Unwrapping the Mystery of a 2,500-year-old Mummy

A facial skeleton image of an Egyptian mummy is show as the mummy is wrapped up in the background at the Stanford Medical Center in Stanford, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Scientists in California are using computer scans to help unwrap the mysteries of a more than 2,500-year-old mummy. The mummy, believed to be an ancient Egyptian priest named Irethorrou, belongs to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. The tests could help piece together what life was like in Egypt in an era just before the Persian conquest, when the last native Egyptian dynasty ruled.

Alisa Eagleston, left, and Elizabeth Cornu, both conservators with the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum cover an Egyptian mummy after it underwent a scan at the Stanford Medical Center in Stanford, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009. Scientists in California are using computer scans to help unwrap the mysteries of a more than 2,500-year-old mummy. The mummy, believed to be an ancient Egyptian priest named Irethorrou, belongs to the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. The tests could help piece together what life was like in Egypt in an era just before the Persian conquest, when the last native Egyptian dynasty ruled.