MFA wants to know: Who's their mummy?
The doctors crowded around the monitors at Massachusetts General Hospital yesterday, eager for clues about the delicate figure wrapped in cloth. The patient, Djehutynakht, didn't fuss. He had been dead for 4,000 years.
A team of curators from the Museum of Fine Arts chaperoned the Egyptian head -- the body was never recovered -- to MGH in hopes of uncovering some of the mummy's mysteries, including its gender, age, health, and cause of death. If successful, the exams will have significant implications for scholars, providing vital new information about the techniques that led to the standard for mummifications.
''So this is definitely your oldest patient ever," joked Pamela Hatchfield, an MFA conservator, as she stood with a group of radiologists.
The doctors and curators visited several departments. After each stop, Hatchfield packed up the mummified head -- one of the oldest in the MFA's collection -- and carried it in a blue, cardboard box.
Paul Chapman, an MGH neurologist and MFA visiting committee member, coordinated the mummy's visit. It comes as the museum closes Djehutynakht's tomb later this month. The MFA plans to open a new installation in 2009, timed to the completion of its expansion.
''He happens to be the occupant of this tomb, which contains some of the greatest treasures in the museum," said Lawrence Berman, a museum curator of Egyptian art.
At Mass. General, Djehutynakht was given access to the latest technology, including a scanning device so advanced it can see details finer than a human hair.
Djehutynakht's journey to MGH began at 6:30 a.m. yesterday when Hatchfield carried the head out of the museum in the specially crafted container. Yvonne Markowitz, a research fellow at the MFA, was waiting in her gray
''OK, no bumps, Yvonne," Hatchfield said. During the ride, she kept an arm protectively over Djehutynakht's box.
The mummy hasn't always been treated with such care. In 1915, when it was found in a tomb near the Nile River, Djehutynakht's head had been ripped from its body by looters. The thieves left behind a series of wooden figures, broken coffins, and other materials in the tomb. Some of that has been seen in the MFA's Middle Kingdom Egyptian gallery.
For years, the MFA referred to the head as male. Still, it was hard to tell. The face is protected with layers of tightly molded linen. Only a few strands of thick, dark hair are visible. Eyebrows are painted onto the cloth.
In the 1980s, preparing for an exhibition, the MFA had X-rays taken at Brigham & Women's Hospital. Looking at the bone structure, the curators felt comfortable determining the figure was male. But over time, Hatchfield, for one, had begun to wonder. They also decided then that the jaw had been removed.
Yesterday, as soon as the first X-rays came across, Chapman raised his voice. The jaw was visible.
''It's there," he said, leaning over to tell to Rajiv Gupta, the doctor overseeing the scans.
''Plus, there's a lot more teeth than the original report said," Markowitz added.
A CT scan came next, with the posse of hospital and museum staffers following Hatchfield down a hallway to another department. The almost-new machine would create 64 images, or cross-sections, of the mummy. As the images came across, Gupta said that Djehutynakht could have used a few root canals. Berman noticed that what he had thought was simply built-up cloth was, in fact, nasal tissue and bone.
''There's a whole lot more of him there than we thought," said Berman.
Chapman also began to consider another mystery. When Djehutynakht was prepared, his brain was removed -- typical for mummification. But it wasn't done the most familiar way, by taking the organ out through the nose. The 3-D images revealed that Djehutynakht's jaw had been removed, and then put back in place for burial. This was likely done to remove the brain, Chapman said.
''I always wondered how they knew to take it out of the nose, because it is not intuitive," he said. ''But if they started doing it this way, they would see how to do it."
For the last test, Hatchfield popped back into Markowitz's car for a ride to the Charlestown Navy Yard, where Gupta supervises the most advanced machine in MGH's arsenal. The Ultra-high Resolution Volume CT is so new it has not yet been approved for use on living patients.
''She'd be quite an ugly woman," said Markowitz as the multidimensional images began to develop.
''I don't think she's ugly," said Hatchfield.
Gupta agreed.
''I think she's a woman," he said. ''There is such a delicacy about this overall bust."
The issue wasn't settled yesterday. The curators talked hopefully about getting a DNA test done in the future. Later this week, they will get the first reconstructed images -- using technology similar to that used by police.
''We have to see her in the flesh," said Berman.
Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com 
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
