While conventional 2D radiographic image capture and analysis requires less commitment in terms of time and computational power, the image is a projection through the entire contents of the mummy. Consequently, it can be difficult to determine the exact three-dimensional position and orientation of the contents of mummies due to flattening and foreshortening.
This is especially problematic for animal mummies because the limbs tend to be folded inwards for wrapping and mummification.
This can lead to interpretative uncertainty and bone measurement errors. Medical CT has advantages over 2D radiography, particularly in providing information concerning the three-dimensional location of artefacts and body parts However, the relatively low-resolution limits the level of insight that can be drawn, particularly in relation to the identification of features in smaller animals.
X-ray microCT has been used for higher resolution studies of a mummified falcon, identifying a possible last meal 39 , 40 , and on smaller parts of a human mummy a severed hand In this study, we describe the advanced application of X-ray microCT scanning to a range of mummified animal specimens of varying shape, size and mummification methods to provide unique insights into animal mummification practices in Ancient Egypt.
MicroCT is used extensively within materials science to image internal structures on the micro-scale. Hundreds or thousands of individual 2D X-ray projections are sampled at the detector while the specimen rotates between the fixed X-ray source and detector. The X-ray projections are 2D greyscale images based on the attenuation of X-rays through the sample material. A tomogram is reconstructed from the 2D images using algorithms specific to the experimental setup, consisting of a 3D matrix of isotropic voxels.
Each voxel is assigned a grey value derived from a linear attenuation coefficient that relates to the density and atomic number of materials being scanned. MicroCT imaging typically has a spatial resolution a hundred times smaller than medical CT 43 , therefore enabling 3D imaging and analysis of smaller internal features. The spatial resolution in microCT imaging is also related to the width of the specimen. A typical X-ray detector panel in a laboratory microCT setup has a width of around 1,—4, pixels.
The spatial resolution is typically a few pixels 42 , and is therefore limited in this method by the width of the specimen. Rueckel et al. We use X-ray microCT and a region of interest scanning modality to image the internal structures within Egyptian mummified animals in three dimensions and at micro-resolution.
We highlight the additional level of detail that can be observed and the insight this can provide in resolving the biographies of the animals, their cause of death, mummification practices, and subsequent handling damage. We pioneer a Region of Interest ROI scanning technique to provide higher resolution imaging of the internal parts of such specimens. The traditional methodology in microCT scanning requires the entire specimen to remain in the field of view for all projections. We demonstrate that for animal mummies, where identification and measurement of critical internal features provide important information, this can be circumvented by zooming into internal parts of interest within the specimen to acquire projections at a higher resolution.
Specimens were selected from the collection at the Egypt Centre, Swansea University. To demonstrate the capability of X-ray microCT for high-resolution, non-destructive investigation of three mummified animal remains of varying size and shape: a bird, a cat, and a snake Fig.
The specimens were relatively well preserved externally, but the condition of the internal structures was unknown prior to imaging. Photographs of all three specimens and scale bars: a bird mummy W , b cat mummy head: AB77a and body: AB77b , and c mummified snake EC The mummified bird of prey W Fig. The Egypt Centre has no record of where the auction items originated; very often auction houses did not record provenance at this date. It is relatively intact externally, except for a leg protruding from the bottom, which has been severed at the midpoint of the tarsometatarsus and is missing the foot.
The cat mummy is composed of two specimens with the head AB77a separate from the body AB77b. The consistency of wrapping between the head and body suggests this separation occurred after mummification.
The head is decorated with a painted burial mask Fig. Joseph Davies Bryan had donated the specimens to Aberystwyth. As Bryan lived and worked in Cairo, it is possible the cat mummy originated from that area. Whilst it is sometimes possible to determine the animal from the shape of the mummified specimen, they can be difficult to identify.
The object is an oval package, tightly wrapped in linen bandages Fig. The paper label looks like a cataloguing number and was likely purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome from the Robert de Rustafjaell collection sale. In they were loaned to Swansea University by the Wellcome Trustees. In , a 2D radiograph carried out at a local veterinary clinic revealed the contents to be a coiled mummified snake, but further analysis was not possible using only 2D X-ray imaging.
The scans of the cat head produced a reconstructed volume with a voxel size of On the macro scale, the skull of the cat is clearly much smaller, around half the size of the external mummified wrappings Fig. A digital dissection, removing wrappings on left side of the head, revealing bone, and higher attenuating material used to stiffen the external wrapping of the ears.
Amongst Egyptian felids, F. While there is some overlap, F. Despite the high-resolution precise data generated via microCT, accurate measurements of AB77a are hampered by the damage to the cranium and the young age of the individual described below. Nevertheless, comparison with Egyptian felids and domestic cats from the former Czechoslovakia reveals that an attribution of F. Analysis of dentition indicates that the cat was less than five months old at the time of death. The deciduous premolars are present within the mandible, which erupt around 5—6 weeks and are replaced around 4—5 months The first molars, which erupt around days 49 , are unerupted and located within the alveolar crypt Fig.
Oblique fractures are evident in both mandibles Fig. On the right side, the fracture is located between the third and fourth deciduous premolar Fig. The fracture is oriented in the same direction in both mandibles—diagonally posterior to anterior—indicating that it occurred in the same event; the angle and direction of displacement is suggestive of a powerful impact from below the mandibles.
The absence of bone healing suggests that the impact occurred at or after the time of death. Cat Head AB77a microCT visualization— a dentition, b mandibular fractures, c left maxilla fracture, d angular deviation of the nasal, e fragmentary parts of the cranial wall and internal structures of the ear visible within the cranial cavity 2D slice image from the tomogram , f radiating fracture across left parietal, g radial fracture terminates at the suture lines, h atlas, axis, and cervical vertebrae, indicating separation and possible cause of death.
Scale: skull total length— Trauma is apparent in the left maxilla anterior of the canine Fig. The right maxilla appears unaffected. Large portions of the left and under side of the skull are absent including the distal portion of parietal, squamous part of temporal, basi-sphenoid, basi-occipital, part of the tympanic bulla and internal structures of the ear Fig. The fact that two fragmentary parts of the cranial wall and parts of the petrous are present within the endocranium would suggest that this trauma occurred post-mortem, after the brain had decomposed.
A radiating fracture runs across the left parietal, caused by blunt force trauma to the left side of the cranium and resulting in the loss of these parts of the skull Fig. Fleming-Farrell et al. The absence of a plastic response and hinging, the rough texture, and irregular outline Fig. Furthermore, ante-mortem fractures in living individuals often track along the suture lines because they are structurally weaker , with radial fractures crossing suture lines to the adjacent plate s In contrast, radial cracks tend to terminate at the suture lines in post-mortem fractures of dry bone 51 , which is the case in AB77a Fig.
Taken together, this evidence supports the view that the damage to the left side of the skull occurred post-mortem. The atlas, axis, and three cervical vertebrae are included with AB77a.
As AB77a head and AB77b body are separate, it is not possible to determine if the vertebral separation between samples was the cause of death, or if it occurred during mummification or later. Further analysis of AB77a reveals a separation of 5.
Residual brain matter is evident within the cranium Fig. The fact that this is on the right-hand side towards the back possibly indicates the position of the mummy following mummification, or the scanning position if they are loose. It is possible this would then allow more accurate morphometric analyses of the skull, and a determination of the species, but this would still be challenged by the young age of the cat. This is a common format for 3D printing, which typically has a much smaller file size than the 3D tomogram data 52 MB compared to 2.
STL file types can be viewed, rotated, manipulated, and sectioned in many 3D visualization software packages, including freeware and open software. The smaller file size allows researchers without access to powerful computation, and who are not based within a microCT laboratory to perform visualization and analysis.
An STL file is a simplified representation of the tomographic data, only representing a surface applied to a specific voxel attenuation value for bone. The cat model available at The scans produced a reconstructed volume with a voxel size of The tail of the cat had been tucked through its folded hind legs and the fore limbs placed flat alongside the body Supplementary Information Movie S4 There does not appear to be any evidence of insertion of materials or objects inside the body of the cat, although residual fecal appears evident visible in X-ray slice Supplementary Information Movie S5 The young age of the cat is confirmed by the presence of unfused epiphyses.
The fact that the distal epiphysis of the humerus is unfused—one of the earliest parts of the skeleton to fuse—indicates the cat is younger than 18 weeks of age The bird of prey mummy W is wrapped and covered in a black, possibly resinous, material. It is believed to be votive, consistent with other studies of similar bird mummies 5. The specimen is 23 cm long and 7 cm wide at its broadest point near the midpoint. External visual analysis of the remains revealed damage to the tip of the beak and damage to the left leg of the bird, although this was protruding from the wrappings, and therefore would have been susceptible to post-mummification damage.
The rest of W appears to be superficially intact. X-ray imaging reveals the bird is Figure 5 a shows a visualisation produced from the X-ray microCT data with a segmentation threshold applied to reveal the skeletal structures. To aid species identification, a number of key morphological measurements following the protocol for measuring bird and mammal bones 56 were made of the specimen remotely and digitally, using the 3D microCT data. These are presented in Supplementary Information Table S2 along with the measurements from a selection of comparative small raptors 12 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , This comparison suggests W belongs to the Falco genus, most closely resembling the Eurasian kestrel F.
Bird of prey W microCT visualisations. Morphometric measurements of tarsometatarsus, tibiotarsus, femur, ulna, radius, and carpometacarpus are superimposed.
The feathers are visible in the cross section as elongated ellipses to the left. Spine is at the bottom of the image, top of the bird is to the left, and bottom of the bird is to the right. From the microCT data and visualisations, both humerii and the left tarsometatarsus are fractured Fig. The oblique fracture in the left humerus is suggestive of a peri-mortem traumatic event, while the bone was still flexible. The fractured surface in the tarsometatarsus is irregular and more suggestive of post-mortem traumatic damage.
Tomographic slices distinguished lower attenuation structures inside the bird; structures that are not bone. One of these structures emanated from the mouth, progressed along the spine and led to the abdominal cavity of the bird. This structure, resembling a hooped tube, is the residual trachea where the cartilage has become calcified Fig.
The length of this is approximately 55 mm. The dimensions of which are Circular features can be seen along the outside of the animal, these are the remains of the feathers. There is another mass inside the cavity Fig. This could be part of the digestive system of the animal and is likely to be the gizzard.
The lower resolution scan Fig. Unfortunately, due to limited resolution of the whole specimen scan and several missing bones, we were unable to identify the specimen to species.
However, the increased resolution of the ROI scan Fig. Snake EC microCT visualisations. Half of the wrappings digitally removed to reveal snake skeleton and some higher-attenuating sections within the wrappings. The intersecting lines highlight the centre of the eye. Cobras can typically be identified from their shortened maxillae that bear few teeth except for a pair of significantly enlarged downward pointing needle-like fangs. Identification of the scanned specimen was challenged by the damage to the skull Fig.
Egyptian cobras are around mm in length as hatchlings with adult animals attaining lengths of up to mm. The snake length measured from the 3D microCT data, is approximately mm, indicating that the specimen was juvenile.
The whole specimen lower resolution scan Fig. The nasal, premaxilla and fangs are completely missing from the package, as are the right dentary and compound, right maxilla, right palatine, right ectopterygoid, and right pterygoid.
It is possible that other smaller bones are missing. In addition to the skeleton, the higher resolution scan reveals desiccated soft tissue. Lower attenuation material is visible around the entire skeleton, and it is possible to see the left eye including the lens Fig.
The hyoid bone is also visible near the mouth Fig. Approximately mm from the tip of the tail, two structures with relatively high attenuation are visible Fig. These have a nodular appearance, and measure approximately 22 mm in length.
They are aligned symmetrically within the body cavity, which is not common for paired snake organs as they are typically staggered within the body, but given their shape and position it is likely they are calcified kidneys.
Higher attenuating structures are also revealed within the mouth Fig. A previous study using low resolution conventional thin-section tomography, identified similar structures placed within the mouth of a mummified snake, and were regarded as an artifact of the mummification process.
However, the imaging method used at the time did not have sufficient resolution to determine what these may be and their precise location Given the overall size of the snake, the structures within the mouth are small, measuring only 3—4 mm. The tomographic slices indicate they have a structure like dirt, clay, or possibly natron Fig. Interrogation of the high-resolution data indicates that these structures are located at the opening of the trachea, the glottis.
We constructed a phantom specimen from bone, natron sourced from Egypt, and myrrh to provide images for comparison to the X-ray images of the structures within the mouth of the snake. This is evidenced by the similar comparative attenuation, or greyscale, of the phantom natron Fig. The digital slices through both materials also show similar shape and appearance. Shows similar attenuation evident in greyscale of bone and natron, as seen in the mummified snake, EC Mummy AB77a and AB77b is likely to be a domestic cat, although precise species attribution is complicated by trauma and the young age of the animal.
Nevertheless, this determination is consistent with previous destructive analyses of mummified animals 8 , Identifying species of cat within mummified packages is particularly difficult and requires accurate and precise measurement of specific bones.
This is difficult to achieve with medical CT data, but is possible with the improved resolution afforded by microCT. Analysis of the teeth and epiphyses revealed that the cat was aged less than five months old at the time of death. This supports previous research 8 , 12 , which has shown that cats used as votive offerings were usually, though not exclusively, killed before adulthood.
The separation of the axis and atlas vertebrae Fig. Assumed death in this way has been reported previously via 2D radiography 11 , However, this is the first potential example of this practice in an ancient Egyptian cat identified through 3D non-destructive means. The cobra can represent the fiery goddess, channeling the power of the sun, illuminating the night, and effectively destroying enemies 64 and acting as creational beings.
Cobras were also associated with solar deities, such as those goddesses who were the daughters of the sun god, and with primeval creational gods such as Atum. Two uraei from the tomb of Rameses VI spit into receiving hands, which is a gesture of creation The uraeus is the rearing cobra often depicted on the brow of the king, and can be personified as a daughter of the sun-god.
The spitting cobra, while feared, could thus be protective and creational. The cobra identified in EC could have been killed by spinal fracture, evidenced by the dislocated vertebrae.
This practice was also identified in a mummified cobra in the Egyptian Museum Cairo collection This is supported by extensive damage to the right side of the skull and missing nasal, premaxilla, maxilla and fangs.
Harnessing high-resolution non-destructive imaging for animal mummies provides new insights, exemplified by the visualization of features within the mummified snake package. We have shown that in this case, these inclusions lie at the opening of the trachea, or the glottis.
It has been suggested previously 8 , 16 that the mouths of mummified snakes may have been filled with resin to render them harmless. For the first time, high-resolution imaging has enabled these structures to be visualized, located precisely, and identified as probably natron. There are numerous possibilities for how these items are located at the glottis. The placement may have been an unintended consequence of the mummification process, which can include natron or similar materials.
There is also clear trauma to the jaw bones and teeth, which has been observed in human mummies that have undergone the opening of the mouth procedure 66 ; although this practice is previously undocumented in mummified snakes. If confirmed in other specimens, this could suggest that the mummification process for venomous snakes included complex ritualistic elements comparable to those described for the Apis Bull and human mummies.
Recently, Egypt has had a string of disasters. Last week alone dozens of people were killed in a train crash in Sohag, Upper Egypt, while at least 18 people died when a building collapsed in Cairo. Then, as preparations were in full swing to transfer the mummies, the Suez Canal was blocked by the MS Ever Given cargo ship for almost a week. Social media users have questioned whether the myth of "the curse of the pharaohs" might be to blame.
The ethics of displaying ancient Egyptian mummies has long been debated. Many Muslim scholars believe that the dead should be treated with dignity and respect and not be exhibited as curiosities. He wanted the mummies to be reburied instead, though he did not get his wish. All photos copyright.
Mummies with golden tongues unearthed in Egypt. Lost Egyptian artefact found in cigar box. Sarcophagi buried for 2, years exhumed in Egypt. Egyptian mummified animals 'digitally unwrapped'. This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch as 18 kings and four queens were carefully moved to a new museum in Cairo in a dazzling parade. Image source, Reuters. The mummy of King Ramses II was among those to be transported.
Around B. But since mummification was expensive, only the wealthy were able to take advantage of it. Although mummification was not a strict requirement for resurrection in the next world, it was certainly regarded as a highly desirable means of attaining it. The prayers in the Book of the Dead were intended to help the deceased make a successful transition to the afterlife. T he art of mummification was perfected in the Third Intermediate Period B.
Late Period , the Greek historian Herodotus documented the process:. Next, the flank is slit open. The cavity is then thoroughly cleansed and washed out.
Then it is filled with pure crushed myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense. When this period. N atron, a disinfectant and desiccating agent, was the main ingredient used in the mummification process. A compound of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate salt and baking soda , natron essentially dried out the corpse.
Obtained from dried-up river beds, it was packed around and inside the body in linen bags, and left for 35 to 40 days to draw moisture out of the tissues. By removing the organs and packing the internal cavity with dry natron, the body tissues were preserved. The body was filled with Nile mud, sawdust, lichen and cloth scraps to make it more flexible.
Small cooking onions or linen pads were sometimes used to replace the eyes. Beginning in the third dynasty, the internal organs lungs, stomach, liver and intestines were removed, washed with palm wine and spices, and stored in four separate canopic jars made of limestone, calcite or clay. Prior to this, the abdominal contents were removed, wrapped and buried in the floor of the tomb.
However, the heart was left in the body because it was considered the centre of intelligence. T he corpse was then washed , wrapped in linen as many as 35 layers and soaked in resins and oils.
This gave the skin a blackened appearance resembling pitch.
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