Scientists Scan Ancient Egyptian Cartonnage

LONDON, ENGLAND—A team led by Adam Gibson of University College London has developed a non-destructive scanning technique to read what was written on pieces of papyrus some 2,000 years ago, before it was recycled and made into funeral masks and mummy cases, according to a BBC News report. In the past, objects made of cartonnage would have been taken apart in order to read what had been obscured by paint, plaster, and paste. “They are finite resources and we now have a technology to both preserve those beautiful objects and also look inside them to understand the way Egyptians lived through their documentary evidence—and the things they wrote down and the things that were important to them,” explained Kathryn Piquette of University College London. The new technique revealed the name “Irethorru,” which is translated as “the eye of Horus is against my enemies,” on the footplate of a mummy case housed at Chiddingstone Castle in Kent. The name had previously been invisible to the naked eye. For more, go to “Heart Attack of the Mummies.”