Secret of a mummy

The dead body had no broken bones, the skull part was not chipped and had a full tooth. There is no evidence of previous vitamin or injury deficiency. Under CT scanners, a life before mummification was recreated.

When Demetrios, a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy belonged to the Brooklyn Museum, was placed on the table of a 64-piece scanner, many exhibitors, conservationists and medical experts I watched them closely, eyes glued to the image in front of me." The normal state of the corpse is surprising, " said Dr. Boxt Lawrence, director of the MRI and CT scan center at North Shore University Hospital. He examined the images on a row of computer screens. " Maybe he had a peaceful and natural death ."

Although scanners have been used to study mummies for more than 20 years, this is the first time the Brooklyn Museum and North Shore Hospital have done this. Their aim was to find out who Demetrios was, how he died and his marinated remains could tell them about the Egyptian funeral practices.

MRI and CT scans are helping to reveal the mystery of a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy belonging to the Brooklyn Museum (Photo: Nytimes)

Secret under the shroud

Dr. Boxt - radiologist - makes a hypothesis: this is not the bone of an 89-year-old man, as some people deduce from the number drawn next to Demetrios's name on the cloth. ancient red shroud used to wrap his body.He was certainly much younger, at least 50 years old when he died .

Can the corpse be swapped , like sometimes in ancient Egypt? "Now no one can be sure" , comments of the Bleiberg Edward, organizer of the exhibition about Egypt and the Middle East classic and Brooklyn Museum. But he notes that the portrait with many complicated strokes found above Demetrios's head shows a middle-aged man, not an old man.

Technicians put Demetrios mummies on a procedure bed (Photo: Nytimes)

The Brooklyn Museum bought mummies and portraits in 1911, after an archaeological expedition that this museum sponsored in Hawara, Egypt. For decades, portraits have been displayed in museums around the world. But the mummy itself wore red shroud - an unusual red color on linen - never leaving the museum of the Brooklyn Museum so far.

"We do not want to show only portraits but want to put it back as it was , " Mr. Bleiberg said. So the curators decided to incorporate mummies and portraits in an exhibition plan. So, one afternoon, Demetrios was carefully packed and sealed in an acid-free white cardboard box labeled " Fragile " and an arrow pointing up so that the mummy body was in a state Lay up. Pushed out of the conservation room on a stretcher, the mummy was taken to a truck to travel 19 miles to North Shore University Hospital.

Although the CT scan has been used for mummies for more than 20 years, this is the first time the Brooklyn Museum and North Shore University Hospital have done this (Photo: Nytimes).

" Brake brave " mummy

Examining the body of the mummy with a $ 1.7 million scanner from North Shore Hospital "is like holding a loaf of bread and cutting it into slices," Dr. Boxt describes the seals. His statue, when each such slice is exaggerated on computer screens.

Organizers and conservationists of Brooklyn Museum are particularly curious to know whether the large stork Ibis, a sacred bird for Egyptians, was discovered in the mummy. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has recently discovered the remains of such a bird wrapped in a mummy wearing their red shroud - one of the 10 mummies in the world - and they Search for the same thing.

The stork in the Getty Museum's mummy was also embalmed - perhaps as a sacrifice to God Toth, whose head was this stork - before it was inserted into his mummy (Nguyen The death of the Getty mummy is also unknown. It is estimated that the mummy is only about 19 years old. No stork was found in Demetrios's body.

The Brooklyn Museum bought this mummy after an archeology where the museum is the financial sponsor in Hawara, Egypt (Photo: Nytimes)

Another question for Brooklyn Museum is, is the mummy body already laid out, on a wooden plank before it is rolled up , like many other corpses already know. The results of the tomography showed that Demetrios was indeed placed on a marinated board. Mr. Bleiberg said that that kind of wood could be a fir tree imported from Lebanon.

Dr. Boxt also discovered a small mass in the mummy's abdominal cavity about 3cm in size. People thought it was a beetle. Mr. Bleiberg said: "It may be evidence of ancient Egyptian customs when placing a beetle on the heart with a guide to guide the heart to not be a hostile witness when he is considered. behave in the afterlife ".

Another unusual thing is not to find the heart of the mummy . Although the ancient Egyptians often removed most of the soft parts before embalming them, they often left their hearts. "The heart will be a positive witness at each person's trial," said Bleiberg, "I don't know why the heart is not there."

The mummy was studied by an expensive, $ 1.7 million scanner, from North Shore University Hospital (Photo: Nytimes).

A few weeks before the scan, Dr. Walton of the Getty Museum took a tiny piece of the mummy cloth to experiment with carbon 14, a process to calculate the production time off the cloth. Using an X-ray spectrometer, he also analyzed the chemical composition of the red powder used in Demetrios's shroud. All mummies of red shrouds are said to belong to the upper classes of Egypt. " High-class people have portraits painted very carefully and use unpopular pigments ," Dr. Walton said. Demetrios's portrait is adorned with a golden crown, now faded.

Even his bones showed his status."He either had a pleasant life, or he didn't have to carry much. He certainly didn't have to lift anything heavy during his life."

Under the CT scanners, a life before mummification was recreated (Photo: Nytimes)

Ngan Giang