RTVE and Story Producciones co-produce the documentary 'The Secret History of the Mummies'

Four mummies from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum have been analyzed with the most advanced radiology techniques.

RTVE coproduces with Story Producciones The secret history of mummies, a documentary that will show the most unknown and surprising history of mummies and ancient Egypt based on the analysis of four mummies from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) in a pioneering investigation carried out at the Quirónsalud University Hospital in Madrid.

Four mummies, three Egyptian and one Guanche, from the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, have been transferred this Sunday to the Quirónsalud University Hospital in Madrid to be analyzed with the most advanced radiology techniques in the world: a new generation computed tomography equipment, which allows the mummies to be scanned and generate their volumetric and three-dimensional representation from the acquisition of more than 2,000 cross-sectional images.

The study has made it possible to obtain high-resolution images of the bodies, providing unpublished details of their physiognomy, which will now need a thorough analysis to determine possible causes of their death, diseases, lifestyle habits,…

Vicente Martínez, head of the Diagnostic Imaging Service at the Quirónsalud Madrid University Hospital, will lead the team responsible for the medical research. The director of the Archaeological Museum, Andrés Carretero, and his team specialized in the study and conservation of mummies, will interpret the scientific results in their historical context for their use in the MAN, which will then be shown in the documentary.

The process was carried out once the MAN closed, between 3 pm on Sunday and 4.30 am on Monday, following a strict protocol to guarantee the best conservation conditions for the mummies during the four hours they remained outside the museum.

The transfer

The transfer was carried out by a specialized team of 11 people, coordinated by the head of the Conservation Department of the Archaeological Museum, Teresa Gómez Espinosa, the head of the department of Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities, Carmen Pérez Die, and the conservator of the same section, Esther Pons.

The transfer of the mummies from their display cases to the tomograph was carried out thanks to very sophisticated packaging and transport designed to maintain ideal conservation conditions. This is a non-invasive study in which the mummies have not been manipulated at any time: they arrive carefully wrapped, are scanned and subsequently return to the museum.

Two of the mummies studied belong to the Ptolemaic period (332 BC-30 BC). The first corresponds to Nespamedu, priest of Imhotep the Great, and comes from the necropolis of Saqqara (Memphis). The second belongs to an adult woman, about 65 years old.
The third is a young woman, who lived during the Third Intermediate Period (845 BC-664 BC) and comes from Thebes.

The last one to be analyzed is the Guanche mummy from the Barranco de Herques, found in 1776 in Tenerife and the best preserved in the world.