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Another Hole In The Head? Brain Treatment In Ancient Egyptian Mummies, Andrew D. Wade, Andrew J. Nelson, Gregory J. Garvin

Anthropology Presentations

Perhaps the most sensational and best-known feature of Egyptian mummification, the removal of the brain, is commonly attributed to the New Kingdom onward (e.g. [1]). Variability both within and between excerebration techniques, however, is poorly appreciated in the literature [2], and reporting of excerebration is often inconsistent, greatly simplified, or simply absent in descriptions of mummified remains, making detailed comparative studies difficult if not impossible.

The goals of this study were to demonstrate:

• variability in mummy excerebration techniques
• temporal and status trends in brain treatment
• the limitations of the literature for large studies

This study focuses on computed tomography (CT), …