The infant mummy's face-Paleoradiological investigation and comparison between facial reconstruction and mummy portrait of a Roman-period Egyptian child.

In Graeco-Roman times in the Lower-Egyptian Fayoum region, a painted portrait was traditionally placed over the face of a deceased individual. These mummy portraits show considerable inter-individual diversity. This suggests that those portraits were created separately for each individual. In the present study, we investigated a completely wrapped young infant mummy with a typical mummy portrait by whole body CT analysis. This was used to obtain physical information on the infant and provided the basis for a virtual face reconstruction in order to compare it to the mummy portrait. We identified the mummy as a 3-4 years old male infant that had been prepared according to the typical ancient Egyptian mummification rites. It most probably suffered from a right-sided pulmonary infection which may also be the cause of death. The reconstructed face showed considerable similarities to the portrait, confirming the portrait's specificity to this individual. However, there are some differences between portrait and face. The portrait seems to show a slightly older individual which may be due to artistic conventions of that period.

How to CT scan human mummies: Theoretical considerations and examples of use.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop and provide recommendations for computed tomography (CT) examinations of human mummies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Based on theoretical considerations and examples, recommendations for use are provided for scanning and image reconstruction parameters. Four examples are presented to illustrate the effect of different CT parameters on image quality. RESULTS: The use of appropriate scanning parameters (detector collimation, pitch factor, rotation time) is known to improve image quality; technical considerations favor using lower tube voltage and higher tube current values for the purposes of scanning of human mummies. The use of appropriate image reconstruction parameters (slice thickness, increment, field of view, reconstruction filters) are the basis for individual reconstructions for the purpose of evaluation, documentation, illustration and data storage. CONCLUSIONS: Downsizing the field of view to the region of interest as done in the clinical radiological routine represents one major tool to improve image quality. SIGNIFICANCE: The provided recommendations should improve CT image quality in mummy studies as well as the handling of image data for reconstructions and storage. LIMITATIONS: The recommendations for CT scanning parameters and image reconstructions were written with relatively new generation CT scanners in mind. Only a few examples of use were chosen and image quality assessment was performed subjectively and not by quantitative measurements.