Thursday, December 18, 2008

Museum mummy murder mystery

Sunday Mercury (Ben Goldby)

IT is the murder mystery which has spanned thousands of years.

Archaeologists have long questioned how an unidentified man entombed in a 1,700-year-old mummy at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery met his death.

Now they hope the macabre case may finally be solved with the help from medical experts from the Midlands.

The elaborately-bandaged Greco-Roman mummy, with gilt terracotta studs, was donated to the museum in the 1920s by Albert Phillips, a Birmingham bedstead maker who often travelled to the Middle East.

Results from previous X-rays revealed an unidentified metal object lodged in the back of the mummy’s neck, which some archaeologists believe may be an arrow head – meaning he could have been murdered.

On Friday the mummy was sent to Stafford Hospital to undergo a full CT scan which will provide 3D images which may finally help establish a definitive cause of death.


See the above page for the full story.

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