Rhind Mummy under the scanner

Two thousand years ago, using state-of-the-art mummification techniques, a mummy was entombed in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes. Now, using state-of-the-art High Definition Volume Rendering(R) software from California-based Fovia, Inc. to virtually unwrap the artifact, National Museums Scotland together with a team of radiologists and a forensic pathologist from Edinburgh University has learned a great deal about this wrapped female mummy, who died when she was in her mid-to-late twenties.

The mummy, known as the Rhind Mummy, was discovered by Alexander H. Rhind, a 24-year-old Scottish Egyptologist who brought her back to Scotland in 1857. Rhind, a brilliant scholar known for his systematic work, left the contents untouched, which was unusual during the time of "Mummy Mania" when mummy unwrappings were common. He was critical of so-called "archaeologists" whom he claimed indulged in little more than looting by unwrapping mummies, as it destroyed the carefully preserved relics.