Focus on Sha-Amun-en-su and analyze the Mummy.
After the singer's death, her body was mummified by Egyptian priests and placed into a sarcophagus. Sha-Amun-en-su's coffin cover has never been removed, preventing the mummy from being studied by the naked eye. Thus, all analyzes of the coffin's inner structure and mummy status depended on X-ray examinations, computerized tomography, and three-dimensional scans. The set consisting of the sarcophagus and its mummy possessed great historical and scientific value, especially in relation to the knowledge of the funerary practices and rituals of the Temple of Ámon, since mummies of Egyptian singers are rare and even rarer are mummies of singers deposited in sealed coffins.Some features of the Sha-Amun-en-su mummification process were also quite specific and accentuated its rarity. Although most of the mummification process has followed traditional procedures, such as evisceration of the body and its wrapping with linen bandages, research coordinated by archaeologist Antonio Brancaglion Junior, curator of the Egyptian collection of the National Museum, revealed that the mummy's throat was covered with resin-coated bandages. This particularity indicates a concern of the mummifying priests to protect a zone seen as "vital" for a singer with ritualistic functions that, according to the Egyptian beliefs, would continue using her gift in the afterlife.The Institute of Oriental Studies at the University of Chicago preserves in its collection another mummy, also in a sealed sarcophagus, called Meresamun ("Amun's beloved", in Egyptian language). Like Sha-Amun-en-su, she was also a singer of the Amun temple during the 22nd Dynasty and her mummy also boasts a kind of protection in her throat. Meresamun was about 30 years old at her death. Her mouth and throat are lined with a padded protection, apparently made with pressed earth and bandages. Based on these common characteristics between the two mummies, Brancaglion hypothesized that there were specific standards of mummification for the women in charge of chanting hymns and songs in the Temple of Karnak.Anatomical analysis of the Sha-Amun-en-su mummy failed to determine the cause of her death. It is known, anyway, that the singer was around 50 years old when she died. The mummy's body appeared to be in good condition, with no traumas or injuries. The examinations also allowed to observe a very rare dental curiosity: the mummy still kept almost all her teeth, missing only one. The Sha-Amun-en-su mummy also underwent a three-dimensional laser scan coordinated by Jorge Lopes, from the Tri-dimensional Experimentation Nucleus of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro. That procedure allowed the generation of three-dimensional data files (called "orthogonal coordinates") that served as the basis for making a small-scale replica of the singer's skeleton.
Mummy Ba Karnak sarcophagus Amun Rio de Janeiro National Museum mummified Meresamun Egyptian University of Chicago Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro Antonio Brancaglion Junior Temple of Karnak