Bioarchaeology at the British Museum
Key project information
Duration
2018 – ongoing
Contact us
Email: [email protected]
Supported by
Institute for Bioarchaeology
Wellcome Trust
Arts and Humanities Research Council
Marie Sklodowska Curie – European Commission
Francis Crick Institute
Grant numbers
Mind the Gut: Marie Sklodowska Curie – European Commission ID 750860
A Taste of Hard Work: Wellcome Trust 209869_Z_17_Z
Wellcome Trust Strategic Award 097365/Z/11/Z
What can the study of human remains and their funerary practices tell us about the past inhabitants of the Nile valley?
The British Museum runs a large programme of research with partners around the world investigating the lives of past people of the Nile valley.
This bioarchaeological research involves the study of skeletons and mummified bodies using a range of scientific techniques. It explores human health, disease and how people were mummified and prepared for burial. New discoveries are shared via exhibitions, permanent displays, publications and online.
Individual projects have led to high profile discoveries, such as finding some of the oldest evidence for cancer in humans. However, combined new knowledge from this portfolio of projects is the most important contribution to understanding the lives of people in the past.
Training and encouraging new researchers are important aspects of this programme, as well as support for new research facilities like the bioarchaeology lab for Sudanese colleagues in Khartoum.
Find out about the latest project news.
About the project
This collection of projects aims to create a more detailed picture of past human lives in the Nile valley. Some projects study recently excavated human remains from Sudan, generously donated by Sudan’s National Corporation of Antiquities and Museums in 2007. Other projects examine mummified human remains from Egypt, curated by the Museum.
Recent bioarchaeological research includes (see outputs for more details):
- Reassessing the earliest evidence for extensive interpersonal violence in the Nile valley at Jebel Sahaba.
- Re-examining Gebelein Man using CT technology to completely change our understanding of how he died and the process of natural mummification.
- Discovering the earliest evidence of tattooing in the Nile valley.
- A number of projects studying teeth are providing new insights into dental health, diet, occupation and migration.
- Analysing respiratory disease and its links to environmental and sociocultural change in the Nile valley over time.
- Investigating health and living conditions at Amara West between 1300 and 800 BC.
- Using molecular markers to understand the evolution of the gut microbiome.
- Researching how the practices of mummification in Egypt evolved over time.
- CT scanning Egyptian mummified bodies to understand past beliefs and lives, including their health and death – much of this research has been shared in the exhibition Ancient Lives.
Aims
The aims of this programme are to:
- Understand the changing patterns of human biology, disease, diet, occupations and cultural practices of the people of the Nile valley through more than thirteen thousand years of climate, cultural and social change.
- Shed new light on the practice of mummification and its evolution over time.
- To document changes in population movement and biology in different parts of the Nile valley using genetics and other skeletal and dental markers.
- To explore different ways of engaging with audiences to communicate this new research and the scientific methods used to analyse these ancient human remains.
- To train and develop new researchers and support new bioarchaeological research facilities.
Conclusion
All human remains in the British Museum are managed in a way that protects the collection for the benefit of present and future generations. Mindful of ethical obligations, the Museum ensures that the human remains held in its care are always curated and displayed with care, respect and dignity.
The worldwide context of the collection provides an opportunity to study how past Nile valley societies have conceived of death and disposed of the remains of the dead across different times and places. Their display and study provide one of the most direct and insightful sources of information on past lives, human biology, different cultural approaches to death, burial practices and belief systems, including ideas about the afterlife.
The study of the human remains in the collection also furthers understanding of the past by advancing important research in fields such as archaeology, biology and biological anthropology. Their analysis provides unique insights into past peoples and cultures, and offers information that other archaeological sources do not usually provide. The Museum hopes to continue to advance the understanding of past human lives through bioarchaeological research.
Meet the team
Daniel Antoine
Principal Investigator
Department of Egypt and Sudan
British Museum
Rebecca Whiting
Co-Investigator
Department of Egypt and Sudan
British Museum
Marie Vandenbeusch
Co-Investigator
Department of Egypt and Sudan
British Museum
John H Taylor
Visiting Academic
Department of Egypt and Sudan
British Museum
Mohammed Saad
Co-Investigator
M. Bolheim Bioarchaeology Laboratory
National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, Sudan
Emma Phillips
Project curator
Department of Egypt and Sudan, British Museum
School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University
Project team
Outputs
The Bioarchaeology of Cardiovascular Disease
BOOK
Edited by Michaela Binder; Charlotte Roberts; Daniel Antoine
Published in 2023
Cardiovascular disease in Nile valley mummies
BOOK CHAPTER
A chapter in the book, The Bioarcheology of Cardiovascular Disease, exploring the need for a more systematic approach to this research that accounts for vessel prevalence, links to oral health and the impact of Dual Energy CT scanning.
Daniel Antoine; Marie Vandenbeusch; Rebecca Whiting; Benjamin Moreno
Published in 2023
Videos about the human remains programme of research
Curator's corner video – CT scanning ancient Egyptian mummies, 2022
Curator's corner video – see the oldest figurative tattoos in the world and find out about their significance today, 2018
Video – virtual autopsy: exploring a natural mummy from early Egypt, a video about the life and death of Gebelein Man, 2012
Early evidence for cancer in Sudan: an advanced example of bone metastases from ancient Nubia c. 2500−2050 BC
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Rebecca Whiting; Emma Phillips; Daniel O’Flynn; Daniel Antoine
The Lancet. Oncology
Published in 2022
The Mummies of Ancient Egypt (National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo)
BOOK
Marie Vandenbeusch; Daniel Antoine
Published in 2021
New insights on interpersonal violence in the Late Pleistocene based on the Nile valley cemetery of Jebel Sahaba
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Isabelle Crevecoeur; Marie-Hélène Dias-Meirinho; Antoine Zazzo; Daniel Antoine; François Bon
Scientific Reports 11(1), 1−13
Published in 2021
Rediscovering Nestawedjat: embalming residue analyses reunite the mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian woman with her coffins
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Marie Vandenbeusch; Rebecca Stacey; Daniel Antoine
Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 40, p.103186
Published in 2021
Time to be nosy: evaluating the impact of environmental and sociocultural changes on maxillary sinusitis in the Middle Nile valley (Neolithic to medieval periods)
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Anna M. Davies-Barrett; Charlotte Roberts; Daniel Antoine
International Journal of Paleopathology 34, 182−96
Published in 2021
Mummified human remains from ancient Egypt and Nubia: an overview and new insights from the British Museum collection
BOOK CHAPTER
Daniel Antoine; Marie Vandenbeusch
Published in 2021
Ancient anomalies: twinned and supernumerary incisors in a medieval Nubian
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Emma Phillips; Joel D. Irish; Daniel Antoine
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 31(3), 456−61
Published in 2021
Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile valley: the impact of environment and aridification
BOOK CHAPTER
Anna M. Davies-Barrett; Daniel Antoine; Charlotte Roberts
Published in 2020
Inflammatory periosteal reaction on ribs associated with lower respiratory tract disease: A method for recording prevalence from sites with differing preservation
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Anna M. Davies-Barrett; Daniel Antoine; Charlotte Roberts
American Journal of Physical Anthropology 168(3), 530−42
Published in 2019
Periodontal disease and ‘oral health’ in the past: new insights from ancient Sudan on a very modern problem
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Rebecca Whiting; Daniel Antoine; Simon Hillson
Dental Anthropology Journal 32(2), 30−50
Published in 2019
Scanning Sobek. Mummy of the Crocodile God
BOOK CHAPTER
Julie Anderson; Daniel Antoine
Published in 2019
Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world's earliest figural tattoos
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Renée Friedman; Daniel Antoine; Sahra Talamo; Paula J. Reimer; John H. Taylor; Barbara Wills; Marcello A. Mannino
Journal of Archaeological Science 92, 116−25
Published in 2018
New insights into disease prevalence in two medieval cemeteries from the Fourth Cataract
BOOK CHAPTER
Anna M. Davies-Barrett; Rebecca Whiting; Daniel Antoine
Published in 2018
Egyptian mummies: exploring ancient lives
BOOK
Daniel Antoine; Marie Vandenbeusch
Published in 2018
Interactive visualization of 3D scanned mummies at public venues
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Anders Ynnerman; Thomas Rydell; Daniel Antoine; David Hughes; Anders Persson; Patric Ljung
Communications of the ACM 59(12), 72−81
Published in 2016
Egyptian mummies: exploring ancient lives
EXHIBITION
This international touring exhibition introduces six mummies who lived and died in Egypt between 3,000 and 1,800 years ago.
Opened first in 2014
Ancient lives exhibition catalogues
BOOK
Daniel Antoine; Marie Vandenbeusch; John Taylor
Four exhibition catalogues published between 2016 and 2018 to accompany the international touring exhibition Ancient lives:
- Egyptian mummies: exploring ancient lives, 2016
- Eternal life: exploring Ancient Egypt, 2017
- Egyptian mummies from the British Museum: exploring ancient lives, 2017
- Egyptian mummies: exploring ancient lives, 2018
Developing a passive approach to the conservation of naturally mummified human remains from the fourth cataract region of the Nile valley
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Barbara Wills; Daniel Antoine
British Museum Technical Research Bulletin 9, 49−56
Published in 2015
Under Saint Michael’s protection: a tattoo from Christian Nubia
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Marie Vandenbeusch; Daniel Antoine
Journal of the Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents 1, 15−19
Published in 2015
On the antiquity of cancer: evidence for metastatic carcinoma in a young man from ancient Nubia (c. 1200 BC)
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Michaela Binder; Charlotte Roberts; Neal Spencer; Daniel Antoine; Caroline Cartwright
PloS one 9(3), p.e90924
Published in 2014
Ancient lives. New discoveries: eight mummies, eight stories
BOOK
John H. Taylor; Daniel Antoine
Published in 2014
Regarding the dead: human remains in the British Museum
BOOK
Alexandra Fletcher; Daniel Antoine; JD Hill
Published in 2014
Calcified structures associated with human skeletal remains: possible atherosclerosis affecting the population buried at Amara West, Sudan (1300–800 BC)
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Michaela Binder; Charlotte Roberts
International Journal of Paleopathology 6, 20–29
Published in 2014
