Dr Robert Loynes shared his wealth of information about health and disease in Ancient Egypt with us in his lecture on 31st August 2024 at the Cooper Gallery in Barnsley, Yorkshire.
As a retired Orthopaedic Surgeon, who obtained a PhD in Egyptology from the University of Manchester in 2014, he investigated mummification techniques of ancient Egyptian mummies and published a book called “Prepared for Eternity: A study of human embalming techniques in ancient Egypt using computerised tomography scans of mummies”.
During his lecture, the audience was taken back in time to the history of scientific mummy research with names of Egyptologists interested in Health in Ancient Egypt or women’s diseases and the question of what a mummy can tell us about their health and disease.
The listener came to understand quickly that this question required a closer look at the mummification process itself, the risks of contamination and how chemicals and oils alter the soft tissue, desiccate or distort it. He further pointed out what analytical methods can be used to unlock the secret and wealth of information inside the mummy wrappings.
Going through the variety of analytical methods like medical imagery, biopsy, histology and molecular biology it became clear to the audience that these methods are a vital part to give us many answers about life in Ancient Egypt in general.
However, Dr Robert Loynes took us deep into his world of CT scans, showed us many scans from various mummies, pointed out what was significant in those scans and what conclusions can be drawn about their health during their lifetime and about their death.
It was fascinating, albeit somewhat morbid, look at Artemidorus, a Roman red shroud mummy who was highly likely beaten to death from the CT scan research; or a lady called Takabunti, a Theban mummy who died of massive bleeding caused by something like an axe blow to her back.
Although these examples sound very horrific, Dr Robert Loynes explained that it is difficult to draw exact conclusions about the general health, disease or violence in ancient Egypt’s society. Much more quantitative and qualitative research is needed to support certain theses or identify known or undiscovered health aspects or diseases.
It was fascinating to learn that calcifications are not just a typical health risk for cardiovascular diseases in the modern world but have also been found in ancient Egyptian mummies!
All in all, or maybe I should say “to Wrap things up” (pun intended!), a brilliant lecture, fascinating examples and amazing first-hand insights into Dr Loynes’ research which sometimes made us feel like we are hunting for clues in a criminal investigation.
Thank you Dr Robert Loynes for a great afternoon. I look forward to more CSI Egypt!
Dr Robert Loynes is a Faculty Member at the University of Manchester and carries out research at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology.
By Christiane Cartwright
Thanks, Christiana, for your excellent review of what I think was one of my favourite of our Expert Lectures to date.
What a fascinating subject and so well presented as well as a refreshing change from the more historical aspects of the intriguing subject of Egyptology.