MDCT technology plays a leading role in a new book by Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at Cairo University, and Zahi Hawass, world renown archaeologist and Egyptologist. The book, Scanning the Pharaohs. CT Imaging of the New Kingdom Royal Mummies, relates the results of MDCT imaging, including three-dimensional reconstructions, and DNA analyses of royal mummies held at the Cairo Museum.
The volume sheds light on the royal family members’ genealogical relations, age at death, body habitus, facial anatomy and medical conditions, as well as on the objects buried with them, and thereby enriches the historical account of the New Kingdom period of ancient Egyptian history (from the 16th to the 11th century BC). As already revealed on the pages of the BMJ, this investigation enabled the researchers to add scientific evidence to a theory whereby Pharaoh Ramesses III was murdered by one of his own sons, Pentawere, in an attempt to usurp the throne.
The fully illustrated hardbound volume has been published by the American University in Cairo Press (ISBN 9789774166730).