Inside the coffin of a 3,000-year-old mummy

Published on Sunday 8 February 2009 21:02

SHE was an important and beautiful woman in excellent health struck down in her prime. Now, 3,000 years later, scientists have created remarkable images of Egyptian mummy Meresamun within her unopened casket.

The 3D pictures of the singer-priestess were created using a high-tech hospital scanner – and without disturbing a single part of the delicate artefact.

Historians were eager not to damage the casket, which has remained fully intact since Meresamun's body was placed inside it in 800 BC.

However, using the cutting-edge X-ray technology, researchers have found that she was 5ft 5in tall, in her late 20s or early 30s, with wide-set eyes, a symmetrical face, prominent cheek bones and a long neck.

The computed tomography (CT) scan has revealed that the priestess, who is believed to have lived at a temple in Thebes, was in good health.

Early analysis suggests she had not given birth to any children, and the state of her bones showed she had enjoyed a nutritious diet and had an active lifestyle, making the cause of her death a mystery.

In fact, Meresamun's only imperfection was discovered to be slightly worn-down teeth, caused by the grit in Egyptian bread, which was made from stone-ground flour.

The images are set to be displayed alongside the mummy at an exhibition opening today at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute Museum.

Dr Emily Teeter, an Egyptologist, said: "It is so exciting to be able to see this. The mummy is still in the coffin.

"It is like having X-ray eyes to see the relationship between the coffin, the wrappings and the amount of linen used."

Meresamun's remaining internal organs can be seen in the scans and what looks like stones placed in her eye sockets.

Although the inscription on her casket says that she was a "Singer in the Interior of the Temple of Amun", historians do not know very much about who she was.

Her name and the inscription "She Lives for Amun" (an Egyptian god) also appear on the coffin.

However, it is believed she was one of the higher-ranking "interior" singers, some of whom served the Egyptian ruling family.

The elaborate decorative symbols, pictures and hieroglyphics on the coffin are related to life after death and were intended to ensure Meresamun's successful rebirth.

They include a headband of flower petals with wings of a protective vulture by each of her cheeks and a small vulture head on the forehead. This type of headgear was worn by queens, priestesses and goddesses.

James Henry Breasted, the founder of the Oriental Institute, bought the sealed casket in Egypt in 1920.

Scientists attempted to scan it in 1989 and again in 1991, but the images produced were disappointingly fuzzy.

These latest pictures were made using the advanced Philips Brilliance iCT scanner.

The machine scanned 100 cross-section slices of the mummy per second, generating 30 billion individual measurements and producing 1,000 times more raw data than was collected in 1991.

Professor Michael Vannier, a US radiologist who led the scanner team, said: "The iCT scanner allows us to perform detailed analysis of very complex anatomy within seconds.

"The pictures of the mummy are breathtaking. We could see subtle things – wear patterns on the teeth, a clear view of the embalming incision, precise indications of her age – that were not apparent before."

In 2004, a CT scan was used to create a detailed 3D image of a 3,000-year-old mummified man's face without unwrapping him.

The device was then used in 2005 on the body of the boy king Tutankhamen in a bid to discover what had killed him. It ruled out the widely held theory that he had been murdered by a blow to the head.