After a fire broke out at the National Museum of Brazil in 2018 a number of exhibits were damaged, including some ancient Egyptian mummies.
Because of their previous studies using neutron spectroscopy and other techniques to study the effects of burning on bones, ISIS users Maria Paula Marques and Luís Batista de Carvalho from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, were contacted by the museum team to see if they could give some insight into the conditions the bones had been exposed to, and how best they might be preserved.
They took samples from four mummies: a noblewoman, two priests and a singer, which had never previously been removed from its casket until the fire and subsequent building collapse.
Maria and Luís brought the bones to ISIS and, working with beamline scientist Stewart Parker, studied them using neutron spectroscopy on the Maps and Tosca beamlines. By using both beamlines, they are able to study in detail the full range of vibrational modes in the molecules.
Their study, published in npj heritage science, is the first use of neutron scattering techniques, for the analysis of skeletal samples from mummified bodies in a non-invasive/non-destructive way.
Their results showed that the different mummies had undergone different burning conditions, and with distinct heating temperatures occurring for different parts of the individual skeletons. They also discovered the presence of contaminants – some from the building collapse and others from the mummification process.
“This is the first application of neutron scattering spectroscopy to the analysis of skeletal remains from mummified corpses," say the authors. “Neutron spectroscopy is an innovative and very suitable way of measuring heat-induced transformations in these types of samples, since this technique is particularly sensitive to hydrogen and is unconstrained by selection rules."
This type of knowledge is crucial for the preservation of the Museum's Egyptian collection, which was severely affected by the fire. The results have enabled the museum to characterise the mummified skeletal remains and implement the most suitable preservation methods.
The full publication can be found at DOI: 10.1038/s40494-025-02261-1
