Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / The Mummy of Ramses the Great: Unwrapping a Legend
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses the builder, the warrior, the diplomat. But today I want to get personal. I want to talk about the man himself — literally, his body. The mummy of Ramses the Great. Luna: Oh, this is going to be good. I've always wondered what they found when they unwrapped him. Lucas: Right. And it's one of the most remarkable stories in Egyptology, because his mummy didn't just stay in Egypt. It ended up in Paris, of all places, in the 1970s. But let's rewind. In 1881, a cache of royal mummies was discovered at Deir el-Bahari, hidden in a cliff tomb above the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. It was a secret hiding spot where priests had stashed the bodies of some of Egypt's greatest pharaohs to protect them from tomb robbers. And among them was Ramses II. Luna: So they found him in a pile of other kings? That's wild. Lucas: Exactly. The cache included Seti I, Ahmose I, Thutmose III — dozens of rulers, all bundled together in an unmarked tomb. When Gaston Maspero, the head of Egypt's antiquities service, opened the coffin of Ramses II, he found the mummy in remarkably good condition. But it also had a major problem. The mummy was covered in resin and linen, and over the centuries it had become extremely brittle. Maspero was actually the first to give it a proper scientific examination, but he knew he couldn't just peel away the wrappings like in the old days. So he left it largely intact for decades. It wasn't until 1976 that a French team got permission to bring the mummy to Paris for a full conservation and scientific study. Luna: Wait, they flew a pharaoh to Paris? How does that even happen? Lucas: That's the thing — they issued him a passport. I'm not joking. The Egyptian government gave Ramses II an official travel document, listing his profession as 'King of Egypt' and his age as, at the time, about 3,000 years. It was a diplomatic gesture, a bit of theater, but it also reflected the seriousness of the mission. The mummy was treated like a living head of state, with a military escort at the airport. The French wanted to honor him even while they poked and prodded him for science. Luna: A passport for a mummy. That's hilarious and kind of respectful at the same time. Lucas: It was both. And once in Paris, the mummy was subjected to a battery of tests that would have been impossible a generation earlier. They did X-rays, CT scans, and microscropic analysis of his skin and hair. The headline finding was that Ramses was likely in his nineties when he died — which matches the ancient record of his long reign. But they also found something else. His skeleton showed signs of severe arthritis, especially in his hip and spine. And more dramatically, they saw evidence of a condition called ankylosing spondylitis, a form of spinal inflammation that fuses vertebrae together. That would have been incredibly painful in his later years. But here's the twist: the CT scans also revealed that his spine was curved, which some scholars have interpreted as possible scoliosis, but others say it's just the natural aging process. Luna: So he was basically suffering from old age like everyone else, even as a god-king. Lucas: Exactly. It's a reminder that Ramses was human, and his body bore the wear and tear of a long life. But the Paris examination didn't stop there. They also analyzed his hair, which was auburn, and they found traces of a plant-based dye, probably used to hide the gray. That's a personal touch you don't get from the propaganda stelae. And they found that his teeth were heavily worn, likely from a coarse diet. It's not exactly the polished image you see in the temple reliefs. Luna: That's fascinating. So what happened after the Paris trip? Did they ever unwrap him fully? Lucas: No, and this is where the story gets complicated. The Paris team did not unwrap him completely. They only removed some of the outer layers of linen to get to the body, and they took samples from inside the wrappings using endoscopy. But they did something unprecedented: they used the CT scans to create a three-dimensional reconstruction of his face and body, essentially giving us a virtual peek under the wrappings without physically disturbing them. That was a breakthrough in mummy studies. But it also raised an ethical question that still echoes today: how much disturbance is acceptable for science? The unwrapping craze of the 19th century, where they'd just tear open royal mummies like party favors, is now seen as a disaster. Maspero himself wrote about the damage done to the mummies of the cache. So the modern approach is to scan first, and only take samples when absolutely necessary. Luna: So he's still wrapped up, then? They didn't take him off display? Lucas: He's still in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, lying in a climate-controlled case. But there was a controversy in 2007 when a team led by the famous geneticist Zahi Hawass proposed doing DNA tests on royal mummies, including Ramses. That would require extracting small bone samples, which some saw as an intrusion. The debate is still ongoing. But what's clear is that the mummy itself is a historical document, and every time we study it, we have to weigh the benefits against the risks of further deterioration. Luna: I never thought about the ethics of mummy research. It's like a living debate. Lucas: It is, and it's one of the few areas where ancient history meets cutting-edge science. And it connects to something we've touched on all season: the tension between the legend of Ramses the Great and the reality of the man. The mummy gives us a tangible link to that reality. For example, his teeth show that he experienced pain, and his bones show that he suffered from arthritis. Yet the historical record also shows he fathered over a hundred children. So you have this paradox: a body that was frail in old age, and yet a spirit that clearly kept going. Luna: That makes me wonder — did they find any clues about his health in those CT scans that changed how we see his reign? Lucas: There's one theory that's been floated. Some researchers have suggested that the curvature in his spine, if it was indeed ankylosing spondylitis, could have caused him to walk with a stoop. And that might explain why in his later statues, he's sometimes shown seated more often, rather than striding. But it's speculative. What's more established is that he had a severe overbite and that his jaw was poorly aligned, which could have made eating difficult. And there's evidence of a dental abscess that might have been a chronic source of infection. That could have contributed to his death, though we don't know for sure. The official cause of death is unknown, but some have suggested he may have died from heart disease or a stroke. The mummy doesn't show clear signs of trauma, so it was likely natural causes. Luna: So they still can't pinpoint exactly how he died. That's frustrating, but also kind of exciting. Lucas: It is. And that's the beauty of the mummy — it gives us answers, but it also raises new questions. For instance, the Paris team found traces of nicotine and cocaine in his mummy. That's a huge deal, because those plants come from the Americas, which supposedly weren't in contact with Egypt until after Columbus. Some have argued this suggests ancient transoceanic contact, but most scholars dismiss it as contamination or a result of modern handling. So even the most scientific examination leads to wild theories. I love that. Luna: Wait, nicotine in a 3,000-year-old mummy? That's a headline right there. Lucas: It was huge in the 1970s and it still pops up in fringe circles. But the mainstream consensus is that it's probably contamination from the many hands that handled the mummy over the centuries, or from the resins used in the mummification process. Still, it's a reminder that we have to be careful with our interpretation. And that's what makes mummy studies so fascinating — it's a conversation between science and history, and sometimes they don't quite agree. Luna: So what do you think is the most lasting contribution of the Paris study? Beyond the passport, I mean. Lucas: The biggest impact was in methodology. The Paris team set a new standard for how to examine a royal mummy non-destructively. Their CT scans and endoscopies became the model for every subsequent mummy study. And they also did something else important: they used the opportunity to test conservation techniques. The mummy was in a fragile state, and the French conservators developed a new method to stabilize it using a special resin. That allowed the mummy to survive long-term. So the Paris trip wasn't just about satisfying curiosity — it was about preserving a treasure for future generations. Luna: So it's not just about the past, it's about the future. That's a nice way to look at it. Lucas: Exactly. And that's something we can all appreciate. Which reminds me — if you've been enjoying these conversations as much as I have, and if today's episode was worth a coffee to you, there's a simple way to support us. It's just buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but that link keeps this show ad-free and lets us keep digging into stories like Ramses's mummy. Luna: Yeah, and I know for me, it feels good to be part of keeping this going. Even a small token helps. Lucas: And we're back to the mummy. So after all this, what's the bottom line? Ramses the Great is one of the few pharaohs whose body we can actually study. And that study has shown us a man who, despite his divine claims, was subject to the same physical frailties as anyone else. But his mummy also tells a story of survival — through tomb robbers, reburial, and modern science. That's a legacy that even he might not have imagined. Luna: I never thought I'd feel so connected to a king who lived thousands of years ago. It's like he's still here, in a way. Lucas: That's the power of the mummy. It's a bridge between worlds. And maybe that's why we keep coming back to it. There's still so much we don't know — like whether DNA testing can reveal more about his family line, or whether his remains can tell us about the diseases that plagued ancient Egypt. Those questions are still open. But one thing's for sure: Ramses the Great is not done surprising us.