Siemens Medical Solutions Supports Research Project in Egypt.

Together with the National Geographic Society (NGS), Siemens Medical Solutions is supporting a research project of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities on mummies.  The project's purpose is conservation of the mummies and, at the same time, to study health and disease in ancient Egypt.  NGS and Siemens therefore have donated a computed tomography (CT) system, mounted in a trailer.

It is planned, during a three- to five-year period, to scan mummies that are still found in Egypt, which spanned a period of 3,000 years, starting 5,000 years ago.  Today, they serve as a window into the past. It will be possible to not only investigate diseases of antiquity, but also to provide important information for conservation of the mummies and to clarify many questions in Egyptology.

"CT technology enables us to virtually 'unwrap' the mummies without damaging them," states Zahi Hawass, Ph.D., Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.  "The system is installed in a trailer so we can do 'house calls' and don't need to transport our patients."  The research project will be headed by Dr. Hawass. A team of Egyptian scientists operates the CT system.

One of the highlights of the research project was the recent scan of the mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamen...

[More]   Middle East Newsline, Quebec, Canada, Jan. 12, 2005.

cf. Mummies in a Computed Tomography System, Siemens Medical Solutions, January 2005, via EEF News.