10:00:00 Single
shots, Egyptian artefacts
Tilt
up - Sarcophagus
Canopic
jar - wide and details of hieroglyphics
Guide Voice: Ancient
Egyptian artefacts in the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at
England's University of Birmingham - objects to fire the
imagination and start the visitor thinking of tales of ancient
curses and walking Mummies. In reality the University is home to a
very real mystery; the contents of a Canopic Jar which has kept its
secrets under wraps since 1400BC.
00.32 (SOT): Dr. Gillian Shepherd,
Curator of Archaeology & Antiquity Museum, University of
Birmingham, United Kingdom - "A Canopic jar is a
jar that the ancient Egyptians would use as part of the
mummification process which involved removing most of the internal
organs. Some of these they simply got rid of but the lungs, liver,
intestine and stomach would all be carefully separately embalmed
then wrapped up in Linen and put in an individual canopic jar. So,
a decent burial would have four of these jars accompanying the
actual Mummy, the Sarcophagus."
01:00 Canopic
jar - various close ups
Guide voice: Though many of
the actual jars have survived, few have retained the original
contents.
01.06 (SOT) Dr. Gillian Shepherd
- "We don't really know what we'll find in there.
The linen is in good condition and has obviously been stuffed back
into the jar; now, early Egyptologists were often much more
interested in any objects or valuables they could find and, of
course, had no idea of the sort of information that we can now get
out of things like organs and organic material using mainly medical
technology. So, I think, given the linen has been stuffed back in
it there's a fair chance that any other perhaps slightly yucky bits
that didn't seem worth keeping might perhaps have been stuffed back
along with it."
01:40 Wide
of CT Scan unit
cu
X-Ray sign
Dr
Shepherd places Jar in CT Scan
Glynn
Hughes, Senior Radiographer, Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Tilt
down to jar in CT Scan
3
shot, Glynn Hughes, Dr Shepherd, Dr. Swarup Chavda, Consultant
Radiologist, Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Scanner
image of jar and contents
c.u.
of above
Dr
Chavda explaining scan
Split
screen images of scan
Guide voice: Taking the jar
to the radiography department at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth
Hospital will enable the team to get a better idea of whether or
not an organ is present. Hieroglyphics on the jar tell the experts
that these are the remains of Puia who died in the period of the
New Kingdom in approx 1400BC. The same hieroglyphics also suggest
that the jar should contain Puia's intestines and it's hoped that
the CT scan might confirm this.
02:27 3
carry Jar down corridor. L - R: Dr. Gillian Shepherd, Dr. Swarup
Chavda and Dr. Ahmes L. Pahor, Consultant
ENT
Surgeon with special interest in the history of medicine and
ancient Egypt.
Entry
into laboratory
Dr
Shepherd unwraps the linen in the jar
Wide
of team examining jar
c.u.
jar and removal of linen
Pull
out from close on jar contents
Dr
Pahor indicates pottery shard in jar
Dr
Shepherd extracts pottery shard
c.u.
Dr Chavda
c.u.
Dr Pahor donning mask
c.u.
team removing tissue from jar
Wide
of above and slow push in
c.u.
Dr Shepherd
c.u.
tissue removal with forceps
c.u.
tissue placed in specimen jar
c.u.
2 specimen jars
Guide voice: The CT scan
has confirmed the presence of a denser material below the linen
wrapping and Dr Shepherd is hopeful that this will prove to be a
human organ - giving DNA and other organic samples that will give
vital information about Puia and his lifestyle in ancient Egypt.
Now it's time to remove the linen wrapping and take a closer look
at the contents of the jar.
03:46 (SOT): Dr Gillian Shepherd
- "We found a lot more in the jar than we thought
we would. We knew the linen was there and the CT scans earlier
today showed that there was something high density in there as
well, and we've got what certainly looks like an organ in there, a
real piece of meat which we've just taken a sample from but, as
well as that, we've got more linen which is heavily resin soaked
that we ought to be able to get some good organic residue analysis
on and also some samples of grasses and seeds and also something
that looks like wool so I think we've got a lot of angles to
explore here."
04:15 Wide
of Canopic Jar with removed linen and specimen jar
Guide voice: But have they
unleashed any darker forces in opening this ancient jar?
04:20 (SOT): Dr Gillian Shepherd
- "We're not too worried about the curse of the
Pharaohs, I'm not a great believer in that sort of stuff, though it
makes a good story, but given that the Egyptians were always
chasing immortality, that's why they went through all these
embalming procedures I think this is a pretty good way for them to
achieve that and I think Puia would be pretty pleased with what
we've done here today."
04:38 End
