Portugal Egyptology and Paleontology news - Here are Portugal’s Egyptian mummies Irtieru, Pabasa, and Horsurkhet.
Portugal received three Egyptian mummies in January 1927 when the country did an exchange with Berlin museums. In exchange for the mummies and other Egyptian artifacts, Portugal gave artifacts collected by the famous archaeologist Walter Andrae in Assur, the ancient capital of Assyria. The Assyrian artifacts were spoils of war when Portugal seized German and Austrian flagged ships in February 1916, an event that led Germany to declare war against Portugal on March 9th, 1916.
Portugal’s Egyptian mummies Irtieru, Pabasa, and Horsurkhet:
Portugal’s Egyptian mummies Irtieru, Pabasa, and Horsurkhet (Sukhetsahor) are not on display and they were analysed using Paleoradiology, that is a non-destructive CT investigation that means much more than identifying sex, age, and a possible cause of death, since it also seeks to know their relationships with the environment in order to improve our knowledge of Ancient Egypt.
1 - Portugal’s Egyptian mummy Irtieru
Irtieru is an Egyptian mummy from the Third Intermediate Period, 1,070 - 664 B.C. (2,800 years). Irtieru was a man of 35-45 years, who was tall for his time, measuring 1.71 m 4 cm. The high-resolution TAC-3D image revealed a very well preserved body in resin coating. It also suggests that he had Scheuermann’s disease with the associated back pain as well as renal tuberculosis.
2 - Portugal’s Egyptian mummy Pabasa
Pabasa is an Egyptian mummy dating 663-323 BC. Pabasa was a man of 40 to 50 years old, measuring 1.62 m 4 cm.
Portugal’s Egyptian mummy Pabasa was a priest dedicated to the god Min and with the task of dressing his statue.
His head and face show mummification practices, such as trying to protect his scalp from resin, through linen strips as well as artificial eyes. The mummification process of Pabasa included the normal extraction of the brain, but the inside of the skull was almost empty of resin. As a result, Pabasa represents the oldest known myelographic examination that made it possible to diagnose a Tarlov cyst.
3 - Portugal’s bandaged mummy of Horsurkhet (Sukhetsahor)
The bandaged mummy of Horsurkhet (Sukhetsahor) was dated to the Early Ptolemaic period, Akmin 250 - 200 B.C. that is 2,200 years. Sukhetsahor was a man of around 51- 60 years old and measured 1.66 m +/- 4 cm.
Sukhetsahor reached a rare age by the standards of the time. He had a parasitic disease known in ancient Egypt as Trichinellosis, that was caused by the ingestion of contaminated and undercooked pork, as well as prostate carcinoma.
Portugal’s National Museum of Archeology (MNA)
Portugal’s National Museum of Archeology (MNA) is undergoing requalification works under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) for museums, monuments and palaces, that is a budget line of 32.7 million euros.
Meanwhile, Portugal’s Egyptian mummies will not sleep forgotten and will be on display in a completely renovated museum that will open in 2026.
"Our mummies have a special deference, because they are addressed by their name. Ancient Egyptians believed that every time you say the name of a deceased person, he lives," stated Maria José Albuquerque, coordinator of Portugal's MNA educational service.
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