Henut Taui

For other ladies with same or similar name, see Henuttawy.

Henuttaui^[1] in hieroglyphs
Era: 3rd Intermediate Period (1069–664 BC)

Henut Taui, or Henuttaui, Henuttawy (fl. ca 1000 BCE) was an Ancient Egyptian priestess during the 21st Dynasty whose remains were mummified. She is mainly known for being one of the so-called "cocaine mummies".

Background

Little to nothing is known about her life. She was a priestess and chantress in the temple of Amun at Thebes, and after her death her body was embalmed and buried in the Deir el-Bahari necropolis.

After the discovery of her tomb, her mummy became a property of the king of Bavaria (likely Ludwig I), who later donated it to the Staatliche Sammlung für Ägyptische Kunst of Munich, where it is still located today (ÄS 57).^[2] Her coffin, once located at the National Archaeology Museum of Lisbon,^[3] is now in Munich too.^[4]

Rediscovery

See also: Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories § Claims of Egyptian coca and tobacco

In 1992, German toxicologist Svetlana Balabanova discovered traces of cocaine, hashish and nicotine on Henut Taui's hair as well as on the hair of several other mummies of the museum,^[5] which is significant^[2] in that the only source for cocaine and nicotine had at that time been considered to be the coca and tobacco plants native to the Americas, and were not thought to have been present in Africa until after Columbus voyaged to the Americas.^[6]

This result was interpreted by theorists and supporters of contacts between pre-Columbian people and ancient Egyptians, as a proof for their claims. The findings are controversial because while other researchers have also detected the presence of cocaine and nicotine in Egyptian mummies, two successive analyses on other groups of Egyptian mummies and human remains failed to fully reproduce Balabanova's results, and some showing positive results only for nicotine.^[7][6][8]

After these experiments, even assuming that cocaine was actually found on mummies, it is possible that this could be contamination which occurred after the discovery of the mummies.^[7] The same argument can be applied to nicotine but, in addition, various plants other than tobacco are a source of nicotine and two of these, Withania somnifera and Apium graveolens, were known and used by ancient Egyptians. David J Counsell notes that "Duke’s Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Database lists twenty-three nicotine-containing plants in addition to tobacco (Nicotiana tahacum). Of these, two – Withania somnifera and Apium graveolens – were known to the Egyptians (Manniche 1993), and the latter, celery, was the more likely to be used as a food."^[7] Sources of nicotine other than tobacco and sources of cocaine in the Old World are discussed by the British biologist Duncan Edlin.^[9]

References

1. Daressy, G. (1907), “Les cercueils des prètres d'Ammon”, ASAE 8, p. 13 (see A 136).
2. Rice, M., Who is who in Ancient Egypt, 1999 (2004), Routledge, London, ISBN 0-203-44328-4, pp. 64-65.
3. Daressy, G., op. cit., p. 19 (see A 136).
4. Porter, B. & Moss, R., Topographical bibliography of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, reliefs and paintings. I. The Theban necropolis, part 2. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press 1964, p. 639.
5. Balabanova, S. et al. (1992), "First Identification of Drugs in Egyptian Mummies", Naturwissenschaften 79, p. 358.
6. "Curse of the Cocaine Mummies" written and directed by Sarah Marris. (Producers: Hilary Lawson, Maureen Lemire and narrated by Hilary Kilberg). A TVF Production for Channel Four in association with the Discovery Channel, 1997.
7. Counsell, David J. "Intoxicants in Ancient Egypt? Opium, nymphea, coca, and tobacco", in David, Rosalie (ed), Egyptian mummies and modern science, Cambridge University Press 2008, pp. 211-15. ISBN 978-0-511-37705-1
8. American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies
9. . Thehallofmaat.com. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved November 26, 2013.