Virtual tour unravels ancient Egyptian mummy mysteries

3D images of a 3000-year-old Egyptian mummy suggest that he was the ruler Ramses I

November 29, 2000
Web posted at: 4:45 PM EST (2145 GMT)

By Richard Stenger
CNN.com Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Three-dimensional movies that peer inside the interiors of mummies could solve a mystery of the ages: the whereabouts of the pharaoh that founded one of the most powerful dynasties in ancient Egypt.

A virtual tour through the body and skull of an unidentified royal Egyptian who died 3,000 years ago suggests that he was Ramses I, first ruler of the 19th dynasty, according to researchers.

Using CT scans (or computer tomography, a form of X-ray photography), and sophisticated imaging software, the team created movies that allow viewers to take an almost seamless virtual tour of the body cavities.

click to see movie   A virtual CT fly-through of the rib cage of the Ramses 1 mummy, showing rolls of linen cloth    click to see movie   A rotating CT image of the head of the mummy thought to be Ramses I    click to see movie   A virtual CT entering the skull of one mummy through the nose. A hole had been punctured through the bone in the nose, apparently to pull out the brain during burial preparation

"It's like exploring the insides of the mummies with a camera, without unwrapping them or destroying them in any way," said Dr. Heidi Hoffman, the lead researcher.

The videos reveal that the mummy's head was filled with molten resin, an embalming material reserved for people of royal lineage.

The researchers also found that the organs in the abdomen had been removed and replaced with tightly rolled linens, mummification rituals popular during the reign of Ramses I.

The CT scan revealed a previously undetected ear deformity, possible the result of a botched piercing job. Hoffman, a radiologist at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, could not resist giving the mummy a diagnosis.

"There are signs of previous ear infection; an ear bone is eroded and partially destroyed. It's likely he suffered from chronic ear infection, which at that time could have contributed to his death," Hoffman said.

Ten mummies in all from Emory's Michael C. Carlos Museum were given CT scans, a medical procedure usually reserved for living patients thought to have cancerous tumors, liver ailments, pneumonia or other diseases.

When the mummies were pushed on exam tables into the large doughnut-like chambers for CT scans, an automated voice advised them to hold their breath and then release.

"That generated a lot of chuckles in the CT room," Hoffman said.

The other well-preserved Egyptian mummies, also documented in virtual movies, include children with fractures and amputations, a man whose brain was pulled out through his nose, several women, a priest and a Roman-era man with remarkably well preserved features, including hair dyed with henna.

"These are the best patients I ever studied. They are compliant, cooperative, and I have not heard one complaint from one of them," Hoffman said.

For more almost two centuries, archeologists have conjectured on the whereabouts of Ramses I, the grandfather of Ramses the Great, one of the best-known pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

	GALLERY
The face of a mummy that may be 3,000-year-old Ramses I

The tomb of the elder Ramses was discovered in the early 19th century, but no one could identify his body, most likely because looters had plundered the burial location.

When they purchased the collection of mummies from a Canadian museum for $2,000,000 in May 1999, Carlos museum curators speculated that they had Ramses I on their hands.

The position of the mummy's arms, crossed over his chest, for example, was a burial detail reserved for royal mummies from the time period.

Another clue suggests the amazingly pristine condition of a body that predates Christianity by a millennium. The mummy favors Seti I and Ramses the Great, the son and grandson of Ramses I, both on display in Egypt.

"This is a very subjective factor, but they have very distinctive facial features, especially the nose, and this one looks very much like them," said Betsy Teasley Trope, assistant curator of the Carlos Museum.

Hoffman and her colleagues presented their study to the Radiological Society of North America on Tuesday.

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Emory University Hospital
Michael C. Carlos Museum
Radiological Society of North America

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