奇速英语

The perfectly preserved mummified body of the Egyptian Pharaoh(法老) Amenhotep I has been seen for the first time in centuries after it was digitally “unwrapped” using high-tech scanners. Researchers have previously refused to uncover the late Pharaoh’s body because of its beautifully decorated wrapping and life-like face-mask inset with colourful stones. However, thanks to new computer topography (CT) scanning technology, the body has been able to be scanned giving researchers a look behind the layers of wrapping.

Underneath the layers of wrapping, which included flower garlands, Egyptologists(埃及古物学家) were able to find previously unknown details about his appearance and the jewellery he was buried with.

Egyptologists knew from decoded hieroglyphics(象形文字) that the mummy had been unwrapped once in the 11th century BC — more than four centuries after his original mummification and burial. But it was believed the priests who did the reburial did so to both repair damage done by grave robbers and to reuse royal burial equipment.

However, Dr Sahar Saleem, professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University said their findings proved those theories false. She said: “This fact that Amenhotep I’s mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death. We show that Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died. He was approximately 169 cm tall, and had good teeth. Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father: he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose and curly hair.” Amenhotep I ruled from approximately 1525 to 1504 BC and was first discovered in 1881 at an archaeological site in Deir el Bahari in southern Egypt.