Lady Rai ( 1570/1560 BC – 1530 BC) was an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian woman of the early

18th Dynasty The Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVIII, alternatively 18th Dynasty or Dynasty 18) is classified as the first dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, the era in which ancient Egypt achieved the peak of its power. The Eighteenth Dynasty ...

who served as nursemaid to Queen

Ahmose-Nefertari Ahmose-Nefertari (Ancient Egyptian: '' Jꜥḥ ms Nfr trj'') was the first Great Royal Wife of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She was a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I, and royal sister and wife to Ahmose I. Her son Amenhotep I beca ...

(1562–1495 BC). Her mummified remains were discovered in a Theban

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

in 1881 and it is estimated that she was about 30–40 years old when she died around 1530 BC. The mummy was unwrapped by

Grafton Elliot Smith Sir Grafton Elliot Smith (15 August 1871 – 1 January 1937) was an Australian-British anatomist, Egyptologist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory. He believed in the idea that cultural innovations occur only once and ...

in 1909. He distinguished her mummy as "the most perfect example of embalming that has come down to us from the time of the early

, or perhaps even of any period". He further characterized her as "the least unlovely" of the existing female mummies, and described as a "slim, gracefully-built woman", measuring in height, with small "childlike" hands. In 2009, a

CAT scan A computed tomography scan (CT scan), formerly called computed axial tomography scan (CAT scan), is a medical imaging technique used to obtain detailed internal images of the body. The personnel that perform CT scans are called radiographers ...

by a medical team revealed Lady Rai had a diseased

aortic arch The aortic arch, arch of the aorta, or transverse aortic arch () is the part of the aorta between the ascending and descending aorta. The arch travels backward, so that it ultimately runs to the left of the trachea. Structure The aorta begins ...

and is thus the oldest known

mummy A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and Organ (biology), organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to Chemical substance, chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the ...

with evidence of

atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is a pattern of the disease arteriosclerosis, characterized by development of abnormalities called lesions in walls of arteries. This is a chronic inflammatory disease involving many different cell types and is driven by eleva ...

. The mummy of

Ahmose Inhapy Ahmose-Inhapy or Ahmose-Inhapi (referred to as Anhapou by Maspero) was a princess and queen of the late 17th Dynasty and early 18th Dynasty. Life She was probably a daughter of Pharaoh Senakhtenre and was sister to Pharaoh Seqenenre Tao, and t ...

, a princess and queen of the late

17th dynasty of Egypt 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. 17 was described at MIT as "the least random number", according to the Jargon File. This is supposedly because, in a study where respondents were asked to ...

who was aunt to Ahmose-Nefertari, was found in the outer coffin of Lady Rai.

References

16th-century BC Egyptian women People of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt Ancient Egyptian mummies 16th-century BC births 16th-century BC deaths {{AncientEgypt-bio-stub