The mummy of Ramses the Great was sent to France in 1976 so that it could undergo a number of tests and conservation procedures using the most cutting-edge methods available at the time. In the French nation, the pharaoh was welcomed as if he were a functioning Head of State.
On September 26, 1976, Ramses II, the oldest and most famous pharaoh (reigned no less than 67 years), became the first king of ancient Egypt to get on a plane. The 3,000-year-old mummy of the monarch was loaded onto a military Transall-type propeller plane inside a specially made crash-proof, fire-proof and unsinkable oak sarcophagus. Ramses’s limbs were padded with paper, cotton and foam rubber to protect them from the turbulence of the journey. The pharaoh was on his way to France, to Le Bourget airport, where he would be honored as Head of State before being transferred to Paris, where the king’s mummy would undergo a detailed study and restoration process that would last eight months.
HEAD OF STATE HONORS
Ramses was bid farewell at the Heliopolis airport in Cairo, also with the honors of Head of State, and was escorted and accompanied at all times by the French ambassador to Egypt and by the famous Egyptologist Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt (then curator of the department of Egyptian antiquities of the Louvre Museum), which would not abandon him at any time. After takeoff, the trip from Cairo was made at low altitude to avoid turbulence. It is said that the pilot, before leaving the airspace of the capital, circled the city to offer the old pharaoh a last glimpse of the land he ruled. When the plane entered French airspace, it was escorted by two military jets. Upon his arrival, Ramses was received by the Secretary of State for Universities Alice Saunier-Seité, the ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt in France, the general in chief of the air base and a detachment of the National Guard. The Secretary of State spoke these moving words: “France salutes the mortal remains of one of the greatest Heads of State of all antiquity.”
“France, greet the mortal remains of one of the greatest Heads of State of all antiquity.”
But the pharaoh’s departure abroad was not without difficulties. He was subjected to lengthy negotiations between the two countries. French law required that “any person, living or dead” who entered its territory must carry a valid identification document to legally enter the country, so the Egyptian authorities had to issue the relevant immigration documents so that the elderly pharaoh could travel without problems. Thus, Ramses also became the first pharaoh to obtain a “passport”.
FUNGI AND BACTERIA
But what happened to the mummy of Ramses II? Why had the drastic decision been made to move her so far from her home, in an unprecedented journey? The reason was her delicate state. The incision through which ancient embalmers had removed the monarch’s organs was getting wider and wider, and this deterioration alarmed scientists who had studied it in the early 1970s. “It also went through the linen wrapping that covered the arms, legs and bust of Ramses. He also had a 16-inch cut across his hip. And, most worryingly, when the researchers opened the glass box where the mummy was exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, they noticed a strong odor that betrayed the presence of bacteria and fungi. If you wanted to save the mummy of Ramses, you had to intervene immediately.
When the glass box where the mummy was exposed was opened, they noticed a strong odor that betrayed the presence of bacteria and fungi.
At that time, France had scientific facilities that allowed it to carry out the most appropriate studies and conservation work, and the Gallic country made forty laboratories and the most advanced diagnostic instruments of the time available to scientists. Thus would begin what was baptized as “Project Ramses II”. The pharaoh was transferred to Paris and housed on the third floor of the Museum of Man in the capital, where two rooms were set up to “lodge” him, with air conditioning to maintain the right temperature and humidity. The windows were also boarded up to prevent the passage of sunlight.
IN-DEPTH STUDY
To proceed with the study of the mummy of Ramses, it was carefully placed on a Plexiglas table to facilitate its transfer. Scientists were not allowed to remove tissue from the mummy, but they were allowed to examine any loose material stuck to it. From here they were able to identify 60 different types of fungi (one of them, Daedalea biennis, being particularly destructive), especially on the back. . When they studied the cavity through which the viscera were extracted, they found a total of 379 more fungal colonies, divided into 89 species.
The researchers explored the interior of the mummy of Ramses to find out the state of health of the pharaoh during his last days of life. To do this, they studied the abdominal cavity with an endoscope and used a scanning electron microscope to examine the hair (they discovered that the pharaoh dyed himself with henna).
The most advanced radiological techniques of the time were also used. Xeroradiography, a technique that allows both hard and soft tissue to be recorded, determined that the pharaoh had suffered from arthritis, as well as a stiffening of the carotid artery (arteriosclerosis); They were also able to verify the terrible state of his teeth: the old monarch was missing his first lower molar and suffered a very serious dental abscess, which possibly caused his death. Chromodensitography (a system by which researchers can transfer the greys, lights and darks of an X-ray into different color ranges) revealed that the pharaoh had a broken neck, possibly due to handling of the body during embalming.
The elderly monarch was missing his lower first molar and suffered a very serious dental abscess, which possibly caused his death.But perhaps one of the most surprising discoveries was the presence of tobacco leaves (Nicotiana tabacum) in the abdominal cavity. The find raised more questions than answers: Was this a special case or did this plant play a specific role in the mummification process?
THE FINAL SETTING
After the study of the mummy, the conservators took over. They proceeded to clean and fix the bandages that still covered part of the pharaoh’s body, especially hands and feet. They were cleaned of sand and dust, and the loose bits of cloth were sewn together with linen threads before they were wrapped around the mummy again. A 19th dynasty linen shroud was also recovered from the Louvre Museum, which was washed with distilled water several times, and the pharaoh’s mummy was covered with it. The coffin was also carefully restored. In the end, the monarch was placed back in his coffin and subjected to an intense “shower” of cobalt gamma rays to completely eliminate fungi and bacteria. The process took place at a nuclear facility outside of Paris, specifically at the Grenoble Nuclear Energy Center.
The monarch was placed back in his coffin and subjected to an intense “shower” of cobalt gamma rays to completely eliminate fungi and bacteria.
In May 1977, the royal mummy was put back on a plane with all the precautions to return to its country of origin and dismissed by the French authorities with the same protocol ceremony as upon her arrival. Once back in Egypt, she took the pharaoh out of his packaging and those present were enthused by the work done by the experts. The Egyptian president, Anwar el-Sadat, sent a heartfelt telegram to his counterpart, the French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, in which he said the following: “Dear and great friend. I thank France for the great work of its experts. The scientific and technical cooperation of our countries will make future generations proud”. Since then Ramses II, “cured” of his affections, rests, now, forever, in the room of the royal mummies of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
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Source: 1stauditor.com
