Chicago’s Field Museum scientists have utilized CT scans to discover the secrets of ancient Egyptian mummification.
Scientists scanned 26 mummies with a mobile CT scanner for four days. While the Chicago Field Museum researchers are still analyzing the data from the scans, they have already learned plenty of new information that has shed light on the ancient Egyptian post-mortem practice of mummification.
“From an archeological perspective, it is incredibly rare that you get to investigate or view history from the perspective of a single individual,” said Stacy Drake, the Chicago Field Museum’s human remains collection manager, in a statement. “This is a really great way for us to look at who these people were—not just the stuff that they made and the stories that we have concocted about them, but the actual individuals that were living at this time.”
CT scans shedding light on ancient Egyptian mummification
CT scanners are incredible machines. The machine sends out an x-ray beam and takes cross-sectional images that get processed and stacked onto one another in a computer, creating a 3-D image of the body. Through CT scans, doctors can see almost everything, including bones, blood vessels, soft tissue, and internal organs.
Scientists hope to learn more about ancient Egyptian mummification through these powerful scans of mummies. Neither historians nor scientists have been able to comprehend the complete picture of the ancient Egyptian post-mortem practice, but this research hopes to flip the script on that.
One of the most fascinating things about this study is that it allowed scientists to get insight into the identities and day-to-day lives of the ancient Egyptian individuals being scanned. Harwa, one of the mummies scanned, lived a good life without much manual labor since he didn’t have many signs of damage to his spine and had well-maintained teeth, suggesting he ate well and took care of himself.
Lady Chenet-aa is another example. In her lifetime, she was a high-ranking woman from the 22nd dynasty. The distinguished lady has been a mystery to scientists for decades. Her coffin only has a tiny opening at her feet, which makes researchers wonder how her remains were placed in it.
CT scans revealed the answer to the mystery of Lady Chenet-aa. The scans showed that a lace ran down the back of the coffin, which the researchers at Chicago Field Museum say points to the coffin being molded around her body while she was upright.
She also had eyes painted on her, which was another practice the researchers have recently learned about. According to J.P. Brown, the museum’s senior conservator, ancient Egyptians’ views of life after death were “similar to our ideas about retirement savings.”
“The additions are very literal. If you want eyes, then there needs to be physical eyes, or at least some physical allusion to eyes,” said Brown in the statement.
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