Unusual mud covered Egyptian mummy discovered

Archaeologists have discovered a never seen before "mud mummy" from Ancient Egypt.

The researchers in Australia found an unusual thick layer of mud around the body of 3000-year-old female mummy.

It has caused them to rethink how the Egyptians buried their dead.

The ancient Egyptians were known to try and preserve the mummies of important royals.

They'd do so by covering them in a hard plant based resin shell which would protect the body from damage.

However, it's now thought that non-royal Egyptians tried to mimic the burial of royals by covering mummies in a mud shell - which would have been much cheaper.

The mud mummy was discovered inside a decorated coffin in Chau Chak Wing Museum in Sydney, Australia.

Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, the archaeologists were able to see the thick mud shell.

The mummified individual was a woman between the ages of 26 and 35.

On the coffin, the female name Meruah is inscribed.

However, it's hard to know if that was the woman's name because the archaeologists also discovered that the body inside was a lot older than the decorated coffin which it was in.

The researchers from Macquarie University in Sydney think this is because local dealers in the 19th century - when the mummy was first discovered - liked to sell them in coffins as a full set.