Medical Technology Aids Search for Queen Nefertiti

Medical imaging experts from Xograph Imaging Systems helped the Discovery Channel and a team of Egyptologists to take digital x-ray images of a mummy believed to be the legendary Egyptian beauty, Queen Nefertiti, stepmother of Tutankhamun.

The latest portable x-ray devices and healthcare IT workstations were used inside a hidden chamber in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings to study three 3,500 year old mummies.

Xograph says the equipment performed faultlessly despite soaring temperatures, high humidity and dusty conditions. The high quality imaging helped the scientists and historians in the team to reveal injuries sustained in life, possible age at death and jewels embedded in the body during embalming.

A Canon CXD-31 portable direct radiological system was used with a portable Xograph x-ray unit. The machines were suspended over the mummies in a custom-made frame designed to fit within the confines of the tomb. This produced instant digital images displayed on medical diagnostic quality grey scale flat panels.

Xograph’s technical director, Neil Staff, who was on hand to assemble the equipment and provide support, declared the expedition a once in a lifetime experience he would never forget.

He said: “Without the incredible speed of image display, we would never have achieved what we did in a very short time. The instant digital images of the mummies helped with piecing together the mystery surrounding the three mummies hidden away in a secret side chamber and assisted [Egyptologist] Dr Joann Fletcher in her 12 year quest to find Queen Nefertiti.”

The two-hour documentary made about the excavation is scheduled to be shown on the Discovery Channel in August.