Ancient Egyptian Mummified 'Hawk' Is Actually A Stillborn Human Baby

High-resolution micro-CT scanning has shown that an Egyptian mummy thought to be a bird is really a stillborn human baby, a surprising discovery that's providing a rare glimpse into the complex cultural practices that existed some 2100 years ago.

Definitely not a bird: Micro-CT scan shows the mummified stillborn human baby. Image: Maidstone Museum UK/Nikon Metrology UK

For the Western University anthropologists who analysed the mummy, it's a fascinating glimpse into ancient Egypt, but for the family who endured this loss, it was a heart-wrenching tragedy - so much so that the family took the time to wrap the stillborn baby in cloth and place the remains inside a small coffin for posterity.

The coffin. Image: Western University

But had it not been for the CT scan in 2016 of a 2300-year-old mummy known as Ta-Kush, the discovery of this stillborn baby would likely not have happened.

While working on Ta-Kush, curators at the Maidstone Museum decided to scan a bunch of other artefacts, including a strange, tiny coffin labelled, "A mummified hawk with linen and cartonnage, Ptolemaic period (323 BC - 30 BC)."






What's more, the foetus suffered from a severe form of anencephaly, a condition in which the brain and skull fail to develop normally.

Detailed micro-CT scan of the stillborn baby, showing the malformed skull. Image: Maidstone Museum UK/Nikon Metrology UK

Its fingers and toes had formed normally, but the skull was in bad shape. The upper portion of the skull hadn't developed, the arches in its vertebrae hadn't closed, and its ear bones were located at the back of its head. The foetus also lacked bones to form the broad roof and sides of the skull.

"In this individual, this part of the [skull] never formed and there probably was no real brain," said Nelson in a press release.

Such finds are rare, as only a half dozen mummified Egyptian stillborn babies are known to exist. It's also one of only two known anencephalic mummies, the other one having been discovered back in the early 19th century.

For scientists, the question now is why this family took the extra time, energy and effort to mummify a miscarried baby.

"As an anthropologist I'm interested in what that means culturally," Nelson said in an interview accompanying the press release. "But certainly fetuses had a role in magic in ancient Egypt, and so there may have been an aspect of that in play here. It would have been a tragic moment for the family to lose their infant and to give birth to a very strange-looking foetus, not a normal-looking foetus at all. So this was a very special individual."

And for archaeologists, this study imparts an important lesson: Don't always believe the label.

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