Sam Redman: New scanning methods shed light on the lives of ancient mummies

...In the mind of a mummy researcher, every shriveled body raises a thousand questions: How did this person die? What did they look like? What did they do for a living? How was their body preserved? Now a new method of digital tomography holds the key to providing answers.

“Computerized tomography scans can help answer some of those questions, letting scientists and the public see under the wrappings and learn more about mummies and the cultures that prepared them,” said historian Samuel Redman. In one instance, dents in the skull of a female mummy suggest she carried heavy objects on her head. And voids in the jaw of a boy prince may indicate that he had a huge dental abscess....