Tasmanian Museum mummy under the scanner

The Mercury (Kane Young)

Modern technology has helped finally wrap up an age-old debate the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery's ancient Egyptian mummy is, in fact, male.

The mummy, plus three stuffed thylacines and five preserved baby thylacines, had CT scans at Hobart's Calvary Hospital yesterday, designed to give museum researchers more detailed information about the popular pieces.

Scans of the mummy confirmed it is an adolescent male and his major organs may still be intact. The scans will now be sent to experts overseas for further study.

In the TMAG's collection since 1897, the mummy which spent years on display under the museum's stairs was originally thought to be a female who died in about 1500BC.