Usermontu's Knee Screw Baffles Experts: 2,600-Year-Old Medical Marvel
In 1971, the Rosicrucian Museum in California acquired a sealed ancient Egyptian coffin containing the well-preserved mummy of a high-status Egyptian male. More than two decades later, a team of scientists made a shocking discovery – the mummy displayed evidence of an advanced surgical procedure carried out nearly 2,600 years ago. Inside the mummy’s left knee was a 9-inch (22.86 cm) metal orthopedic pin that had been inserted with such advanced biomechanical principles, that initially scientists could not distinguish it from a modern-day procedure.
Usermontu – A Mummy Of Unknown Origins
When the Rosicrucian Museum acquired a sealed ancient Egyptian coffin back in the 1970s, they were unaware that it still contained a mummy. In addition, investigations revealed that this mummy was not the original owner of the sarcophagus – it belonged to a priest named Usermontu (‘the power of Montu’) – and that long after death, the mummy had been placed in Usermontu’s coffin. Nevertheless, the mummy of unknown origin has come to be known by the name of the original sarcophagus owner.
Analysis of the embalming procedure revealed that ‘Usermontu’ was an upper-class Egyptian male who lived during the New Kingdom of Egypt (between 16th–11th century BC). His mummified remains are 5ft (1.5m) tall and display traces of red hair.
The mummified remains of ‘Usermontu’. (Keith Schengili-Roberts/ CC BY-SA 2.5)
Shocking Discovery
In August 1995, Professor C. Wilfred Griggs from Brigham Young University, Utah, and a team of experts, carried out x-rays on six mummies housed in the Rosicrucian San Jose Museum in advance of a lecture he would be giving there, including the mummy of Usermontu. They were stunned when the x-rays revealed that one of the mummies had a 9-inch (22.86 cm) metal pin in its left knee.
Ancient Or Modern?
Brigham Young University (BYU) reports that it was impossible to see that the metal implant was ancient from the x-ray alone, leading Professor Griggs to believe that the pin had been placed there in more modern times to reattach the leg to the rest of the body.
"I assumed at the time that the pin was modern. I thought we might be able to determine how the pin had been inserted into the leg, and perhaps even guess how recently it had been implanted into the bones," Griggs said in a report released by BYU. "I just thought it would be an interesting footnote to say, 'Somebody got an ancient mummy and put a modern pin in it to hold the leg together."
A team of experts, including (from left) BYU professor C. Wilfred Griggs, Utah county medical doctors Bruce Mcliff and Richard Jackson, and San Jose, Calif., Dr Grady Jeeter, examines the mummy in which Griggs discovered a 9-inch iron (22.86 cm) knee pin. (Courtesy of Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum)
Unraveling the Mystery
In order to investigate the nature of the implant, Griggs, Dr. Richard T. Jackson, an orthopedic surgeon from Provo, and Dr. E. Bruce McIiff, chief of radiology for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, carefully drilled into the bone to allow access for a tiny camera to examine the pin, and to extract samples of the bone and the metal.
The scientific team found traces of ancient organic resin, similar to modern bone cement, as well as traces of ancient fats and textiles still held firmly in place. Extensive investigations revealed that the advanced procedure had been carried out in ancient times, approximately 2,600 years ago. In order to investigate the nature of the implant, Griggs, Dr. Richard T. Jackson, an orthopedic surgeon from Provo, and Dr. E. Bruce McIiff, chief of radiology for Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, carefully drilled into the bone to allow access for a tiny camera to examine the pin, and to extract samples of the bone and the metal.
The scientific team found traces of ancient organic resin, similar to modern bone cement, as well as traces of ancient fats and textiles still held firmly in place. Extensive investigations revealed that the advanced procedure had been carried out in ancient times, approximately 2,600 years ago.
X-ray showing the 9-inch drill in the knee of Usermontu. (Ahmed bin Tariq)/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Advanced Orthopedic Procedure
The research team were astounded that the pin had been created with the same designs used today to create bone stabilization.
"We are amazed at the ability to create a pin with biomechanical principles that we still use today—rigid fixation of the bone, for example," said Dr. Richard Jackson. "It is beyond anything we anticipated for that time."
BYU reported that the pin “tapers into a corkscrew as it enters the femur, or thigh bone, similar to biomechanical methods currently used. The other end of the pin, which is positioned in the tibia, or shin bone, has three flanges extending outward from the core of the pin that prevent rotation of the pin inside the bone.”
Before Or After Death?
Following the remarkable discovery, the question left on everyone’s lips was – had the surgery been carried out while Usermontu was alive, or after his death?
A full-scaled investigation of the exposed joint revealed that the pin had been implanted between the time of Usermontu's death and his burial. The ancient Egyptians believed in a physical resurrection after death, in which the body was a vehicle for the soul in the afterlife. Thus, ensuring its integrity was of utmost importance. Griggs added that making sure the body was in a good condition was believed to be essential for the reunification of body and spirit.
While this is the first case of a metal orthopedic implant, other examples of bodily care prior to mummification included the repair of wounds, work to teeth, and the construction of prosthetics.
A 3000-year-old prosthetic big toe, which had been placed on a deceased body after death. Housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (University of Manchester)
"How fascinating that the technician took such considerable thought constructing the pin," Griggs says. "The technician could have just simply wired the leg together and assumed that in the resurrection it would knit back together."
"The story tells us how sophisticated ancient people really were," Griggs says. "Sometimes our cultural arrogance gets in the way of our being able to appreciate how people from other cultures and times were able to also think and act in quite amazing ways.
Top image: The mummified remains of Usermontu, Rosicrucian San Jose Museum. Inset: Metal pin found in the knee of Usermontu. Source: Public Domain, Professor Griggs, Brigham Young University.
References
Snow, K. ‘BYU Professor finds evidence of advanced surgery in ancient mummy’. Brigham Young University.
Comments
You wonder why no focus on the most important and easiest bit of valuable information associated with the find: the chemistry of the metal! As per Wikipedia, “In August 1995, BYU professor C. Wilfred Griggs performed some X-ray scans on the Rosicrucian mummies and discovered the presence of a 9 in (23 cm) iron-made orthopedic screw inside Usermontu’s left knee.” IRON! So let’s have them explain that! But as I believe, they were working with IRON back then. So let’s think it out. Iron will normally rust away and disappear over time. So they did probably have stainless steel or some alloy for these types of purposes. They should do the analysis on this piece to find out exactly chemistry of it. But then the question becomes, what happened to the other iron that they would certainly have also be using, particularly for stone-cutting and heavy carts to move the stone? The best explanation then would be that most of it has rusted away. And that would certainly be the case for the Atlantean culture, that was wiped out in a horrendous event 115k BC, adding the zero back to Plato’s timeline in his account of it.
Nobody gets paid to tell the truth.
This procedure was most likely done when the person was alive and not during post mortem. It is obvious that the procedure had been done before it was done on this mummy which they refer to as Usermontu. The procedure had been done on numerous occasions in order to perfect the procedure which is comparable to modern day biomechanical procedures for the same knee problems.. That tell me that ancient Egyptians lead the world in medicine, surgical procedures, constructing multi-story buildings such as pyramids, Aqueducts, tunnels, FIRST RIVER DAMS along the Nile, worlds first religions, written language known as Hieroglyphics, as well as the PAPER (papyrus) and INK to write with, and were the first humans to wear designer Egyptian clothes, while outside of Africa, people walked and ran around naked hunting for wild animals to kill so that they could enjoy a bloody meal...
Charles Bowles
deve ter doido a cirurgia .. ou usaram magia
Should the individual who performed the 'surgery' be labeled a technician?
Hi Roberto Peron, I really do agree with everything you stated regarding the sophisticated medical procedures that were performed by ancient Egyptian medical experts and surgical procedures which they used on their patients. I also believe that the modern day egotistical racist and ethnocentric people of today will always downplay the genius of ancient peoples civilization, and especially those that are not of Europa origin. Anyway, I also agree that this was a good article, other than the fact that they had to add that the mummy showed some strands of “RED HAIR”, which was meant to send a subliminal message that the mummy when alive resembled a “GINGER” white typical Irish/Scottish looking fella ha ha na? They just could not complete the article which was primarily about a “KNEE SCREW” biomechanical procedure without attemptig to add RED HAIR which had absolutely nothing to do with the Knee Screw… I was surprised that they did not say that an ALIEN must have performed that procedure and not the ancient Egyptians, same as it must have been Aliens who built the pyramids in ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan).
Charles Bowles
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