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■科學家正在透過電腦掃描這具超過2,500年歷史的木乃伊。 美聯社圖片
為解開一具有超過2500年歷史的木乃伊之謎，科學家利用電腦掃描，了解這名古埃及祭司的死因、樣貌和有何陪葬品。在史丹福大學醫學院一個地下實驗室，艾爾托羅木乃伊被緊緊包裹在支離破碎的麻布內，幾名科學家在旁觀察。從腳部開始，電腦掃描器對這具木乃伊展開掃描，類似X光片的影像隨即出現在旁邊的電腦屏幕上。這些圖片能顯示保存良好的骨骼結構，數據之後會製成更全面的立體影像。
運用這種精密的掃描技術，科學家不用擔心對這具1.62米高的木乃伊造成任何損害，就可掌握詳細的資料。賓夕法尼亞州的艾赫米姆木乃伊研究協會負責木乃伊的掃描和資料收集，該機構主任埃利亞斯稱：「這項工作可以了解古生物病理學的相關內容，木乃伊生前可能染病，以及木乃伊製作程序和風格的演變等。」
史丹福大學外科顧問副教授布朗稱，無論是小朋友或是醫學院學生，這些數碼影像對教授解剖學都很有幫助。
埃利亞斯表示，研究艾爾托羅並非只是分析一具木乃伊，而是可以了解當時至圖坦卡門時期的人口改變。
科學家至今仍未能確定艾爾托羅的年齡和死因，這次掃描或有助他們得知更多。他們現時只能追溯到公元前約500年前，當時埃及是由最後的本地國王統治，之後才被波斯人推翻。
埃利亞斯表示：「現時有一個時代我們所知甚少，所以如果這具木乃伊屬於那一時代，我們亦相信如此，我們便可以寫出歷史。」 美聯社
註解Irethorrou: 艾爾托羅木乃伊，從非洲尼羅河東岸艾赫米姆一處墓地挖掘出來，屬於三藩市藝術博物館所有。
■羅國偉 資深翻譯員
Stanford scientists scan 2,500-year-old mummy
Scientists trying to unwrap the mysteries of a more than 2,500-year-old mummy believed to be an ancient Egyptian priest conducted computer scans to help determine how the man died, what was buried with him and what he looked like.
In a basement lab at Stanford University Medical School, Irethorrou's mummy lay tightly wrapped in tattered linen as a handful of scientists looked on. Starting with his feet, the scanner rotated around the mummy, snapping X-ray type images that appeared on nearby computer screens.
The pictures, showing well-preserved bone structure, were then mathematically manipulated to generate 3D images that give a fuller picture of the skeleton. The highly sophisticated scanning technology allows scientists to learn about the 5-foot-4-inch (1.62-meter) mummy in remarkable detail without doing invasive or damaging procedures.
"You begin to see features that relate to paleopathology, diseases that may have been suffered by the individual, also mummification style and patterns ─ how they may change through time," said Dr. Jonathan Elias, director of the Pennsylvania-based Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, which directs CT scans of mummies and archives the research.
The digital images will also be useful for teaching anatomy to everyone from small children through medical school, said Paul Brown, Consulting Associate Professor at Stanford's Department of Surgery.
"The big picture is this is not just the analysis of one mummy," Elias said. Studying Irethorrou, for example, can lead to a better understanding of changes in population from his time to the Tutankhamun period.
Scientists have not been able to pinpoint Irethorrou's age when he died or his cause of death. The scanning tests may help them get a little closer. For now, they can only date him to around 500 B.C., just before the Persian conquest, when the last native Egyptian dynasty ruled.
"This is one era which is very poorly understood at this point," Elias said. "So if this mummy is of that period, which we believe that he is, we'll be able to begin to write a history that has never been written." AP
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