In 1908, an archaeological expedition visited the El Bagawat cemetery, in the Kharga oasis, in Egypt. Among the discoveries made, the mummy of a young pregnant woman stood out and who, according to the autopsy carried out a century ago, had died due to complications during childbirth.
The girl, who was between 14 and 17 years old, died during the late dynastic period (712 to 332 BC) or the Greco-Roman period (332 BC to 642 AD). The placenta and fetus (or part of it) were wrapped and placed between her legs during mummification. But a new study has revealed that there was another baby inside the mother. The teenager was pregnant with twins.
Anthropologist Francine Margolis, from George Washington University, explains in an article published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology that the birth took a negative turn when the first baby’s head became stuck in the birth canal, which caused both deaths. of the fetus as well as the mother.
Margolis were analyzing different pelvic shapes to test their effects on successful births and decided to obtain measurements of the mummy’s pelvis to determine if cephalopelvic disproportion (when the baby’s head or body is too large) played an important role in the death of the girl
What was not expected is what happened when seeing the results of the CT scan. “Upon examination of the images, elements of what was believed to be the fetus were identified. But there were repetitions of elements and a second baby was discovered in the young woman’s chest cavity,” the author writes in her study. But the surprises didn’t end there.
The American researcher noticed something that seemed to have gone unnoticed for decades. The baby placed between the woman’s legs was missing its head. Upon closer examination, Francine Margolis realized that the skull was still lodged in the mother’s pelvis, leading her to suspect that this was a “traumatic fetal decapitation,” a rare consequence of fetal births. buttocks, when babies walk feet first.
The second creature generated a certain mystery. According to the anthropologist, it is possible that the embalmers did not realize the twin pregnancy and forgot to extract the second fetus before mummification. In fact, archaeologists who found the mummy in 1908 already noted that extensive layers of “large amounts of salt” had been applied during the embalming process, an ancient Egyptian practice known for its desiccating properties.
As the young woman’s diaphragm dissolved, it is possible that the second baby ascended from the uterus to the thoracic cavity, where it was finally lodged. “This examination reconfirms how dangerous pregnancy and childbirth were during this period,” Margolis writes.
Especially delicate were the births of twins, which were even considered undesirable in ancient Egypt and were therefore often protected with spells. One such incantation, found in an ancient papyrus known as the Amuletic Oracular Decree, highlights this fear of couples: “We will make her conceive male and female children. We will keep her safe from a Horus birth, from an irregular birth and from giving birth to twins,” she said.
