"You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out.
That's a good-looking mummy" —Bill Clinton
Posted on 06/27/2005 11:57:56 AM PDT by blam
Scientists may soon get glimpse of mummy's face
6/26/2005, 5:49 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (AP) — Pesed has called a western Pennsylvania college home for about 120 years, but her caretakers don't know what she looks like.
But that might change now that researchers have a CT scan of the 2,300-year-old Egyptian mummy. Officials believe the scan will provide enough information to allow a forensic artist to construct a bust of Pesed, a mummy from the Nile River town of Akhmim, about 350 miles south of Cairo.
Pesed has been the property of Westminster College, located about 40 miles north of Pittsburgh, since the Rev. John Griffin, an Egyptian missionary and a Westminster alumnus, gave the mummy to the school in 1885.
The mummy's presence at the college has allowed researchers to learn more about ancient Egyptians' diet, burial rituals and dental care. Now, Pesed might give researchers the chance to come face-to-face with their research subject — sort of.
Last week, Pesed was taken to College Fields MRI in Neshannock, Lawrence County, for a CT scan, during which computers produced images of half-millimeter-thick slices of her entire body.
The 2,500 images will allow Philadelphia forensic artist Frank Bender to sculpt the bust, a process that could take weeks.
"This is a chance to get to know her better," said Jonathan Elias, of the Berks County-based Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, which paid for the CT scans.
Researchers have already pieced together some biographical details about the woman, who was mummified between 300 and 220 B.C.
CT scans and X-rays conducted in August 2001 revealed that Pesed was a 55- to 65-year-old woman who had osteoporosis at the time of her death. They also revealed abscesses along her jaw, which could indicate that she had an infection that could have led to malnutrition or death.
During this round of scans, Elias also plans to focus on an amulet tucked under Pesed's left armpit, which researchers found during the last scan four years ago. The scans will allow him to take a closer look at the small metal charm without disrupting the mummy's wrap.
Egyptians, who believed the body transcended into the afterlife, placed charms on the body to cure wearers' maladies, Elias said. The placement of the charm under Pesed's arm might indicate that she suffered a chronic pain in that area, he said.
Researchers also used CT scan imaging to reconstruct the face and head of King Tutankhamun. Since then, scientists have attempted to scan other mummies.
About 1,000 mummies were unearthed in Egypt's Akhmim region, Elias said. Many were sold to missionaries and others and about 300 are now in the United States, he said.
GGG Ping.
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Tnx for that piece of logic.
The caption on that should be, "Brrrraaaaaiiiinnnnsssssss....(or maybe I've seen too many zombie movies.)
Oh man, a liberal it choking the life out of the Constitution.
"""Scientists may soon get glimpse of mummy's face."""
Boy, I sure wish I had a job like that.
But then I would be afraid, VERY afraid, that, with MY luck, some smart alec would challenge me to recreate the face of ... say ... one of his relatives who has only been been pushing up the daisies for half a century and whose picture is still hanging on his wall. Just to see how good I really am.
Don't those scientists have any shame?
ping
"""Don't those scientists have any shame?"""
What I am trying to say here is that I don't trust those scientists as far as I can throw them, because if they WERE any good at their craft they would surely try to prove their mettle by first recreating a known face.
Am I right or am I right?
10 posts to Helen Thomas. I expected nothing less...
I've seen that experiment before. It's sometimes done on modern day bodies of unknown victims. I saw one case where the relatives identified their relative from the reconstructed face of a decomposed victim. I believe it's reasonable accurate.
"""I've seen that experiment before. It's sometimes done on modern day bodies of unknown victims. I saw one case where the relatives identified their relative from the reconstructed face of a decomposed victim."""
A picture is worth a thousand words. These scientists know this, and if they could reproduce a face that matched the picture, they'd be rich & famous.
But because they can't, they are trying to sell us a pig in a poke. And if you asked them to match a corpse with the picture for a hundred million dollars they wouldn't dare to try because they know that the odds of them comming even close would be astronomical.
BUMS, THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE!!
And you can take that to the bank.
Of course, the likeness can only be as good as the artist doing the reproduction. Each artist brings with him/her there own interpretations of calculations, images and facts. I think that those doing the work are honest. Why wouldn't they be?
"""Of course, the likeness can only be as good as the artist doing the reproduction."""
OF COURSE!! ..........
................. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
I wanna' hear more about this psychic stuff. What was their evidence?
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