The head of Pavia

Abstract

The excellent conservation and remarkable accuracy of the embalming of an Egyptian mummy’s head, kept from 1818 at the Museum of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Pavia, prompted further study using medical and anthropological analyses. Standard X-rays, computerized axial tomography, 14C analysis, sex attribution using aDNA from bone, and human biological typification through microscopic analysis of hair were performed. Based on our research, the mummy does not show evidence of pathological alterations. It appears to be an adolescent male. It is likely that he lived before the 18th dynasty and belonged to a North African area of Caucasian population, and to a high social class.