A former English cabdriver from Torquay in Devon became world’s first person to be mummified in the same method as Egypt’s pharaohs. Over the next few months, his body will be preserved using the same techniques used on Tutankhamen.
Alan Billis, 61, had been suffering from terminal lung cancer when he offered to be the subject of the procedure which Dr. Stephen Buckley has been studying and trying to imitate for several years.
His wife, Jan, supported his decision to volunteer for the procedure. “I’m the only woman in the country who’s got a mummy for a husband,” she said. “He just said, ‘I’ve just phoned someone up about being mummified.’ I said, ‘You’ve what?’ ‘Yes, I’ve phoned up someone about being mummified.’ And I thought here we go again. What’s going to go on now? It’s just the sort of thing you would expect him to do.”
A documentary illustrating the process will be screened on Monday, October 24. It is entitled “Mummifying Alan: Egypt’s Last Secret.”
Chemist Dr. Buckly is a research fellow at York University. He had spent almost 2 decades in his effort to discover the exact mummifying methods which Egyptians practiced in the 18th dynasty.
Archaeologist Dr. Jo Fletcher had studied mummified bodies together with Dr. Buckley. They scrutinized tissue samples and consolidated their discoveries into practice by testing it on Billis’ body at Sheffield Medico-Legal Centre. Billis was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer when he heard that the scientists were looking for body donors.
“I was reading the paper and there was a piece that said ‘volunteer wanted with a terminal illness to donate their body to be mummified,’” the former cabbie narrated to the documentary staff. “People have been leaving their bodies to science for years and if people don’t volunteer for anything nothing gets found out.”
“Experimenting is all about trying different processes to make things work,” said the self-dubbed “Tuten-Alan.” “If it doesn’t work, it’s not the end of the world, is it? Don’t make any difference to me. I’m not going to feel it. It’s still bloody interesting.”
Dr. Buckley used a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer to find out which materials were used by priests, including beeswax, oils and resins. He also performed a series of trials using pigs’ legs to simulate human flesh, engineering artificial desert conditions in his shed.
Billis’s internal organs were removed but the brain was left in place. The remaining cavities were sterilized and lined with linen. Body moisture content was extracted using a caustic salt called natron. To draw out the water, the body was submerged in a salt bath for over a month. It was also covered with layers of protective oils to guard the skin from harsh salt. Then, it was wrapped in linen to protect it from light and insects. The scientists dried the body for three months, after which the mummifying process was completed.
“The skin itself has this leathery appearance which indicates that he has become mummified all over,” said forensic pathologist Professor Peter Vanezis. “It makes me very confident that his tissues have been mummified correctly and in a very successful manner.”
The researchers believe the results may contribute in developing other methods of tissue preservation aside from using formaldehyde, which has been discovered to be carcinogenic.
According to Billis’ family, the mummification project “gave [Alan] something to focus on during his final months.” They all supported his decision and they are thankful that the results of the process were positive.
The modern-day mummy will be kept at the Sheffield Medico-Legal Centre until year-end and it will hopefully be used for additional studies about mummification and decomposition.
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