I am sure most of us are curious how mummy was preserved. In fact, to date, no one would be able to explain how mummies were preserved. The nearest explanation is what I have seen in one of the information board in the British museum. When the Egyptian was dead, this group of ancient surgeons will ' make a hole ' on the pelvic bone, big enough for their hand to reach into the deceased body, extracting every part of their organ one by one - washing with water (not sure what they going to do with the organs though), placing some mud and other materials such as the ''bitumen'' to preserve their body. I think this is the right way to preserve a body, forming a mummy. Bitumen is a mixture of organic liquid that are highly viscous, black in colour, a sticky material, and entirely soluble in carbon disulfide. It is composed primarily with condensed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.



Caption: an Eqyptian mummy


Caption: a well-preserved Eqyptian mummy


Caption: a mummy with the pelvic bone removed, in the British museum

It has been approximately 200 years, since pathologies have no clue of how the ancient Egyptians die. A famous ancient Egyptian, namely Irtyersenu (aged 50) from the necropolis of Thebes in 600 BC was initially diagnosed to die due to ovarian cancer (cancer in her ovary). In fact, the DNA test today had revealed that she died due to tuberculosis (TB). TB is an extremely fatal disease or infection by the mycobacterium bacteria that usually attack the human lung, but may also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, the gastrointestinal system, bones, joints, and / or even the skin. The first vaccine was developed in France, sometime around 1905. Before that, TB is an extremely hazadous disease that will bring immediate death to people who suffered from it.


Caption: mummy sketch by Augustus Granville

The 1825 puzzle has reached to a conclusion today when a group of pathologies from the UCL college in London found the DNA and cell wall molecules of the mummy, the Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the lung, gall bladder and bone samples. It seems that tuberculosis was widespread in ancient Egypt, causes a significant death during that time. Although the mystery of how mummy's death was revealed, but no one could explain how the disease was preserved until today, because no one understands it. This was published in a Biological Science Journal on September 2009.