Nesperennub back under the scanners

Guardian Unlimited

The mummy of Nesperennub was scanned in 2004, and the mummy with its scans formed the basis of a well attended traveling exhibition, starting in the UK, finding its way to various venues in the U.S. and also visiting Japan.

An Egyptian mummy nearly 3,000 years old is to be examined using the latest in NHS imaging technology.

Nesperennub, a male body enclosed in a linen and plaster case within a one and a half metre-long coffin, will have a whole-body computerised tomography (CT) at University College Hospital on Monday to see if it will yield any more of its secrets.

Experts from the British Museum asked for Nesperennub to be scanned at UCH as the hospital uses the latest CT technology that allows individual images to be created at a thickness of 0.6mm.

Two radiographers from the hospital will take about four hours over a series of detailed scans on behalf of experts from the museum's Department of Egyptology.

Advances in CT technology allow for an even more detailed examination of the contents of the coffin and experts from the British Museum are particularly interested in knowing more about the jewellery around its neck, believed to have been put on just before burial.