UCSF and Exploratorium Scan Egyptian Mummy

When planners at the San Francisco Exploratorium, a world renowned science museum, needed radiological images for a six-month exhibit on how the human body has been viewed over the centuries, they turned to UCSF. Radiology Learning Center Director Henry Goldberg, MD, who served on the exhibit's advisory board, not only provided a variety of images for the exhibit, but led a live Web video broadcast of a CT examination of an ancient Egyptian mummy. The mummy, which belongs to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, had never been examined with sophisticated imaging tools. Donated to the museum in 1895, it had been described as an 18th dynasty (Middle Kingdom) mummy of a priestess named Hatason from the Temple of Amon-Ra at Sycopolis.

The May 2000 broadcast and examination took place at UCSF Medical Center, with Dr. Goldberg guiding the audience through the helical CT full-body scan, in which 400 axial images were obtained. Three-dimensional imaging was used to reconstruct the head and torso, allowing the audience to look at the flesh, tissues and bone. Dr. Goldberg and Radiology Department technicians then examined the images to investigate any curiosities they could find.

Although the scan revealed that the mummy lacked customary artifacts, such as jewels, amulets or scarabs within the wrappings, it did hold some surprises. The mummy was found to be a male, rather than a "priestess." It measured 5' 10" tall, had a square jaw, a male pelvis and remnants of what appeared to be a penis.

In addition to the mummy's gender, the radiology team was able to determine that the man had died at a young age. He had almost all of his teeth, no compression fractures, and well-mineralized bone. Examiners also found some broken bones in the pelvis and a large hole in the top of the skull with a bone fragment inside the cranium, injuries that might have occurred after the young man's death, possibly in the handling of the corpse.

Part of his ethmoid sinus was fractured, presumably a result of the method of removing the brain before mummification. Remarkably, while the heart and organs were missing, some soft tissues remained, including the tongue and an intact spinal cord.

"Mummification was the most advanced scientific technology of its time," said Goldberg. "This represented a wonderful opportunity to look back into our past with modern technology."

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