In 1815, an Egyptian mummy and three coffins were transferred from India to the British Museum. In 1968, curators at the British Museum scanned all the mummies of the Egyptian collection including the transferred mummy, which they thought it "belongs to a man." However, archeologists have long wondered what was a man's mummy doing with three coffins belonging to a woman known as the "Housewife." Until recently, the only provided explanation was that "the merchants, who sold the mummy and the three coffins to a British officer in the Mumbai Infantry, India, in 1846, collected these items from different sources to maximize their value – a common behavior among antiquities sellers in the 19th century."
However, a touring exhibition of six mummies organized by the British Museum reexamined this mummy, and managed to return it to its three coffins. While preparing for the exhibition, the curators found new evidence indicating that the mummy belongs to a woman. The findings will be announced in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Archeological Science. To confirm its identity, the scientists had to prove the mummy's connection to the three coffins. During the examination, they spotted a dry brown stain from the embalming residues in the bottom of the smallest coffin that contained the mummy. The linens wrapping the mummy revealed a similar stain on the lower part of the left shoulder matching the stain found in the coffin. Then, the researchers analyzed the residues to determine their composition, and whether it's the same in both stains.
A team of archeologists led by Marie Vandenbeusch from the Egypt and Sudan Department at the British Museum, said "the results show that the coffins belong to the controversial mummy," noting that the fluorescent embalming materials used in the genital organs area deceived the past CT scan which falsely indicated the mummy belongs to a man." The dual energy CT scan used in this study managed to define the gender of the mummy, and revealed that the woman died at the age 35-49, and suffered from a spinal injury."
