There is still a vast amount of information to be got from the study of the royal mummies in the light of modern knowledge, and by the use of technical methods that are now for the first time available: and one of the hopes raised by the new discoveries is that it may be possible to set an example of how such work ought to be carried out, so as to extract from the remains of these ancient pharaohs all the information they can give us.
The importance of the study of the technique of mummification as a means of revealing the past history of civilization (by affording evidence of the diffusion of culture which was the chief factor in the process of cultural development) is too large a subject to embark on here. I mention it only because most of the exact information we have of the history of embalming has been derived from the royal mummies themselves.
In my pamphlet The Migrations of Early Culture (1915) I made use of the evidence afforded by the geographical distribution of the practice of mummification to demonstrate the diffusion to the ends of the earth in ancient times of elements of culture that were derived directly or indirectly from Egypt.
In the Revue Neurologique for 1920 two French physicians, Drs M. Ameline and P. Quercy, published a very curious memoir with the title “Le Pharaon Aménophis IV, sa mentalité. Fut-il atteint de Lipodystrophie Progressive?” I have used the adjective curious with reference to their work, because they have put forward a carefully reasoned statement in support of the diagnosis they suggest, but do not seem to have made any attempt to make themselves acquainted with the evidence provided by the remains of the pharaoh. When it is recalled that in 1912 I gave a detailed account (The Royal Mummies, Catalogue Générale du Musée du Caire) of the broken bones which were all that was left of the mummy of the pharaoh (no trace of the mummy of his mother, Queen Tiy, has been found), it is surprising to find in a scientific journal the following statements, written ten years after the appearance of my official report was published:—“on a retrouvé récemment (1905), à Thèbes même, les momies du pharaon et de sa mère Tii,” and, referring to the remains of Akhenaton, i.e. the broken fragments of the skeleton, “La momie, recouverte de feuilles d’or délicatement repoussé et d’un réseau d’or avec pierres et verres colorés, est également exceptionnellement belle, mais ces ornements empêchent naturellement d’examiner le corps du pharaon aux rayons X et, a fortiori, d’en practiquer l’autopsie?” (op. cit., p. 451. All the italics are mine).
Fig. 14.—An inscribed stone from Tell el Amarna, showing Akhenaton, his queen Nefertiti, and their daughters, all represented by the sculptor as suffering from the same dystocia as Akhenaton himself.
I have quoted these purely imaginary statements to emphasize the fact that the distinguished physicians who made them were totally ignorant of the conditions revealed in the skull, and based their diagnosis wholly upon the pictures of Akhenaton and the history of his achievements. They describe the condition of progressive lipodystrophy as an affection characterized on the one hand by a progressive and complete disappearance of the subcutaneous fat of the upper part of the body; and, on the other, by a marked increase of the adipose tissue below the loins. The first example of this strange affection was described by Barraquer in 1907, but it is exceedingly rare in adult men. In fact the authors remark that “it would indeed be curious if a pharaoh, dead for thirty-five centuries, should provide a second case (after Gertsmann’s) of the occurrence of this condition in an adult man.”
It is unfortunate that these physicians neglected to study the report which I wrote for the General Catalogue of the Cairo Museum, published in the volume The Royal Mummies in 1912. For they would then have realized that the slight hydrocephalus, the indication of an early overgrowth of the jaw such as occurs in acromegaly, and then the gradual assumption of a feminine contour of figure, with a delayed union of the epiphyses, suggest the possibility that Akhenaton may have been the subject of Dystocia adiposo-genitalis.
Fig. 15.—A painted wooden portrait bust of Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaton.