Unwrapping the working-class mummies

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Egypt Mummies (0.05 MB)   Aegyptische Mumien (0.07 MB)   Explore the City of Hawk   Macquarie University Sidney, Australia   Leica MZ6

Three 5600-year-old bodies found buried in a working-class cemetery of Ancient Hierakonpolis are turning the theory of mummification on its head. The Egyptian working class were mummifying bodies five hundred years before the practice was introduced to preserve the bodies of the Pharoahs. Egyptologists have long thought that the practice began in the age of the pharaohs from c.2600 BC, to preserve their appearance after death. New evidence discovered by textile analyst and Macquarie University PhD candidate, Jana Jones, shows that mummification was being carried out in an Egyptian working-class cemetery as far back as 3500 BC, and on the first Pharoahs c.3000 BC - one thousand years earlier than the previously accepted date for the beginnings of this practice. Jana Jones' work led her to Hierakonpolis, a site 60 km south of Luxor, travelling five hours by train, sharing the carriage with chickens, goats and her 30kg Leica MZ6 stereo microscope paid off. Fig: The Hierakonpolis Palette