Nobody knows how this female mummy ended up in a male priest's coffin, but "it's thought that up to 10% of mummies are found in the 'wrong' coffins, due to illegal excavations and looting, according to the study. What's more, there was damage to the wrappings on the mummy's neck, likely caused by robbers who may have stolen some amulets ..."

I have no idea why tomb robbers would take a mummy out of one coffin and place it another, which is presumably what happened if the looting theory is correct.

Weird News: The Royal Mummies Parade In Egypt

"Twenty-two mummified members of ancient Egyptian royalty passed through downtown Cairo in an awe-inspiring parade on Saturday [April 3, 2021]. The event, which drew fanfare to the country's robust collections of antiquities in an elaborate procession, saw the mummies being relocated from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, about 3 miles away in nearby Fustat." Source: NPR.

"The spectacle was named The Pharaohs' Golden Parade and comprised 18 kings and four queens, including some of Egypt's most prominent rulers of the past. Among them was King Ramses II, one of Egypt's most famous Pharaohs, who reigned in 12th Century BC. He ruled the New Kingdom for 67 years and was renowned for signing the first known peace treaty, the BBC reported."

The Egyptians turned this into quite a spectacle. "Under heavy security, the mummified remains of the pharaohs and other royals were transported in climate-controlled cases loaded onto trucks decorated with wings and pharaonic design for the hour-long journey from their previous home in the older, Egyptian Museum, " according to Al Jazeera. The bizarre parade was livestreamed [next video]. The stream begins at 17:30.

Intact Brain Discovered In Egyptian Mummy (2015)

Video from 2015. Views of mummy brain start at 4:56. The remains look something like granola.

This was an unusual find because ancient Egyptian embalmers normally removed the brain during the mummification process using a procedure called excerebration. I guess the embalmers couldn't be bothered in this particular case for one reason or another.

Excerebration was a nasty process that used a combination of liquification and extraction (with a kind of thin hook) to remove the brain:

"An object more than 6.8 inches long probably made from plants in the group Monocotyledon (including palm and bamboo) would have been used for liquefying and removing the brain. The instrument would be inserted through a hole punched into the ethmoid bone near the nose. Some parts of the brain would be wrapped around this stick and pulled out, and the other parts would be liquefied. The Egyptian mummy would then be put on its abdomen and the liquid drained through the nose hole before other embalming procedures." (Wikipedia)

This demonstration was exaggerated for maximum gross-out effect. The liquid would be mostly gray rather than red, for instance, and the hook would have been used to pull pieces out through the nose rather than just pouring the goop out this way.

Oldest Known Guide To Mummification Discovered

Video from 2020.

"The oldest known instructions for the ancient art of embalming mummies were recently discovered on a medical papyrus from ancient Egypt." Source: Live Science.

"How-to descriptions of the mummification process are exceptionally rare in the archaeological record — only two other such 'manuals' are known. This newest example, found in an ancient scroll dating to around 1450 B.C., predates other mummification texts by more than 1,000 years. The guide contains many helpful suggestions, such as how to make herbal insect repellent and using red linen wrappings to reduce facial swelling."

CT Scans Of Mummy Reveal New Details About Violent Death Of Pivotal Egyptian Pharaoh

"Modern medical technology is helping scholars tell a more nuanced story about the fate of an ancient king whose violent death indirectly led to the reunification of Egypt in the 16th century BC. The research was published in Frontiers in Medicine." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II, the Brave, briefly ruled over Southern Egypt during the country's occupation by the Hyksos, a foreign dynasty that held power across the kingdom for about a century (c. 1650-1550 BCE). In his attempt to oust the Hyskos, Seqenenre-Taa-II was killed. Scholars have debated the exact nature of the pharaoh's death since his mummy was first discovered and studied in the 1880s."

It sounds like the Hyksos either killed the pharaoh in battle or took him prisoner and viciously executed him. According to researchers at the Cairo University, "The mummies deformed hands suggest that the King was likely imprisoned with his hands tied. CT images provided detailed analysis of Seqenenre's previously reported injuries to the forehead, right supra-orbital, nose-right orbit, left chick, and skull base. This study revealed additional craniofacial fractures in the right lateral side of the skull that had been concealed by the embalmers beneath layers of material. Analysis of the morphology of the injuries enabled a better understanding of the mechanism of trauma, possible number of the attackers, and their relative position to the King. The size and shape of the fractures correlated well with the studied Hyksos weapons. The lethal attack was aimed at the King's face, likely in an attempt to disgrace him."

According to Wikipedia, "Two or three men, whether assassins or soldiers, must have surrounded and dispatched him before help was available. A blow from an axe must have severed part of his left cheek, exposed the teeth, fractured the jaw, and sent him senseless to the ground; another blow must have seriously injured the skull, and a dagger or javelin has cut open the forehead on the right side, a little above the eye. His body must have remained lying where it fell for some time: when found, decomposition had set in, and the embalming had to be hastily performed as best it might."

Mummified Chinchorro People May Have Died From Arsenic Poisoning

Video from 2018.

"Since the early 1900s, almost 300 human mummies have been uncovered along the coast of southern Peru and northern Chile, including adults, children, infants, and miscarried foetuses." Source: Science Alert (2018).

"With some dated to as far back as 5050 BC, these are the oldest mummies discovered in the world to date.

"They were made by a group of hunter-gatherers known as the Chinchorro people, who were mummifying their dead roughly 2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians began mummifying their pharaohs."

It's possible that many of these mummies were people who died from arsenic poisoning. According to one researcher, "... contaminated drinking water in the area from nearby volcanoes could have initiated the practice of mummification, because researchers have found arsenic in the mummies' tissues.

"'Arsenic poisoning can lead to a high rate of miscarriages, and infant mortality, and the sorrow over these deaths may have led this community to start preserving the little bodies,' he said. 

"Mummification could have started with the foetuses and grown to include adults. The oldest mummies we have found are of children.'"

The mummies have been deteriorating rapidly due to bacterial infections which are turning the remains into "black ooze" [next video] and scientists are apparently still trying to figure out how to stop the degradation.