Mummy Was Painted Red With Spanish Lead

Aug. 14, 2007 — Egyptian mummies may be more international than previously thought, as analysis of one such mummy in the Brooklyn Museum's collection has revealed a surprising connection to Spain.

The mummy, named "Demetrios," turns out to have been wrapped in linen that was decorated with red pigment containing lead that originated in Spain, according to the museum.

"We now think the ancient Egyptians made very specific material choices for mummy preparation," Lisa Bruno, the museum's lead object conservator, told Discovery News.

"Red was thought to ward off danger," she added, explaining that the lead-based paint is toxic, so the Egyptians might have been fighting poison with poison.

Demetrios recently underwent X-ray fluorescence, a process whereby objects and materials are exposed to short wavelength X-rays that excite atoms and cause them to release radiation. This radiation has energy characteristics of the atoms within the object, so the technique helps researchers to determine what chemicals might be present.

Bruno said the lead painted on Demetrios matches the chemical profile of lead from Spain's Rio Tinto region, which has been a site for silver and other mining operations for over 5,000 years.

She explained that lead is a byproduct of smelting to extract silver. It is then likely that Spain either exported raw lead at the time of Demetrios' death from around 94-100 A.D., or the lead was made into Spanish paint before making its way to Egypt.

"At the time, Egypt was in the Roman Empire, so the finding reveals how widespread trade was throughout the empire," Bruno said. "The mix of cultures probably was not unlike what exists today in Egypt."

Imported materials would have been hard to come by and therefore probably expensive, so Bruno and her team now speculate that Demetrios was a very wealthy individual. "Red shroud mummies," of which Demetrios is an example, are exceptionally rare, with only 10 known to exist in the entire world.

Only males received the full red treatment, with females having just touches of red on their more multicolored linen wrappings.

Red shroud mummies have portraits painted on wood that were placed over the wrapped bodies. Although Demetrios additionally had the number "89" painted on the wood, a CT scan revealed he likely was in his 50's at the time of his death. Bruno said his portrait does indeed look like that of a distinguished gent in his 50's.

Lawrence Boxt, director of cardiac MRI's and CT scans at New York's North Shore University Hospital, supports the theory that Demetrios was wealthy because he "died a quiet, natural death" with little wear and tear on his bones and body, which otherwise would have suggested a typical laborer's life.

Boxt even thinks slaves or other workers might have carried around Demetrios, due to the relatively pristine and unused nature of his bones.

Demetrios is just one of many human and animal mummies that will undergo extensive analysis in the coming weeks. The Brooklyn Museum's animal mummy collection is especially diverse, Bruno said, with everything from crocodiles to dogs to an Egyptian mongoose.

After the study, the mummies will form part of a touring exhibit, "To Live Forever," which will open next summer at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

More on mummy analysis:

The Brooklyn Museum on Demetrios

Ancient Egypt's mummies

Official Web site of Dr. Zahi Hawass