Until now, the inability to unwrap the body had prevented Egyptologists from explaining a number of mysteries about Amenhotep I. The most prominent was the question of why he was found not in his own tomb but that of a pharaoh 400 to 500 years younger and having been twice rewrapped.

Amenhotep I had undergone X-ray studies at least twice before, once in 1932 and a second time in 1962. However, the 2D images proved difficult to interpret. The first X-ray study deemed the 18th dynasty pharaoh to have died aged 40 to 50, but the second argued that he was just 25.

That lack of clarity also left archaeologists debating why exactly the mummy had been moved. One suggestion was that it was so that funerary tributes, such as jewellery and amulets, could be removed and reused.

But, according to the authors of the new CT study, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, that theory has been thoroughly debunked.

Instead of being stripped of his gifts for the afterlife, Amenhotep I was, in fact, lovingly repaired and restored having been badly vandalised by grave robbers. 

The grave-robbing that plagues Egyptologists has a history as old as the mummies they study. Ancient papyri from the 10th and 11th centuries BC reveal how suspects were beaten with rods, forced to re-enact their crimes and then “impaled” once found guilty.

The documents also show that the culprits were often the very men who had worked on entombing their former kings, taking advantage of their knowledge of where the mummies were buried and with what goods.