Egyptian Mummies Digitally Unwrapped in Brisbane

Luxor is ancient Thebes and has a fascinating past. Share your knowledge or ask your questions here.

Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

Post Reply
User avatar
Winged Isis
Egyptian Pharaoh
Egyptian Pharaoh
Posts: 3867
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:38 pm
Location: Australia
Has thanked: 824 times
Been thanked: 766 times
Gender:
Australia

Egyptian Mummies Digitally Unwrapped in Brisbane

Post by Winged Isis »

Egyptian Mummies Digitally Unwrapped in Brisbane
By Amy Mitchell-Whittington15 March 2018 — 4:40pm

The body of Tamut, an Egyptian priestess born more than 2900 years ago and buried with a winged goddess amulet at her throat, is one of six mummies who have have been virtually unwrapped as part of Queensland Museum’s latest exhibition.
Using non-invasive CT scanning, researchers from the British Museum peeked inside the carapaces of a female temple singer, a priestess, a wealthy married woman named Nestawedjat, a priest, a young man and a two-year-old boy to bring their findings to Brisbane in Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives.

The scans take less than a minute and use two x-ray machines with different settings to image the thinner and thicker parts of the mummies to create a 3D visualisation, British Museum curator Daniel Antoine said.
Visitors can watch minute-long clips of the virtual unwrapping of an overweight young man from Roman Egypt who was mummified without embalmers removing his organs, or Irthorru, a priest with several teeth missing.
“That (footage) is thousands of hours of work because what we have to do is identify where the skin finishes and where the textile begins so we can tell the computer to virtually unwrap it,” Dr Antoine said.

“We are using some of the best 3D volumetric rendering software in the world so we are accurate as possible so we get the public as close to the truth as science allows us to do without physically unwrapping them.”
Fellow British Museum curator Marie Vandenbeusch said she felt like a child when she first watched the scans bringing these ancient Egyptians to life.
“The more I look at the mummy, the data and so on, every time I find something unusual, special, every time I find something that surprises me, that I don’t understand,” Dr Vandenbeusch said.
“(Nestawedjat) has two amulets that I don’t understand...I have been looking at them, I don’t know, a million times and showing them to everyone and I still don’t understand what they mean, what they symbolise.

“I am sure they are for a specific reason but I am not quite sure what that is and I think that is wonderful for us because every time we are learning new things and learning more about the mummies, the individuals, but also the people who embalm them.”
Sitting alongside the mummies were 200 objects from the British Museum collections and 3D-printed versions of the amulets still resting on Tamut.
Dr Vandenbeusch said the scans also exposed a number of health problems.
“We learnt a lot of things about the skeleton for example and that told us a lot about whether they had fractures or anything like that,” she said.
“The teeth were also really revealing and what we noticed was a lot of mummies in this exhibition have really bad dental health which is possibly linked to diet and so on.
“The soft tissues are much more difficult because they either remove the organs or they are really shrunk so we can’t really see anything, that is why for most of them it is really difficult to have a cause of death.”

Specialist teams from the British Museum travelled with the exhibition to make sure the packing, transporting and display did not cause any damage.
“We use specialist trucks with air suspension...to limit the vibrations,” Dr Antoine said.
“We do everything in controlled environments so the humidity and temperature is strictly controlled, the cases are designed to limit vibrations from the public walking around.
“This is something we take very seriously because our primary duty as curators is to make sure the collection is still there in several thousand years time.”
Queensland Museum Network’s Acting chief executive Dr Jim Thompson said the technology allowed visitors to experience Egyptian life while respecting and preserving the mummies’ original condition.

Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives will run from March 16 to August 26 at the Queensland Museum.


Photos here: https://www.theage.com.au/national/quee ... 4z4jm.html


Carpe diem! :le:
User avatar
Hafiz
V.I.P
V.I.P
Posts: 1284
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 4:23 pm
Has thanked: 614 times
Been thanked: 632 times
Gender:
Australia

Re: Egyptian Mummies Digitally Unwrapped in Brisbane

Post by Hafiz »

Interesting. The guarded opinion of some of the diggers is that Egyptian facilities such as above are poor and there is a blanket refusal to let out of Egypt items recently discovered and needing testing.

Hawass 'got' all types of equipment worth, allegedly, millions from a TV station and National Geographic. Whether these are now working is far from clear. Some of it was equipment that could scan mummies. If its still operating why has there been no publicity and published academic articles. Given there has been complete silence for 7 years I assume its broken/repossessed/lacking skilled operating staff. I thought the total public figure for the 3 machines was about $US3 million.

In addition aggrieved restoration staff at the new Japanese Owned Museum went public (anonymously) about 18 months ago saying the new labs and their equipment were broken/not maintained/disorganized, (I'm not sure) and that they had been poorly trained. There seems a near prohibition on employing foreigners in the Supreme Antiques (except if you are Mark Lehner friend/funder of Hawass) and this affects the type of tests, and many others, your article describes.

How is it that everyone else finds it OK to appoint a Canadian head of the Bank of England or have Egyptians, Lebanese, Greeks in the Australian Parliament or Cabinet? The only question is are they the best...but not in Egypt.

There is also a view that Hawass kept down emerging technologies that minimized digging - particularly DNA testing but more besides.

Its interesting that the BM led this. Under their remarkable former Director Neil MacGregor (maybe the best in the world) they set up an international technical skills training program for poorer countries - everything from restoration, catalogs and management. It was funded by the British Government. Egypt did send one or two mice early on but stayed away. My God Hawass must have been vomiting in the Bloomsbury gutters when he found out that the great Egyptian collection in London was being 'fondled' by its gay Museum Director. He should have demanded the lot 'back' and the appointment of an Egyptian Director....wonder which one. (MacGregor's view on repatriation is interesting and complex and worth posting in contrast to opinions which just bark at a mob).

The British Museum has stayed away from Egypt, particularly under Hawass, which shows good judgement. Imagine if the BM tried to teach museum management to the Supreme Antiques. Imagine if they started talking about cataloguing and financial audits.
A-Four
Egyptian Pharaoh
Egyptian Pharaoh
Posts: 4154
Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:04 pm
Location: London
Has thanked: 905 times
Been thanked: 1111 times
Gender:
United Kingdom

Re: Egyptian Mummies Digitally Unwrapped in Brisbane

Post by A-Four »

Hafiz wrote: The British Museum has stayed away from Egypt, particularly under Hawass, which shows good judgement. Imagine if the BM tried to teach museum management to the Supreme Antiques. Imagine if they started talking about cataloguing and financial audits.
You are correct Hafiz, the BM has even recently closed its Egyptian office, which was half way up the main 'Egyptian' staircase that has always been available to the general public enquires. The new department covers the whole of the Middle East now.

Jonathan Tubb, the Chief curator of this department worked for a very limited period in The Delta in the late 70's, left Egypt and then Qadesh. Later went on to do fantastic work in Jorden, etc. The British have no interest now in Egypt.

It is very much an open secret that many of the world famous diggers who have worked in Egypt in the past are very reluctant to work there now, or in the future.
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post