Human mummification is known throughout the Pharaonic period. Improved understanding of animal mummification through scientific imaging can thus inform conservation and understanding of past human-animal relationships.Īncient Egyptians mummified their human dead to ensure their rebirth in the afterlife. It was also possible to identify a bird mummy to species level from the X-ray data. Examination of a cat mummy revealed it was less than five months old and had its neck purposefully broken. Potential evidence for an ‘opening of the mouth’ procedure was found in a snake, along with indicators of the poor conditions in which the snake was kept when alive, leading to dehydration. Thousands of years after the production of these mummified animals, the X-ray microCT technique facilitates new investigations, revealing ‘harder’ skeletal structures, mummification materials, and even desiccated soft tissues. Revealing the internal structures provides insights into their biography, the conditions in which they were kept, complex mummification practices, possible causes of death, and subsequent handling damage. In this study, we use microCT to image three different animal mummies. Laboratory-based X-ray microcomputed tomography (microCT) and focussed imaging protocols permit smaller mummified remains, such as animals, to be studied at higher resolution.
Developments in non-invasive imaging have enabled detailed study of their internal structures. The clues to life and death of mummified animals can remain hidden beneath their wrappings.
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