CAT scan of a child mummy from MFAH collection

ABC13

This story doesn't actually mention which country the mummy under discussion comes from, never mind which area, but putting the information together it seems safe to assume she is Egyptian.

It's been a mystery since the time of Christ -- a tiny mummy now at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Was it a girl or boy? Was the child a victim of violence? Those questions couldn't be answered until a 60-second CAT scan at the University of Texas. . . .

The 3D scan does show broken ribs, but the Houston experts believe it was from being compressed, not injury.

"We learned the child was between two and four, that she was in generally good health from her skeletal remains," Marzio explained. "That's infinitely more than we knew before."

The paintings on her wrappings show the goddesses of the underworld, there to protect her in the next life.

A quick scoot around the web would indicate that the above is the re-hash of an older story dating to August this year, and reported on a news page on the Museum of Fine Arts Houston website where there is much more detailed information on the analysis:

From the length of the bones and the number of teeth, Oldham estimated the child´s age at 3 to 4 years old. Initially, the child was thought to be about 2 years old. The images further confirmed that the child was placed on something wooden-like before wrapping, probably the remains of an embalming board, a detail that X-rays can´t describe because of their limited color variation. Layers of the cloth used to wrap the child could be delineated where there is air trapped between them. The scan also allowed the height of the skeleton to be measured for the first time. The calculation of 30 inches is an approximation, Oldham explained, "because of the lack of integrity of the disc spaces and musculature that maintains a person´s height" as well as the effect of compression with mummification.

With only the skeleton, it is impossible to determine a cause of death. But Oldham said the skeleton appeared to be intact and there is no evidence of trauma. There are some fractures in the neck, but Oldham speculates those occurred from a combination of factors from the initial interment to subsequent movement of the mummy over the centuries, which may have caused some settling of the bones.