Gebelein man

This case contains the body of a young adult man. You can choose whether to look. He lies on his left side, with his hands in front of his face. The position is still recognisable after more than five thousand years. His body was naturally preserved in the dry conditions of the burial. That differs from the deliberate embalming used for many later Egyptian mummies. The skin and hair that survive are parts of a person, and they also hold evidence about life in Egypt before the familiar monumental tombs of later periods. The body is conventionally dated to around 3400 BC. More recent radiocarbon work places his life within a range later in the fourth millennium BC. Scientific dating gives a range, rather than a known year of birth or death. This individual is one of the people whose remains were found at Gebelein. Seeing him here does not mean the other Gebelein bodies are all displayed alongside him.