It's a boy! Hospital brain scanner reveals the identity of 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy

Three Ancient Egyptian child mummies dating 2000 years were virtually unwrapped by sophisticated X-ray scanners more usually used to detect brain tumours in hospitals.

Within just an hour of starting the scans at BMI The Blackheath Hospital, in London, the scientists made a startling discovery. A gold-masked mummy, long thought to belong to a girl was in fact the remains of a boy of around two years old.

The scanner has yet to provide clues as to how the boy died, with no immediate signs of injury, malnutrition or illness such as brittle bone disease. But it has revealed that the other two children suffered serious head injuries, with one having a piece of his skull knocked inwards. It is not clear whether the damage occurred when the children were alive or after death.

Establishing the cause of death will provide scientists with a wealth of information about life in ancient Egypt.

The unique study is being spearheaded by forensic Egyptologist Janet Davey. She will spend many months studying the children, who are not thought to have been related.

Mail Online and The Sun

Tags: children, mummies, mummy

This entry was posted on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 4:54 pm and is filed under Egyptology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.