• HomeSweet home
  • Writingby David Eagleman
    • LivewiredThe Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
    • The Runaway SpeciesHow Human Creativity Remakes the World
    • Brain and BehaviorA Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
    • The BrainThe Story of You
    • IncognitoThe Secret Lives of the Brain
    • SUMForty Tales from the Afterlives
    • Wednesday is Indigo BlueDiscovering the Brain of Synesthesia
    • The Safety NetSurviving Pandemics and Other Disasters
    • Other WritingEssays and articles
    • Scientific Publications
  • ResearchDavid's Neuroscience
    • Time perception
    • Synesthesia
    • Neurolaw
    • Deep brain recording
    • Sensory Substitution
    • Antiphospholipid Syndrome
    • Other projects
  • BlogLatest Ideas
  • ScheduleWhere to catch David
  • ContactReach Us

Discovering amulets inside the mummy

Discovering amulets inside the mummy

In 2011, I posted about my scanning of a 3,000 year old mummy, Neskhons (original post here). Now, by analyzing the data in several different ranges of electron density, I've found something unexpected: inside the mummy's torso are 4 small funerary amulets.

Looking carefully in this video, you can see them suspended in the body:

These sorts of amulets were commonly wrapped inside mummies to confer protection during the dangerous journeys of the afterlife. Spells were spoken over the amulets upon placement, as prescribed in the Book of the Dead.

In this next video, I programmed a fly-thru of the 3D space inside the mummy. The amulets are marked with a red dot:
           

Upon getting a first glimpse of their shapes, I guessed that these were so called "theomorphic" amulets--that is, in the shape of dieties and their animal manifestations (as opposed to other funerary amulets in the shape of body parts or animal heads).

CanopicJarsAs it turns out, there are four characters who go together in Egyptian mythology: the four sons of Horus, represented as the jackal, the falcon, the baboon, and the human. These 4 sons, for example, are typically represented on canopic jars which protected the removed inner organs of the dead (stomach, large intestines, lungs and liver).

I began to suspect that these 4 amulets might represent the 4 sons of Horus, so I next zoomed in as closely as I could into the imaging data to resolve the details of the figurines. Using a digital 3D slicing tool, I cut away everything else except for each amulet. Below are the high-resolution reconstructions. Although it is difficult to be certain, my guess is that the first video is the jackal, the second is the human, the third is the baboon, and the last is the falcon.

 

All of this was accompIished with CT scans, which are a series of Xrays taken from all angles, reconstructed into a 3D whole. Recall that Xrays are just another form of light--just like the light coming out of a flashlight, but of a different frequency.  I remain blown away by the amount of information that can be carried by electromagnetic radiation outside the visible spectrum. There is so much information out there beyond the small slice of the world that can be detected with our natural senses.  I'm so lucky to use machines like this every day. Some of these peer inside skulls to see how brains are processing (radio frequencies in magnetic resonance imaging); others can bring to light figurines that have hovered silently in blackness for 30 centuries (Xray frequencies in CT scans).

To Neskhons, the thought of seeing beyond wrappings and spying treasures in a torso would have seemed like magic. On this point he and I agree.

  • Social sharing:
  • Add to Google Buzz
  • Add to Facebook
  • Add to Delicious
  • Digg this
  • Add to StumbleUpon
  • Add to Technorati
  • Add to Reddit
  • Add to MySpace
  • Like this? Tweet it to your followers!
Tagged under
  • Mummy

Related items

  • Scanning a 3,000 year old mummy
  • A note about head shape in mummies
More in this category: « Time to End the War on Drugs? Synesthesia lecture at the University of Sydney »
back to top

Follow David on Instagram Follow David on Tumblr Follow David on Twitter Follow David on Facebook

From the Blog

  • A note about head shape in mummies
    A note about head shape in mummies

    Not too long ago, I scanned a 3,000 mummy. What can (and can't) be concluded based on his perspicuously elongated skull shape, known as dolicocephy (elongated head)?  

  • My favorite New Yorker cartoon. Ever.
    My favorite New Yorker cartoon. Ever.

    I'm a sucker for time jokes.

  • Is Time Real?
    Is Time Real?

    What does it mean for time to be real? Is time the ultimate stage on which all events play?

  • James Holmes’ Brain: Some Initial Speculations
    James Holmes’ Brain: Some Initial Speculations

    In the wake of the Aurora movie theater shooting, many people had the same questions: What kind of derangement is indicated by the horrific acts of James Holmes? What is wrong with his brain? How will his mental state play out in the courts?

In other news...

How the Internet will save civilization

David's iPad app "Why the Net Matters, or Six Ways to Avert the Collapse of Civilization" was recently called a "superbook" by the New York Times Magazine. For a taste of the argument, read David's article in WIRED or watch a video of his talk at the Long Now Foundation. Don't have an iPad? The manuscript is now available as an eBook.

 

Eagleman and Brian Eno bring Sum to Sydney Opera House

In June, 2009, David Eagleman collaborated with musician/producer Brian Eno to perform a musical reading of Sum to 1,000 people at the Sydney Opera House. In May of 2010 they performed together again to 1,200 people at the Brighton Dome in England. Stay tuned for further performances.

Barnes and Noble Best Book

Barnes and Noble selected SUM as one of the Best Books of the Year.

brain paperback UK
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
DVD
Incognito Cover Eagleman
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
SumBestSeller
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Cover Cytowic Eagleman
Amazon

Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
TheSafetyNetsmall
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
CogNeuroTextbook
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Runaway Species Hardcover
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Livewired Canongate sm2
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound

 
CSS Valid | XHTML Valid | Top | + | - | reset | RTL | LTR
Copyright © Youretro 2021 All rights reserved. Custom Design by Youjoomla.com
YJSimpleGrid Joomla! Templates Framework official website
Blog