ECTS2013 Poster Presentations Other diseases of bone and mineral metabolism (48 abstracts)
multidisciplinary studies of ancient calcified tissues II: contents from Egyptian canopic jars
Nadia Rucci 1 , Lorenzo Arrizza 2 , Mattia Capulli 1 , Antonio Maurizi 1 , Cinzia Mercurio 3 , Maria Cristina Guidotti 4 , Gino Fornaciari 5 , Anna Teti 1 & Luca Ventura 3
1Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy; 2Centre of Microscopies, University of L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy; 3Department of Pathology, San Salvatore Hospital, L’Aquila, Italy; 4Archeological Superintendence of Tuscany and Egyptian Museum, Florence, Italy; 5Division of Paleopathology and History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Oncology, Transplants and Advanced Technologies in Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Ancient Egyptians were well known for the art of embalming, performed in the belief that preservation of the body was essential for survival in the afterlife. During the mummification process, internal organs were removed and some of them (lungs, stomach, liver, and intestines) washed, dehydrated with natron, perfumed, and stored in so-called canopic jars, buried with the mummy. Each jar had established contents and its own protective deity. To date, a limited number of studies is available on this topic. We studied the dehydrated fragments found in four canopic jars from the Egyptian Museum of Florence. They were probably found in Thebes and belonged to an anonymous individual of the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC, XVIII-XX Dynasties). After binocular stereomicroscopy (BSM), selected fragments were submitted to rehydration and conventional histology. One sample from each jar was imaged with microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) before be cut and examined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), also with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Additional histologic investigation was performed after methacrylate embedding. The first jar (FI2198, with a human-headed stopper, expected to contain liver) was found to contain lung. The second one (FI2199, baboon-headed stopper) also contained lung, as expected. Both lung specimens showed deposition of carbon and small polarizable crystals, allowing the diagnosis of pulmonary silico-anthracosis. The third jar (FI2200, jackal-headed stopper, expected to contain stomach) held amorphous material, that in the last one (FI2201, hawk-headed stopper, expected to contain intestines) enclosed wide birefringent fibres, possibly related to linen wrappings. Chemical constituents of natron salts (sodium chloride, sulphate and carbonates) were also identified. Our findings demonstrate that the evaluation of canopic jars contents by a multidisciplinary approach, including the employment of analyses usually assessed to study calcified tissues, allows identification of human organs and non-human materials, providing useful information about the diseases of ancient Egyptians.
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