Mummy autopsy result 'was wrong'

Ovarian cancer was originally thought to be the cause of death

The first scientific autopsy on an ancient Egyptian mummy probably got the cause of death wrong, research suggests.

Dr Augustus Bozzi Granville caused a sensation when he described the autopsy to the Royal Society of London in 1825.

He concluded the mummified woman, Irtyersenu, died of ovarian cancer.

But a University College London study, published in the Royal Society journal Biological Sciences, strongly suggests she died of tuberculosis.

Italian-born Dr Granville, a surgeon and a gynaecologist, had practised medicine across the world, and had survived malaria, bubonic plague and yellow fever.

[Dr Granville] was remarkably careful and thorough. It was the first time anybody had tried to do a medical autopsy on an Egyptian mummy. Dr Helen Donoghue Diseases of the Ancient Egyptians

In the mid 19th century interest in Egyptian mummies was intense.

So when one of Dr Granville's patients told him he had brought back a mummy from the necropolis at Thebes, still sealed in its coffin, he jumped at the chance to investigate further.

He carried out a long-lasting and exhaustive study of the tissues.

By studying the thinning of the pelvic bone, he established the woman was 50-55 when she died. He also determined that she was a mother, and overweight.

He then found that she had an ovarian tumour, and concluded that this - a condition he called ovarian dropsy - probably caused her death.

However, the tumour has subsequently been found to be benign, and the UCL team believe the key to the woman's death was the fact that her lungs were inflamed.

Tuberculosis was widespread in ancient Egypt and can cause these symptoms.

Tissue analysis

Following Dr Granville's autopsy only fragments of the mummy's tissues remained.

But analysis by the UCL team has found traces of Mycobacterium tuberculosis - the bacterium which causes TB - in lung, gall bladder and bone samples.

Researcher Dr Helen Donoghue said Dr Granville had failed to pin down exactly how the mummy had been preserved, and the exact technique remains a mystery today.

She said extracting DNA from the tissue samples had proved extraordinarily difficult.

She was full of praise for Dr Granville's work: "He was remarkably careful and thorough.

"It was the first time anybody had tried to do a medical autopsy on an Egyptian mummy.

"Before that it was all about their entertainment value - it was a bit like a circus - and most of the interest was in the jewellery that was wrapped up in the bandages."