Modern medicine unwraps ancient mysteries around 2,000-year-old child mummy

First published in News Last updated Exclusive by Saiqa Chaudhari, education reporter

AN ancient Egyptian mystery has been solved after doctors in America carried out a full body scan on Bolton's 2,000-year-old child mummy.

Experts in the US have discovered that the child was younger than first thought when she died and they have also determined her cause of death as appendicitis.

Radiologists at the Palm Beach Childrens Hospital in Florida described the chance to study the mummy as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

When the artefact was first studied in 1975, Egyptologists believed the girl had died aged between four and nine and said she had most likely suffered from tuberculosis.

But fresh tests on the mummy which is part of a global tour of Bolton Museum's famous Egyptology collection have found the girl was just two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half years old.

Physicians who reviewed her scans could even tell that her hair had likely been braided beneath her gilded mask.

Chief radiologist Dr Chad Kelman said: She was incredibly well-preserved and we are looking forward to correcting some earlier findings we could only determine with such detailed CT scanning.

"This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The acclaimed "Quest for Immortality The Hidden Treasure of Ancient Egypt" tour is now on show at South Florida Science Center in West Palm Beach.

Continued here:
Modern medicine unwraps ancient mysteries around 2,000-year-old child mummy