1 Paleoradiology: History and New Developments - Academia.dk

6 Chapter 1 Paleoradiology: History and New Developments
1.2.2
1933 Amenophis I
Amenophis I (also known as Amenhotep I) was the
2nd Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, who is generally
thought to have ruled for 20 years between 1526 and
1506 BC. His mummy was found by Victor Loret in
1898 in the Deir el-Bahri cache in the mortuary temple
of Queen Hatshepsut in the Valley of the Kings.
An x-ray study was done at the Cairo Museum on Saturday
January 30, Tuesday February 2nd, and Thursday
February 4th, 1932, after removal of the mummy
from the coffin and cartonnage. Dr. Douglas Derry
used x-ray findings to assess the age of the mummy:
“The body proved to be that of an adult man. It is not
possible to assign an age, except to say that all epiphyses
are completely united and he is therefore above
25 years of age. So far as the teeth could be seen, they
would were not unduly worn, nor are there any signs
indicating advanced age such as loss of teeth or rarefaction
of any of the bones, so that this king may have
been about 40–50 years of age” (Derry 1933, p 47).
In his further evaluation of the x-ray study, Derry
reported the following findings. “The cranial cavity
appears to contain a diffuse mass, but whether this
is the remains of the brain and membranes or whether
it represents linen packing introduced by way
of the nose, cannot be definitely decided, as the photographs
do not show the condition of the ethmoid”
(Derry 1933, pp 46–47). “The body has suffered considerable
damage probably at the hands of the thieves.
The right arm is bent at the elbow and the forearm is
lying across the abdomen. There is a small amulet on
the middle of the right arm, and towards the lower
end of the arm there are two or three beads…”. “The
body cavity both chest and abdomen probably contains
linen package” (Derry 1933, p 48).
1.2.3
1965 Royal Mummy Collection
In the spring of 1965, a team from the University of
Michigan, in collaboration with Alexandria University
in Egypt, was invited to undertake a paleoradiological
study of skulls of ancient Nubian populations
who lived near the Nile River. The Michigan project
focused mostly on craniofacial variation studies. The
radiological equipment used included a portable xray
cephalometer using ytterbium-169 isotope with a
half-life of 32.5 days, which allowed the equipment to
be totally independent of a power source.
Following this first Nubian project, the Egyptian
Department of Antiquities invited the same team, led
by Dr. James E. Harris, Chairman of the Department
of Orthodontics at the University of Michigan, to
conduct an x-ray survey of the royal mummy collection
of the Egyptian Museum. The project started in
December 1967 with a radiographic study limited to
the royal mummies’ skulls. At that time, x-ray images
of mummies were taken while they were still lying
within their glass cases, to prevent any possible damage.
However, the glass was found to contain lead,
which severely degraded the images. In 1968, permission
was given to remove the glass cases so that the
mummies could be x-rayed in their wooden coffins,
which resulted in far fewer artifacts than those caused
by the glass cases. At this time the ytterbium source
was replaced by a conventional x-ray machine using
90 kV, and, in addition to skull studies, a whole-body
radiographic evaluation of the complete collection of
royal mummies from the middle kingdom to the Roman
period was performed.
The standard x-ray protocol included lateral and
frontal views of the skull, the thorax, the pelvis, and
the lower limbs. The data obtained during those multiple
expeditions to Egypt form the basis of the publication
of the Atlas of Royal Mummies by Harris
and Wente (1980). The Atlas focused primarily on
craniofacial variations and dental malocclusion, understandably,
as the analysis of the data was conducted
by a team of academic dental surgeons. The main
limitation of this study was the lack of a specific x-ray
protocol designed to study specific skeletal regions,
as whole-body radiography was obtained for the survey.
In lieu of a thorough analysis of x-ray data, apart
from the study of craniofacial variations, there was a
limited radiological inventory made available to potential
mummy scientists, which was described in the
preface of the Atlas. The preface stated that the reader
was provided with “copies of x-rays from which he
may draw his own conclusions and interpretations”
(Harris and Wente 1980). This approach, although
laudable, did not offer appropriate x-ray data for a
paleopathological study of any of the royal Egyptian
mummies. In addition, these data were not validated
in the peer-reviewed literature until 1988 when 12
royal mummies were selected for paleopathological
studies using x-rays as methods for disease detection
(Braunstein et al. 1988). However, in 1973 the data
were collated in a scholarly textbook, which became
generally popular. Interestingly, this book entitled
“X-raying the Pharaohs” (Harris and Weeks 1973)
shed light on the context in which the radiological
study of royal mummies was conducted, as revealed
in the following quotes.
“We arrived at the museum each morning at
9 o’clock and, after signing the guard’s register, proceeded
upstairs to Gallery 52 where the mummies
were displayed. While some of the staff began the task
of setting the x-ray unit on its tripod, adjusting the
transformers, and loading the film cassettes, two of