BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Unwrapping Mummy Mysteries

CT scans reveals lives of ordinary ancient Egyptians

Researchers at the Field Museum scan one of the mummified individuals within their collection. Courtesy The Field Museum, Morgan Clark.

More than just the stuff of Hollywood movies, mummies and mummified remains have been the subject of scientific inquiry for centuries. Although early studies of mummies tended to be rather destructive, technological advances have opened up new opportunities. Recently, specialists with Chicago’s Field Museum have used a mobile CT scanner to gain new insight into ancient Egyptian funerary practices and the lives of individuals who lived thousands of years ago.

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Unwrapping the Mummy

Using the CT scanner, the team scanned 26 individuals within their collection. By taking thousands of X-ray images and stitching them together, the scanner produces a virtual 3D image of an object, inside and out, thus allowing researchers to peek behind the funerary wrappings of the mummies without ever having to unwrap them or risk damage.

“From an archaeological perspective, it is incredibly rare that you get to investigate or view history from the perspective of a single individual,” said Stacy Drake, Human Remains Collection Manager at the Field Museum. “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.”

One of the individuals they scanned lived around 3,000 years ago. Named Lady Chenet-aa, she died around the age of 30 or 40 and likely had a hard life, as the bread she ate contained sand particles that slowly destroyed her teeth, especially the enamel. Fascinatingly, however, the scans revealed that upon her death, Chenet-aa had replacement eyes put in her eye sockets so that she would be able to see in the afterlife.

“The ancient Egyptian view of the afterlife is similar to our ideas about retirement savings. It’s something you prepare for, put money aside for all the way through your life, and hope you’ve got enough at the end to really enjoy yourself,” said J.P. Brown, Senior Conservator of Anthropology. “The additions are very literal. If you want eyes, then there needs to be physical eyes, or at least some physical allusion to eyes.”

The CT scans of Chenet-aa also answered a long mystery surrounding her mummy: how she got into her funerary box, called a cartonnage. The papier-mâché-like structure featured no obvious seam and had only a small opening near her feet, not large enough to fit through in one piece. However, the CT scans revealed a previously unnoticed seam along the back of the cartonnage, as well as lacing. Based on the new information, the researchers determined that the cartonnage must have been molded around the body while the material was softened with moisture and the body was standing upright. The seam was then sewn shut and a wooden panel was placed inside through the opening near the feet to keep everything in place. The team hopes that continued analysis and more scans will provide even more information about these individuals and the practice of embalming in ancient Egypt.

Related reading in Bible History Daily

Two Mummification Workshops Discovered at Saqqara

Unraveling Mummy Mysteries at Tulane

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

BAR Jr.: Gamma Rays Halt Deterioration of Mummy of Ramesses II

Mummies