The Mystery of the Castrated Egyptian Mummy

Yakov Nakatis, chief doctor at St Petersburg Hospital Number 122, said: 'We realised that it was a man when we saw (on the scan) the mummy's primary sex attribute'

Since 1929, the renowned State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, – the largest museum of art and culture in the world – has displayed an Egyptian mummy that was believed to be a female singer from 1000 BCE, which alone made the mummy a popular attraction.
On Tuesday, Russian researchers announced that a new MRI scan of an Egyptian mummy assumed to be that of a high-status female singer from 1000 BC was in fact a castrated man.

In a press conference, the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg detailed a physical examination by doctors of a mummy that has been in the possession of the museum since 1929. When the museum acquired it, they were told that it was from the temple of Amon-Ra and that the woman was a singer named Babat. But a mix-up appears to have happened at some point, and Babat's body was swapped with a male body.

“The fact that the man was castrated surprised us a lot, it was not a common practice in Egypt, it is unique,” said Andrey Bolshakov, one of the officials of the museum.
The mummy believed to be between 35 and 40 years old is one meter, 60 inches and was castrated before or after his death, the tomographic examination by the museum and a hospital proved.
“The man suffered from joint diseases but he had very good teeth, without any decay,” Viatcheslav Ratnikov, a doctor who participated in the analysis added.
The Hermitage Museum founded in 1754 is the largest in the world and has eight mummies including two sarcophagi dating from 725-525 BC.
It has more than 60,000 exhibits and nearly three million objects in its reserves.

The swaddled corpse has been in Russia since long before the Bolshevik Revolution a century ago but the Hermitage Museum decided to learn more by conducting an tomographic scan

The scans showed the remnants of a severed male sex organ, and believe now that the noblewoman's mummy was swapped either at the time of its purchase in the 1860s in Egypt or later in Russia4947556

The researchers had expected to see evidence of a noblewoman - reputed also to be a singer - called Babat from the city of Thebes

The aim of the scan was to discover the cause of death, any diseases, and what organs were removed during embalming 

The researchers suggest that the testicles could have been removed during embalming, but this is not even a rarity, it would be something totally unique

Using MRI scanning technology, museum experts and medical doctors at St. Petersburg Hospital Number 122 worked together to peer inside the wrappings of the mummy. They were surprised to see the remains of a middle-aged man. Further, they determined his height was between 165-170 cm (5'5" to 5'7"), and they discovered some joint disease but overall good dental health.
Although the press release has little further information, the AFP has reported that the MRI revealed the man had been castrated -- however, it is not clear if it happened before or after his death. "The fact that the man was castrated surprised us a lot; it was not a common practice in Egypt, it is unique," Andrey Bolshakov, one of the officials of the museum, told the AFP. However, new evidence is coming to light from bioarchaeological analyses in Egypt, such as these two skeletons of possible eunuchs reported last spring, which could shed more light on potential eunuch mummies.

October 11, 2017