The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum’s child mummy traveled to Stanford University in nearby Palo Alto on Friday, May 6, to be studied under CT scans and other high-resolution methods of remote sensing.

The mummy of this child, believed to be between four and six years of age and mummified 2000 years ago, was one of the first items collected by the museum. As we celebrate our museum’s 75th Anniversary this year, the child has been with us for at least 75 years. Little is known about the child, not even if it is a boy or girl. The chest plate of cartonnage, where we would expect to find the child’s name and titles, as well as the names of the parents and their titles, is covered with wrappings. Since it is not ethical to unwrap mummies for curiosity’s sake, the child has remained completely anonymous.

Silicon Graphics (SGI) contacted us with the offer of helping to solve the child’s mysteries. Through intensive negotiation with Stanford University and its hospital, Afshad Mistri of SGI facilitated the work that was done on May 6.

The day began for museum staff just before 4 a.m., when the child mummy was carefully crated in archival materials for its travel to Stanford University. Curator Lisa Schwappach-Shirriff, along with preparators Sheila Rubin and Heather Rodrigues, carefully carried the child to the waiting transport van for the drive to Palo Alto. Ryan Gross, our driver, carefully maneuvered through the darkness, avoiding all bumps and concussions on the way.

At the hospital we were met by Professor Rebecca Fahrig of Stanford University. She ably guided us through the hospital’s corridors, leading us from one laboratory to the next in our quest for the best images that science has to offer. More than 40,000 images of the child were taken in the course of the day.

Although much work needs to be done on the child, some suspicions have been confirmed. First, the forehead of the child most definitely rests on the interior of the mask, touching the chin. Between the legs of the mummy, shadows that had shown on old X-rays were confirmed to be the canopic packets, containing the organs that were removed during mummification.

Now that data collection is finished, the time has come to analyze the information gathered. We hope to learn the gender of the child, the general health of the child, the cause of death, the exact age of the child at death, and perhaps even learn the name of the child and who its parents were. Cutting edge scanning may enable us to “peel” away the layers of the wrappings to reveal the child’s name, one fragment of a hieroglyph at a time. Researchers will be using the CT scans to re-create the face of the child while alive.

This child, who lost its identity 2000 years ago, will soon have its life story back, thanks to this collaboration between the museum, SGI, and Stanford University Hospital. We thank everyone involved!

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