Swedes bring mummies back to life with digital technology

The Stockholm Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities (Medelhavsmuseet), FARO and Autodesk have joined forces on a project to visualize ancient mummies. Six mummies from the museum's collection will be digitized using the latest 3D imaging techniques and made available to visitors as an interactive exhibition to be launched in the spring of 2014.

(Total 11 photos)

Photo: Karl Zetterström/Interactive Institute Swedish ICT AB

1. A museum in Sweden will digitize its collection of mummies in 3D, allowing visitors to see what mummies look like from the inside. In the photo: Examining the insides of a mummy using a double power CT scanner

2. Mummies from the Medelhavsmuseet Mediterranean Museum in Stockholm will be digitized using X-ray scanning technology to create 3D models of the exhibits.

3. When using the double power of the tomograph, you can not only see what is inside with very high detail, but also what materials various objects inside the mummy are made of. The curators of the museum hope that this will help visitors to get deeper into the life of the ancient Egyptians.

4. Collaboration with Autodesk and FARO allows the complex surfaces, colors and textures of the mummy and sarcophagus to be safely scanned using a combination of photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning.

5. The museum will scan the six mummies using a process called Live Image Technology that creates high-resolution 3D digital models by compiling (combining) photographic and X-ray scan data.

6. Laser analysis of the sarcophagus.

7. The collected data is processed by special programs.

8. The result is an extremely detailed textured surface with micron-level accuracy.

9. Analysis of the received data.

10. Thanks to digitization, visitors will be able to study the bodies of mummies in the same way that archaeologists do in search of new discoveries in ancient remains. Visitors will also be able to see details such as traces of carvings on sarcophagi and artifacts buried with the bodies.

11. Scanning the surface, together with the results obtained by the tomograph, gives a three-dimensional projection of the mummy.