Reported July 2007

BACKGROUND: The Carnegie Museum of Natural History has collaborated with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to scan the mummy of a small child now on display at the museum. Child mummies are rare, and this one is smaller than normal, with an oversized head and a slight curvature of the spine. The researchers hope to determine what disorder the child may have suffered from in life to cause those features.

MUMMIFY ME: To mummify the deceased in Egypt, first, the brain was scrambled with hot, sharp hooks to liquefy the gray matter, then yanked out through the nostrils; the Egyptians didn't consider the brain to be an important asset for the afterlife, unlike the rest of the vital organs, which were carefully removed and stored in jars. The head was stuffed with sawdust and various resins, and the body covered in natron, a salt common to the region. This dried out the body and prevented decomposition. The corpse was then wrapped in strips of white linen treated with resins from fir and pine trees, beeswax, myrrh, palm wine, cassia, camphor oil, and other naturally microbe-resistant ingredients. The mummy was then wrapped in a sheet of canvas in a coffin, surrounded by various sacred charms and amulets.

ABOUT CAT SCANS: Any X-ray imaging machining shoots a beam of x-rays onto the body. As they pass through the body, different tissues absorb different amounts of the radiation. Bones absorb a lot of the energy and appear white on the x-ray image. Soft tissues, such as skin, fat and muscle, absorb less ad appear in various shades of gray. The lungs, filled with air, absorb almost no energy and appear dark. A CAT scan is just like a standard x-ray, except it uses an x-ray generating device that moves around the entire body to generate cross-sectioned images that are fed into a computer to produce a full 3D image. CAT scan images reveal far more detail of things like internal organs, adrenal glands and blood vessels, than conventional x-ray machines reveal.

WHO KILLED KING TUT? : In 2005, scientists subjected the mummified corpse of Tutankhamen to a 15-minute CT scan, producing 1700 images. Earlier x-rays seemed to indicate the presence of bone fragments, suggestive of a blow to the head, leading to speculation that Tut had been murdered. There also was a dense spot at the lower back of the skull, which researchers interpreted as evidence of a subdural hematoma, also consistent with a blow to the head. The 2005 CT scans put the speculation to rest, finding no evidence of foul play. Rather, it seems Tut died of a broken leg that turned gangrenous, killing him within days, possibly even hours.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Ellen James, Public Relations Manager
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
(412) 622-3361
jamese@carnegiemnh.org

For more information on medical imaging, contact:

Ben Stein
American Institute of Physics
for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine
301-209-3088
bstein@aip.org

DID YOU KNOW?

In the 19th century, mummy heads were sold as souvenirs and proudly displayed in the home. The corpses were ground up into powder and sold as medicines to stop bleeding, and the wrappings were sometimes used to steep tea.

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