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 A Thumb-Sucking Mummy 

 

 

Scientists studying an Egyptian mummy at the National Museum of Scotland made a dental discovery: the mummy had distinctive buck teeth, a sign that he had sucked his thumb for an extended period of time.

The team had been assigned the task of building a model of the skull of an Egyptian nobleman named Petrie 3. Since they did not want to damage the mummy or the coffin, they took x-rays and CT-scans through the sealed coffin. From these, they were able to create a plastic replica of Petrie's face. The results indicated to Dr. Iain McLeod of the Edinburgh Dental Institute that "the front teeth of the mummy seemed to be sticking out and distorted. This is a sign of someone who sucked their thumb  for a long period of time causing the upper cleft to distort This may be the earliest documented case of thumb-sucking." 

Petrie 3 is one of the museum's most famous mummies. Discovered in 1911 by Sir Flinders Petrie near El-Fayum, it appears to date from 100 A.D.  

 

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Source: thescotsman.co.uk, 10/19/01 

 

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Latest Update: 31 July 2008

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