Evidence Embalmed : Modern Medicine and the Mummies of Ancient Egypt

Abstract

The authors are members of the famed Manchester Mummy Team who carried out the first phase of the Manchester Egyptian Mummy Project from 1973 to 1979, producing educational material on the subject of Egyptology and mummified remains. (Authors: A. R. David; R. A. Rawcit; H. Jarvis; I. Isherwood; E. Tapp; P. Stanworth; K. Wildsmith; T. Flaherty; T. J. Haig; F. Filce Leek; I. A. Fletcher; R. A. H. Neave; C. Pettit; G. Fildes). Two books were published. The present book is an extension of their work. After completing their human mummies collection to represent a fair selection of the different types of mummificaiton ranging from the twelfth dynasty to the Roman period, a time-span of some 2000 years, they built on the results of the previous research and developed their radiology and pathology techniques, made use of the science of serology for the first time, investigated an extensive collection of dry skulls to give a unique account of the dental profession in Ancient Egypt, used endoscopy as a means of obtaining tissue for histology without unwrapping and dissecting the mummy, and developed virtually non-destructive techniques of investigation involving the use of x-rays. The information obtained has been organized into an International Mummy Databank. The Manchester Museum, as a university institution, had access to the complex specialized equipment used in advanced medical radiological investigations that provided detailed information not obtainable in former times, when most of the radiographic work on mummified remains had to be undertaken in museums or at archaeological sites using portable x-ray equipment and with the limitations of the local electrical supplies and processing facilities. The radiographic equipment and the various techniques used (photofluorography, tomography, three-dimensional observation and two-dimensional radiography) are described and the results of the studies given. This team's work resulted in the adoption in forensic studies of some of the techniques they devised, such as fingerprinting rigid hands, and the knowledge obtained from scientifically reconstructing the three-dimensional heads of three of the mummies has since been of benefit in plastic surgery. -- AATA

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