Natsef-Amun, keeper of the bulls: a comparative study of the paleopathology and archaeology of an Egyptian mummy

Abstract

The mummy of Natsef-Amun, a priest in the Temple of Amun at Karnak (ca.1000 BC), was purchased for the Leeds Philosophical Society, England, in 1823. Members of the Society unwrapped the mummy and carried out one of the earliest multi-disciplinary mummy investigations in 1824. In recent years, the Manchester Mummy Project undertook a new scientific study of this mummy. The range of techniques they employed included radiology, paleoodontology, endoscopy, histology, immunohistochemistry, paleoserology, aDNA identification, and scientific facial reconstruction. This rare opportunity to compare the methodology and results of an early investigation with those of a contemporary study will be considered in this paper which will also demonstrate how scientific studies can add new information to historical and archaeological data about lifestyle, diseases, death and funerary procedures associated with a priest who lived at a tumultuous period of Egyptian history.