Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ATAM is a Division of the Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program

At Carle Clinic, CT scans were taken of the mummy at close intervals to permit three-dimensional reconstruction by computer. This CT scan shows the cross-section of the mummy's brain, a skull fracture, a rolled up piece of linen under the head, and a board.

At the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), the CT scans were digitized and volume-rendered to produce rotating images and cut-away views of the inside of the child's head and torso. In this digital autopsy, researchers were able to view the dessicated brain and skull fractures from new angles, as well as the dental development and likely organ placement inside the chest.

The computer then stripped away wrappings and body to reveal the cedar board, complete with wood grain and knothole.

The same CT scans enabled Ray Evenhouse, then at the Biomedical Visualization laboratory at the University of Illinois in Chicago, to produce a sculpture of the mummy's head in 1990. Evenhouse cut out Styrofoam CT slices by hand, stacked them to provide a model, and then rendered the head in hard plastic. Tissue markers were added, based on ultrasound and forensic studies of people of varying ages and populations, and then modeling clay was used to put flesh back on the bones.

The result is a very realistic portrayal of the young child's face.

Stereolithography now makes the production of 3-D models much easier and faster. Using a computer-driven laser beam, digitized CT data can be directly rendered as a 3-D skull in hard resin. This technique has been applied to the University of Illinois mummy as well as others in the U.S. and Europe.

Copyright 1999. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.