Computed tomography alone reveals the secrets of ancient mummies in medical archaeology

Diagnostics of ancient mummies has ever since provoked an unbroken fascination to man. Without opening the coffin and destroying the mummies, radiological diagnostics has become the forerunner, including conventional radiography and 3D computed tomography (CT). Nuclear medicine, using scintigraphy, single-photon emission tomography or positron emission tomography (PET), requires radioactive substances to be incorporated via the vascular system and distributed in vivo to the target cells, and, therefore, cannot be used in mummies. Computed tomography is now included in the form of fusion with PET images in nuclear medicine diagnostics. Thus, nuclear medicine indirectly relates to medical archaeology. Furthermore, new methods of biomedical engineering may be of interest in the future, such as optical methods, e.g., optical coherence tomography allowing for histologic noninvasive diagnostics of the skin [1]. Recently, other researchers published their so-called Horus study [2], named after the early Egyptian God Horus. Using whole body CT the aim of that study was to detect calcifications for supporting the presence of atheroscle rosis in a young population of 137 mummies across four ancient populations. The results are intriguing showing that our modern disease atherosclerosis was already common in four prehistoric populations including preagricultural hunter-gatherers. However, it would be interesting to know if the obtained CT scan data of such a large population could tell us even more about their diseases, causes of deaths, bone and dental status, or mumifica tion techniques. Besides, modern imaging reconstruction algorithms may help to reveal how these ancient people looked like (Fig. 1) [3]. This study may reveal much from an unknown ancient world.