CT of a Ptolemaic period mummy from the ancient Egyptian City of Akhmim.

Mummies associated with the ancient city of Akhmim in Egypt provide an important portal for radiologic research concerning the ancient Egyptian population. As part of an ongoing investigation, a mummy of Akhmimic derivation owned by the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was scanned with a 16-detector row computed tomographic scanner. The resultant images helped confirm that the mummy was that of a female in her late teens. Although the deliberate omission of hieroglyphic texts on the painted coffin rendered the deceased individual anonymous, it is noteworthy that great care had been taken in preparing the corpse for burial. The mummy represents conscientious work by the embalmers, work that is broadly consistent with methods used during the early Ptolemaic period for well-to-do persons. Features of bodily decomposition, including the rotary dissociation of the C1 and C2 vertebral bodies and a missing right patella, point to neglect of the body prior to its recovery and mummification. The fact that the body was well prepared but thinly wrapped and interred in an uninscribed coffin further suggests that the deceased was not of the community that eventually performed the mummification. This evidence is not inconsistent with a scenario involving the body's postmortem immersion in water. Although it cannot be determined with certainty whether the deceased was a drowning victim, it appears that the treatment of the body followed protocols developed in connection with an ancient Egyptian tradition that persons dying in, or retrieved from, the Nile River were embalmed with special care.