Spurlock mummy back under the scanner

The News-Gazette (Debra Pressey)

The first time a CT scan was done on a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy from the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois, medical technology wasn't sharp enough to help solve some of the mysteries about the body inside.

Now, experts are hoping today's more advanced CT-scanning equipment will help answer some of the vexing questions that remain.

Such as: Is this mummy, already determined to be a child, a girl or a boy? And what was the cause of death?

A new CT scan, done Tuesday at Carle Foundation Hospital, will help provide the first three-dimensional, noninvasive look beneath the ancient wrappings since 1990.