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![An intimate tattoo]()
A photograph of the tattoo found on the mummified remains of a Sudanese woman.![Found on the banks of the Nile]()
The site of the excavation on the fourth cataract of the Nile in Sudan, where the grave was found in 2005.![The grave itself]()
The grave of the Sudanese woman, on the excavation site on the Nile in Sudan. The owner of the tattoo died in about AD 700 and lived in a Christian community.![The body]()
The woman’s body was wrapped in a woolen and linen cloth before burial, and her remains were mummified in the desert heat. Here, a CT scan shows a 3D visualization of the mummified remains.![Organs, revealed]()
The same CT scan -- a 3D visualization of the mummified remains -- transformed to show the organs.![Skeleton, revealed]()
A research project that used advanced medical scans, including these CT images, examined Egyptian mummies at a number of hospitals in the United Kingdom last year.![Infra-red reflectography of the tattoo]()
As deciphered by curators, the tattoo on her thigh, written in ancient Greek, reads Μιχαήλ, transliterated as M-I-X-A-H-A, or Michael.How the British Museum found an angel tattooed on an Egyptian mummy
A mummy of an Egyptian woman dating back to 700 A.D. has been scanned and stripped to reveal a tattoo on her thigh that displays the name of the biblical archangel Michael. Read more
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- How the British Museum found an angel tattooed on an Egyptian mummy
