MUMMY THEORY: Unidentified Egyptian mummy may have been Pharaoh’s eye doctor

A TEAM of Spanish archaeologists have announced that they may have revealed the identity of an Egyptian mummy more than 2,000 years after his death.

Researchers at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid said the mummy could be the priest Nespamedu. The holy man was also one of Pharaoh Ptolemy II’s most important eye doctors, archaeologists said.

“The fact that he was the pharaoh’s doctor makes us think that part of his life was lived in Alexandria, where Ptolemy had his court,” the archaeologists said.

CT Scans showed the mummy was adorned with Egyptian gods including Thoth, the deity of science and medicine. Thoth was also the patron of eye doctors in Ancient Egypt.

A total of 2,739 pictures were taken of the mummy’s body, with the scanner able to peel away layers of cloth to reveal the body.

This led to the theory that the man could have been one of Ptolemy’s surgeons. Archaeologists think he may have lived sometime between 300 and 200 BCE.

The fact he was mummified shows that he was a high-ranking official with enough money to afford the burial.

Researchers first began working to find the mummy’s identity in 2016. The body first arrived in Spain from Cairo in 1925 and it was initially thought to belong to a woman.