Carbon Dating

One of the first steps in the process of finding out more about the mummy was to have a piece of her linen wrappings tested using Carbon-14 dating technology.

How does this process work? Once a plant or animal dies the Carbon in its cells is no longer being regenerated, and the Carbon-14 starts to decay. By measuring the amount of Carbon-14 in the body of an ancient or prehistoric animal or plant, a scientist can deduce when the plant or animal died.

The test revealed that the Museum’s mummy died sometime between 360-290 B.C.E. In other words, the mummy is approximately 2381 to 2311 years old. Based on those dates, this mummy lived during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt – a period that had considerable Greek influence on its arts and design.