TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

It's a girl!

But this is no baby. She is a 2,400-year-old mummy that had been on display at Cal State Bakersfield and was put through a CT scan Monday at Quest Imaging.

The mummy was originally thought to be male because a man's name was written on the coffin, but it was common practice to re-use coffins, so it wasn't surprising to learn it was a female.

The scan was done to learn about the person who had been mummified, including the person's age, sex, lifestyle and possibly cause of death, said Lorenzo Michaels, operations manager at Quest Imaging.

The mummy, in a wooden crate, was taken to Quest in a van. Screws were removed from the crate. The mummy was transferred to a gurney, using a board to safely move it in preparation for the scan. The scan itself only took about 25 seconds -- and the interpretation of the scan followed.

Robert M. Yohe, a professor at CSUB who holds a doctorate degree in anthropology, said the woman was probably middle-aged, as evidenced by arthritic changes in the vertebrae. Based on the way the body was wrapped, she was likely from the middle class.

The woman's brain had been removed through her nose. The heart was left intact within the body, but all the other organs had been removed, placed in a sack and reinserted into the body for mummification.

Scanning the mummy via CT scan is less damaging to the body than unwrapping it by hand, Yohe said, "and it's far less stinky."

The mummy was made in the traditional Egyptian way, covered in tar and wrapped with linen textile.

CT scans do not damage mummies, Michaels said.

Quest Imaging did the scan for free in the interest of furthering scientific knowledge, Michaels said. If a live person were to have a full body scan, it would cost $5,000 to $10,000, Michaels said.

But a live person usually would only have a scan of a specific area of the body, such as the head or chest. The mummy, however, was scanned from head to toe.

The idea to scan the mummy came when someone from Quest Imaging visited the display at CSUB and offered to do it. Quest Imaging is virtually across the street from CSUB, which made it easier.

"It's a matter of opportunity," Yohe said.

Yohe said the mummy is originally from a city in Egypt called Akhmim. It dates from the Ptolemaic period, one of the last Egyptian dynasties.

The mummy was discovered about 100 years ago and is on loan from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley, the professor said.

The mummy now will return to the Hearst Museum, said Amy Millis, director of annual giving at CSUB. It is to be displayed at the Hearst Museum, where it was previously in storage, Yohe said.