The mummy of a woman named Tasheritnetiak. (source: TASR)
Last week, an unusual patient underwent a CT scan at the hospital in Rimavská Sobota, southern Slovakia. The patient in question was a 3,000-year old Egyptian mummy.
In the 1970s, it was X-rayed, which revealed that she had problems with her legs and pelvis; now it is hoped that new technology will reveal the face of the woman named Tasheritnetiak who lived in the town of Abusir-El-Melek.
"This is a rare object, as there are only five mummies in Slovakia, of which only one is a woman. It was dated to between 1,080 to 600 BC, or the 21st and 25th dynasties. Tasheritnetiak died at a relatively advanced age for that era. She was around 50-70 years old," explained Éva Kerényi, director of the town's Gemersko-Malohontské Museum, adding that the results of the CT scan will enrich and make the museum's permanent exhibition more attractive.
The mummy was brought to Slovakia over a century ago by István Munkácsi, a lawyer from Rimavská Sobota, who then donated it to the museum in 1910.
According to Anna Rákayová, head of the hospital's radiology department, said that according to preliminary analysis, people were much shorter at the time when Tasheritnetiak lived. Also, her hands were crossed at her chest. The mummy is 142 centimetres long. A special software will be used to recreate the woman's skeleton and skull.
She was mummified following the standard procedure, which suggests that she belonged to the middle class. There were no artefacts in the wooden sarcophagus.
