There is a mummy with cancer in this museum

Museums have a lot of secrets. But some of those secrets are quite unusual. In the National Museum of Archeology, at Praça do Império, Belém, there is a mummy with prostate cancer!

This anomaly was discovered in 2007 when the Lisbon Mummy Project began to analyze all the mummies. A group of radiologists and the bio-archeologist Álvaro Figueiredo started this project with the idea that a broader study of mummies could be done in order to understand the past of Ancient Egypt.

The investigation was made through CT scans that allow much more than just identifying the gender, the age or possible cause of death. They allow us to understand the environment in which people lived, their lives, sufferings and diseases.

When the studies were completed, the findings were surprising. One of the mummies, about 2300 years old, had cancer in the prostate with bone extensions - a rare case in the world! Another mummy, belonging to a priest, revealed an extensive injury originating from a distension, which might have caused sprains and terrible pain.