Spade, Trowel and the CT

A new health plan for antiquities, CTs should be made more applicable to antiquities
>By Robert Stelton  

Had a CT (CAT scan) lately? If not, not to worry. CTs are part of a growth industry. If not now, maybe later.

At the final meeting of the 2014-15 Program year CAS Guest Speaker, Dr. Michael Vannier introduced Meresamun (Beloved of Amun), and “Singer in the Interior of the Temple” to the Chicago Archaeological So-ciety by sharing with us a few of the results of submitting the Oriental Institute occupant, Meresamun to a CT.

It was Dr. Vannier’s considered opinion that one scan wasn’t enough. His CAT advise should be made applicable to more discoveries and probably will.

For the uninitiated, a CT scan, also called X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) or computerized axial tomography scan (CAT scan), makes use of computer-processed combinations of many X-ray images taken from different angles to produce cross-sectional (tomographic) images (virtual 'slices') of specific areas of a scanned object, allowing the user to see inside the object without cutting.

Meresamun, A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt was a priestess-musician in Egypt in about the year 800 BC. She probably lived in Thebes.

The Oriental Institute has been the home of Meresamun, the aforesaid “Singer in the Interior of the Temple.” However, be-yond attaching a name to the person enwrapped in the beautiful cartonnage, not much more was known.

Even taking in the vicissitudes of show biz, it had been a long journey for Meresamun. She was introduced to a Chicagoan, James Henry Breasted in 1920 by an Egyptian antiquities deal-er. Breasted made arrangement for her to travel, in an exquisitely decorated cartonnage.

Mersamum, “Singer in the Interior of the Temple” and admirers

While not languishing in Chicago, she met hundreds of people every day, she complained that life in Chicago lacked the glitter and gloss of Egypt. However she refused a changing of her gown.
Many of her personal possession ultimately caught up with her, a papyrus and her personal cestrum and menat. During summer days she enjoyed rattling her sistrum taking in the sun or shaking her menat. She hated Chicago winters.

In 2009 The Oriental Institute arranged a gala to celebrate her stay in America. She agreed to the arrangements but insisted that she would only appear in her traditional cartonnage. And nothing personal, despite her years in show biz she remained a very personal person. She never admitted to wearing one of those gossamer shifts so favored by fashion magazines and temple walls.
Age had been generous with the wrinkles, but the CT was equally generous with a face-lift.

There has been an ongoing scholarly debate whether women who held the title “Singer in the Interior of the Temple” were, on account of their temple duties, celibate. Emily Teeter, Oriental Institute, regarded the idea as nonsense. However one specific goal of the CT examination was to determine whether Meresamun had given birth through an examination of the pelvic symphysis. The question went unresolved because the results were inconclusive.

Meresamun mummy has re-turned to museum display. Her cartonnage in almost pris-tine condition and her mum-my undefiled. She is ready and waiting for newer technology to resume an old friendship.

Mersamum, “Singer in the Inte-rior of the Temple”

The romantic notion of the spade and the trowel is being challenge.
Dan Vergano, in National Geographic, January 03, 2014, Twitter reports that:
New England's woody hills and dales hide a secret—they weren't always forested. Instead, many were once covered with colonial roads and farm-steads.

This "lost" New England of the colonial era has started to emerge, thanks to archaeologists piercing the forests with the latest in high-tech scan-ners, called light detection and ranging (LiDAR).

In the images above, LiDAR re-veals farm walls, roads and homesteads hidden within Connecticut's Pachaug State Forest. Dating to the 18th Century, the farmsteads were abandoned in the 1950's.
This "lost" New England of the colonial era has started to emerge, thanks to archaeologists piercing the forests with the lat-est in high-tech scanners, called light detection and ranging (LiDAR). In the images above, LiDAR reveals farm walls, roads and homesteads hidden within Connecticut's Pachaug State Forest. Dating to the 18th Century, the farmsteads were abandoned in the 1950's.

What makes the New England LiDAR survey compelling information are the discernable similarities between it and any similar survey that might be carried out over the Yucatan.