The Field Museum recently finished a project using a CT scanner to virtually unwrap more than two dozen mummies in its collection, some of which were 3,000 years old.
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JP Brown, a senior conservator with the museum, said they brought a CT scanner on a truck and spent a week running the mummies through the machine.
“Mummies are large, heavy and fragile, which makes them a nightmare to move around,” Brown said.
Brown said he was surprised to see the mummies in such good condition, “given that they’ve been on display continuously since about the early 1900s.”
He also observed bones in the wrong places, but Brown said this research will help determine what can be done about that.
The senior conservator said he's interested in learning more about their condition.
He said the good thing about using a CT scanner is that they can see skin tissue and the contents of the mummies.
Stacy Drake, the collections manager of Biological Anthropology, spoke to reporters on Tuesday about the project.
“One of the great things about these scans is how this really gives us better insight into these individuals as just that — as people, as humans who lived lives, had names,” she said.
Brown said they'll be analyzing the scans for a couple years, learning what they can. There's a lot, he said, that remains unknown.
See more photos from the Field Museum's project below:
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