On 26 January 2023, Dr. Zahi Hawass announced that Egypt’s oldest and most complete mummy may have been discovered near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara in Egypt. The 4,300 year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre (49 foot) shaft in a recently uncovered group of tombs dating back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom. A sealed sarcophagus was opened and the archaeologists found the mummified remains of a man covered with gold. The hieroglyphic inscription on the sarcophagus identifies him as Hekashepes. "It is the oldest mummy, complete and covered in gold, ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass said to CNN adding that it was "the most amazing discovery." Is that preliminary conclusion valid, disputable, or simply wrong? We have found older mummies in Egypt. For instance, the naturally sand-dried body of a Predynastic Period man (Naqada II Period, 3400 B.C.), now in the collection of the British Museum , who was found at the edge of the desert. The heat of the sand absorbed the body’s moisture, without which bacteria could not breed and cause decay. Therefore, the body is still in excellent condition including fragments of his ginger-coloured hair. So basically the location did naturally what the ancient Egyptians later did by artifice. Actually natural mummies or artificially mummified remains are not exclusively reserved to Egypt but have been found on every continent. We use the term mummy for all well-preserved dead bodies who have been deliberately preserved using a variety of techniques or found in dry places such as deserts or dry caves. The bodies can also have been preserved by intense cold and ice, or by tanning in peat bogs. The term mummy comes from the Arabic or Persian word mumia, meaning bitumen or asphalt, which was not used in the embalming process until an extremely late date. As museums have been looking at the most appropriate way of displaying human remains a new discussion has arisen on the terminology and use of the term mummy. Some museums in Britain are now using other words to describe ancient Egyptian human remains. They want to focus more on the humanity of mummies, not as an object of curiosity, but as a person who deserves all the respect. Not all Egyptologists agree with the change and find that the use of the word mummy is necessary. As Dr. Salima Ikram points out in El País “I find mummified remains insulting and dehumanizing, and many colleagues share my opinion; remains suggest that the body is fragmented” In this article she asks why mummified remains should sound better than mummy and adds “I am saddened by this simplistic idea that changing the name alters or improves our understanding of the subject; explanations and education are crucial.” To return to my question whether the oldest mummy of Egypt has been found we have to discuss true mummification, which is a method of preservation which was intentionally. Experimentation occurred during the Early Dynastic Period to develop a method of preserving the body by artificial means. Second Dynasty graves at Saqqara contained possible evidence of early mummification. A mass of corroded linen being found between the outer bandages and bones might suggest that natron was applied as a preservative. [i] The deliberate attempts to preserve the body were not highly successful during the Early Dynastic period and early Old Kingdom. The body decomposed underneath the bandages, but by the Fourth Dynasty the techniques advanced and a major step was taken. The viscera of Queen Hetepheres, which were found in an alabaster box with four compartments in her tomb at Giza, had been immersed in a dilute solution of natron, indicating that evisceration and the treatment with a dehydrating agent was already in use for the royal family. The wife of Snofru and mother of Cheops was definitely subjected to intentional mummification. [ii] The well-preserved mummy of pharaoh Nemtyemzaf, better known by his throne name of Merenre, was found in 1881 in his pyramid at Saqqara. The body of the Sixth Dynasty king had been plundered by tomb robbers and was lying beside the stone sarcophagus. Merenre probably died at an early age. That the mummy of Hekashepes was buried covered with gold leaf makes it an extraordinary find especially as the group of tombs date back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom. Whether the mummy is from the Fifth Dynasty or Sixth Dynasty it will be a unique discovery as we have little complete evidence of intentional mummification during the Old Kingdom. So far all has been based on preliminary research and we will have to wait for the final report. [i] G.A. Reisner and W.S. Smith. 1955. History of the Giza Necropolis, vol. 2. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. [ii] David, A. R. 2000. Mummification. In Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (eds. By Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw). Cambridge University Press, pp. 373.