Va museum unwrapping mummy’s story with CT scan

“He’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” said Dr. Jim Snyder, a diagnostic radiologist who assisted the museum with the scan.

Immediately apparent to the group was that some of Tjeby’s bones had fallen or moved into the mummy’s chest cavity at some point in his history _ likely after he had been mummified. Doctors and the museum staff noted that the main portion of his body was wrapped separately from the limbs and other parts of the body were a bit “jumbled.”

A more in-depth examination of the images will take some time, but Snyder was able to do a quick 3-D rendering, giving Tjeby his first close-up in more than 4,000 years. Museum officials did not provide a timeline on the rest of the process, but were excited about the prospects.

“It’s amazing that we are able to do this,” Schertz said. “This is history.”

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Michael Felberbaum can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/MLFelberbaum.

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