New developments in x-ray technology have quickly been applied to the scientific study of mummies. A mummified cat was radiographed within a year of Roentgen’s discovery of x-rays and radiographs of the leg and foot of a human mummy followed within another year. X-ray computed tomography, in its initial incarnation of a head scanner was used to scan a mummy’s brain in 1977, and a mummy was put into a full body scanner shortly thereafter. Now mummies are being subject to micro-CT, synchrotron, MRI and other kinds of specialized imaging modalities. One of the most important aspects of radiological examinations of mummies is that they are non-destructive. In addition, they allow us to examine the biological characteristics (age, sex, health) of the individual and the cultural process of preparing them for eternity. This information sheds important light on cultures of the past. The radiological study of mummies is necessarily interdisciplinary, as it requires the expertise of the radiologist, the bioarchaeologist and the Egyptologist, to name only a few key team members. Unfortunately, the application of modern imaging modalities to the study of ancient mummies is generally characterized by a case study approach, with very little coordination or standardization. This paper will explore how the radiological study of mummies has evolved and where it needs to go.
KEYWORDS: Cameras, Data acquisition, 3D modeling, 3D acquisition, Sensors, 3D metrology, Data modeling, CCD image sensors, Charge-coupled devices, Reconstruction algorithms
Accurate measurement and thorough documentation of excavated artifacts are the essential tasks of archaeological fieldwork. The on-site recording and long-term preservation of fragile evidence can be improved using 3D spatial data acquisition and computer-aided modeling technologies. Once the artifact is digitized and geometry created in a virtual environment, the scientist can manipulate the pieces in a virtual reality environment to develop a "realistic" reconstruction of the object without physically handling or gluing the fragments. The ARCHAEO-SCAN system is a flexible, affordable 3D coordinate data acquisition and geometric modeling system for acquiring surface and shape information of small to medium sized artifacts and bone fragments. The shape measurement system is being developed to enable the field archaeologist to manually sweep the non-contact sensor head across the relic or artifact surface. A series of unique data acquisition, processing, registration and surface reconstruction algorithms are then used to integrate 3D coordinate information from multiple views into a single reference frame. A novel technique for automatically creating a hexahedral mesh of the recovered fragments is presented. The 3D model acquisition system is designed to operate from a standard laptop with minimal additional hardware and proprietary software support. The captured shape data can be pre-processed and displayed on site, stored digitally on a CD, or transmitted via the Internet to the researcher's home institution.
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