Showing posts with label Brooklyn Museum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brooklyn Museum. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

THE MUMMY IS A DADDY

Lady HorBrooklyn Museum researchers decided to have CAT scans done on the mummies in their collection to learn more about ancient funeral practices and perhaps causes of death. Imagine their excitement when the scan of a mummy named Lady Hor proved "she" was a man. The mistake was made in 1937 because of the mummy's coffin. The coffin had no beard, and archeologists thought that meant the mummy was a woman. Museums have probably made other mistakes like this. The CAT scans revealed great details. One of the other mummies was found to have a 5-inch reed in his esophagus. Was it an ancient medical apparatus to help with breathing? Swallowing?