False Toe Helped Mummy Walk Like an Egyptian

Two artificial big toes from ancient Egypt may be the world's oldest prosthetic body parts, according to new research.

The toes date back more than 2,000 years and were found in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, according to research published in the journal Lancet.

One of the toes, which is mostly made out of wood, was found attached to the foot of a mummy called Tabaketenmut, who lived at some point between 950 and 710 B.C.

An image received from the University of Manchester on February 14, 2011 shows an artificial toe found on a female mummy buried near Luxor and held at the Egyptian museum in Cairo.

U. of Manchester / AFP / Getty Images

This artificial toe was discovered in 2000 in the necropolis of Thebes. The wood-and-leather device belonged to Tabaketenmut, a high priest's daughter who lived between 950 and 710 B.C. Researchers believe this could be the oldest functioning prosthesis ever found.

The other is made out of linen, glue and plaster, formed into a kind of papier-mache.

A study by Jacqueline Finch, a researcher with the University of Manchester in England, shows these false toes were intended to help the wearer walk and were not simply decorations.

"My findings strongly suggest that both of these designs were capable of functioning as replacements for the lost toe and so could indeed be classed as prosthetic devices," Finch said, according to a release from the university.

"If that is the case then it would appear that the first glimmers of this branch of medicine should be firmly laid at the feet of the ancient Egyptians," Finch wrote.

Previously, archaeologists believed that the earliest known prosthesis was a Roman artificial leg made out of bronze, dating back to 300 B.C., according to New Scientist.

To put her thesis to the test, Finch constructed copies of the two toes.

She then asked people who were missing their big toes to try to walk using the copies while wearing replica sandals of the type favored by ancient Egyptians.

Both volunteers were able to truly walk like an Egyptian.

"The results were extremely surprising in that for at least one of the volunteers, the replica worked amazingly well and produced an amazing amount of movement," Finch said, according to New Scientist.

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The big toe supports about 40 percent of a person's weight when walking and helps provide propulsion for each step.

When ancient Egyptians died, they were often buried with reconstructed body parts, in the belief that this would help them in the afterlife.

Finch maintains that these toes were intended for use in this world, as they are more sophisticated than any previously found.

"The wear on the Greville Chester toe and the important design features on the Cairo toe led me to speculate that these toes were perhaps worn by their owners in life and not simply attached to the foot during mummification for religious or ritualistic reasons," Finch said.