London: An ancient miniature coffin measuring just 44 centimetres in length has been found to contain the youngest ever example of a human foetus to be embalmed and buried in Egyptian society.
This discovery is the only academically verified specimen to exist at only sixteen to eighteen weeks of gestation. This landmark discovery from the Fitzwilliam Museum in the United Kingon, is remarkable evidence of the importance that was placed on official burial rituals in ancient Egypt, even for those lives that were lost so early on in their existence.
The tiny coffin was excavated at Giza in 1907 by the British School of Archaeology and came into the collection at the Fitzwilliam Museum the same year.
It is a perfect miniature a wooden coffin of the ancient Egyptian ‘Late Period’ and may date to around 664-525 BC.
