Scientists at California State University Bakersfield are learning more about a 2,500-year-old mummy, thanks to modern technology. The mummy came from Egyptian ruins, to an x-ray room in Bakersfield.
Some call it weird science, however scientists at CSUB are using modern technology to reveal what is under wraps. Before the scan of the mummy, CSUB professor Robert Yohe had his own idea of what lied beneath.
"We think it's a male and that if it was a male it was a short male," Yohe told 17 News Monday morning.
However, after the scan, the x-rays revealed the mummy is most likely female.
"There seems to be some arthritic changes to the vertibrae," Yohe explained. "There also seems to be somewhere on the teeth the third molars are erupted so it's a mature adult female which we didn't know before."
The cat scan only took 25 seconds, but the 3-D images have already become pages of history. Quest Imaging volunteered the cat scan machine for research purposes.
"It's such a rare find because antiquities aren't even allowed out of Egypt anymore so we have a first opportunity to take a look at this and see who this person is that we may not have a similar opportunity in the future," Lorenzo Michaels of Quest Imaging explained.
Radiologists at Quest say more in depth studies of the x-rays will tell what kind of life the mummy led.
"You can tell the wear and tear," Dr. James Cusator said. "You can tell whether they were a laborer. You an also tell where the bones are fused, kind of an age distribution as far as if this was an older person, middle aged or younger, depending on how the bone is fused."
The scan may even uncover how the woman died. Professor Yohe has worked with ancient artifacts nearly three decades. The mummy, on loan from U.C. Berkeley, was his first cat scan analysis, and it's now his method of choice.
When asked if it is better than unwrapping, Yohe replied with a laugh, "Yes, it's far less stinky, and it is also far less damaging to the mummy."
The first mummy scan in Bakersfield was a success, and the mummy was packed up and sent back to Berkeley where it will be on display at an exhibit there.
