Inner coffin of the singer of Amun-Re, Henettawy ca. 1000–945 B.C. (The Met)
More than 2,000 years after Egypt's Ptolemaic Dynasty, new imaging technology is beginning to unlock texts hidden within the layers of papyrus mâché masks used in elaborate mummification rituals common from 300-30 B.C. Among the findings so far are a fragment of a petition by Petosiris, a priest of the god Horos, to Phanias, in which he's complaining about the arrest of his nephew; and a petition from farmers to Asklepiades about their revenue from crown lands. Unfortunately, in their eagerness to find records of life in ancient Egypt in the layers of the masks, archaeologists, antiquities collectors, and others had often destroyed them.
Tonight, imaging expert Michael B. Toth, president of R. B. Toth Associates, discusses how efforts to study mummy masks have evolved, including recent technological techniques ranging from advanced camera systems to X-ray synchrotrons that preserve the masks while revealing any hidden texts. Toth is part of an international team of researchers evaluating new methods to help reveal stories from the past.
