I have to agree with you there, the lack of organs helps with examining but sometimes there is dense packaging within the chest cavity which causes similar problems with visibility.

I don't know of any source I know of an American database called IMPACT but their website doesn't seem to be working yet and hasn't been updated for nearly a year. I have been struggling to find one in my research. There does appear to be one, I know the British Museum is planning to CT all their mummies whether they will post all the data online I do not know.

From what I've seen of mummies in my sample most of them have some kind of trauma especially post mortem from the mummification process such as dislocated feet and arms.

You looking at anything in particular?

Hi Catherine,

there are some calcifiations of the Connection between the cosatl cartilages and the ribs. The very dense areas could be embalment cream or bandages. Do you know if anything lies on top or under the mummy. Otherwise it might although something in the chest-cavity. A lateral x-ray might help to distinguish the cause of the densities.

Hi sarah

most of the mummies I have have been rewrapped so they are missing artefacts like amulets. Sadly I cannot get a lateral x ray due to funding otherwise I would as a lot of these x rays are of such poor quality that I can barely see the bone detail. Thanks for confirming what I can see :)

Glad, that I could help. If you Need any further help, give me a short notice.

It looks like a little from column A and a little from column B. I see some costal cartilage opacification (might just be from the natron desiccation - see early confusion of opacified vertebral discs for sign of alkaptonuria), which I've circled on this image in red [dark in B&W]. The two large opacities I've circled in green [medium grey in B&W] are very likely packing - probably linen rolls on the mummy's left and linen and resin and/or natron on the right, but might contain organs or pieces of organs (dating would help sort that question out). There may be a further package where I've circled in yellow [light in B&W], but this might just be the edge of the right hand package that's superimposed with opacified costal cartilage on the right.

As an aside, the IMPACT database project is still a going concern. There have been delays in getting the data formatted for upload to the imaging side of the database, and time constraints getting background information into the context database. If you send an email through the IMPACT contact page, I will add you to the list of people to contact when it is up and running.

Also, as I understand it from speaking with the curators there, the British Museum's scans will have to be available in some way to the public as it is a publicly funded institution.

Hi Catherine,

The interpretation of the x-ray image is very important to have photos of this facility in two projections. The basic anteroposterior and lateral or oblique, but is often not used in medicine projection. However, the mummies it seems to me that these are the shadows of bandages and / or resins used in mummification. It is also to consider other contaminants.

See aslo "Application of computed tomography in studies of human

remains (an example of an Egyptian mummy)" [in:] Morphology and Systematics of Fossil Vertebrates in my profile

Hi Catherine.

Sure, the 2 ovale circled by Andrew show linen remnants (may be with organs inside),

The cartilages of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th costae (at the right of the column on the picture) are perfectly evident and in anatomical position, directed to the sternum.

Another XR view showing the sternum would be interesting... I can not say if their good appearance of the cartilages is caused by a slight (probably not pathological) calcification or natron dessication.

Best wishes

Catherine-

I am a practicing radiologist, and would add a few comments to those above.

First, I do not see any costal cartilage calcification. Starting from the first rib and moving inferiorly, each anterior rib terminates a little farther from the sternum, with cartilage making up the difference. Cartilage is normally radiolucent. Thus, the anterior end of each rib should appear farther from the sternum as you move from top to bottom, since you cannot see its accompanying cartilage. That is exactly how this appears.

Second, costal cartilage does not normally calcify until the 5th or 6th decade of life, at least enough so that it is visible on a radiograph. If the mummy's age at death is known, and I suspect people died relatively young during this period, he or she may be too young to have any expected costal cartilage, barring some unusual disease.

As to the densities seen on each side, that on the mummy's left (our right) is clearly artificial, such as linen suggested by several here. That on the mummy's right (our left), may represent a calcified organ, such as a partially collapsed lung, but is non-specific. Note that there is also radiodense material projecting over the abdominal cavity.

A lateral view would likely not help with costal cartilage calcification (too much overlap of structures). However, a lateral view would help determine whether these other densities described above are in the thorax and abdomen, or behind/in front of the body. Perhaps you have a photo or description of the body that tells you whether there was such material adjacent to the body. I suspect the radiograph would not have been taken without removing such objects, but what do I know about taking a radiograph of a mummy?

Hope that is a little helpful.

I would suggest the 'cloudy' structures visible on the individual's right are unlikely to be costal calcification as they extend too far beyond the individual rib ends and are just too diffuse. Also for these to be plausibly interpreted as calcified cartilage the sign would need to be symmetrical -i.e the same on both sides of the chest -as there are no similar structures visible on the individual's left I think it can only be concluded that these are some sort of packing (of course a CT scan would make the question easier to resolve).