"Words with a Mummy" The CT Scan Night

Back in March, MGH staff performed a CT scan on Padihershef to further understand his life and possible cause of death. The photos are now released below. Please check them out.

This CT Scan night was all performed and facilitated by the help of   Rajiv Gupta, MD, PhD, of MGH Imaging; conservator Mimi 

.Leveque; Collection's Specialist Rebecca Barber,  MGH 

  neurosurgeon Paul Chapman, MD; and members of Materials 

Management, Buildings and Grounds, and Police and Security. 

http://www.massgeneral.org/imaging/about/newsarticle.aspx?id=4045

Removing Padi from his old 19th century case was one of the hardest parts of the project

Multiple times we needed to inspect Padihershef to make sure to prevent any damage to him and his coffin

Mimi helping Padi into the gerny

Security and facilities escorting Padi through MGH

As you can see the Padihershef was very popular with the media

Dr. Gupta helping to get xrays of Padihershef

The team realized there was still brain matter left in Padihershef's skull

Circle is the broom stick found in his chest cavity

Another rendered image of Padihershef post CT scan

To the left is Padihershef through the CT scan. The project team needed to wait until night time for the use of the CT scanner. This was to avoid having any scheduling conflicts  with living patients.

To the right is a great image of the CT scan of Padihershef's brain. It has been rendered to enhance the evidence of brain matter left in Padihershef's skull.

Rendered image

From this CT scan we found that Padihershef had a large broom stick handle in his skull and chest cavity. The team found out that a previous conservator in the 80's had used this in order to keep his head attached to his body.

 In addition, the chest cavity is all caved in. It is assumed that the cause of death was due to a cave in. This would be very likely seeing as Padihershef was a stone mason during his life and would have been underground working majority of the day.

Padihershef's History: Part 1

Life of Padihershef:

Padihershef was a man who lived around 650 B.C. in Ancient Egypt. He was a stonecutter  in Thebes and worked on rock cut tombs in the necropolis on the West Bank of Thebes. We know this because of the inscription on his case, Hrty-ntr, which means "stonecutter in the necropolis" in ancient Egyptian. His occupation as a stonecutter would mean that he spent much of his time underground surrounded by dust, poor circulation and stone.  Unfortunately, there aren't any detailed descriptions on his coffin about cause of death. We are looking to the CT Scans to find further information on cause of death or diseases.

 Padihershef's name  translates to "one who is a gift of the god Hershef." The definition of Padihershef's name and his fathers, both incorporating the title Hershef , leads us to believe that Padi and his family was from Herakleopolis in Fayum, where the god Hershef was highly worshipped. 

Knowing Padihershef's occupation, we know that he was a commoner and likely lived a modest lifestyle. His house would have been made of mud brick similar to architecture from the time period. According to Joyce Haynes catalogue, Padihershef: The Egyptian Mummy, 

"Padihershef's house would have been fairly small,

whitewashed inside and out, with a hard-packed mud floor. 

Little existed in the way of furniture. A simple bed with a  headrest was

considered a luxury. Small wooden chests would have been used to hold linens."

There would be straw mats on the floors and  proper utensils in the kitchen for making bread and beer.

Like many other homes of the time, his house was possibly decorated with many religious icons and images on the walls. This of course included Bes, the guardian of the household.  

Figure of the god Bes
 Courtesy of Joyce Haynes Catalogue "Padihershef: The Egyptian Mummy" 

Although Padihershef's coffin was very decorative and colorful, his tomb was not as elaborate.  Majority of the funerary finances were spent on the mummification process which means Padihershef likely had a shared tomb.

All these small details and inscriptions from Padi's coffin gives us an inside glimpse of how Padihershef may have lived. 

***Much of this entry was information taken from Joyce Haynes essay "Padihershef: The Egyptian Mummy." Joyce Haynes, who translated Padihershef's coffin in 1984, did an amazing job of transcribing the heiroglyphs and iconography on his coffin. This process helped to decipher many aspects of his life which facilitated The Padihershef Conservation Project. Thank you Joyce for your research and dedication to the Padihershef project.

Picture courtesy of Joyce Haynes' catalogue Padihershef; The Egyptian Mummy