http://www.boston.com/dailynews/119/region/Mummies_from_curiosity_shop_un:.shtml

Mummies from curiosity shop undergo high-tech scan

By Associated Press, 4/29/2001 18:51

SEATTLE (AP) Sylvester the Mummy, a longtime favorite of tourists visiting Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Seattle's waterfront, has been subjected to a CT scan at the University of Washington Medical Center.

Both Sylvester and the shop's female mummy, Sylvia, were examined for an upcoming television documentary series that follows two professors wandering the world to look for mummies.

''This is the best-preserved old mummy I've seen,'' declared Gerald Conlogue, an assistant professor and co-director of the bioanthropology research institute at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

''His brain is so very pretty,'' said Conlogue, who joined doctors and technicians crowded around the scan machine Friday.

''It's a normal brain,'' he said. ''It's just smaller.''

All of Sylvester's organs seemed shrunken but perfectly proportional, the scientists said.

Dr. Udo Schmiedl, professor of radiology and director of imaging services at the UW Medical Center, said it is unusual to see a mummy so well preserved. He has scanned three of them in his 12-year career at the hospital.

The UW donated use of the facility, instruments and staff time. ''Anything to advance medical science,'' said Schmiedl.

Schmiedl said Sylvester probably died of a gunshot wound or shrapnel wound to the chest, because several metallic bullet-like fragments were discovered.

Sylvester also seemed to have severe bunions and extremely high arches, said Dr. Sue Romanick, a Bellevue rheumatologist who watched out of curiosity.

Conlogue thinks Sylvester's body was probably coated with something that preserved his organs.

The Curiosity Shop legend is that Sylvester died at age 45 and was found half-buried in the sands of the Gila Bend Desert of central Arizona in 1895 by two wandering cowboys. He came to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in 1955.

It's uncertain when Sylvester lived, said the shop's co-owner, Andy James.

A scan on the female mummy, Sylvia, found only bones. Schmiedl said it's hard to tell how she died because there was no evidence of bone infection or trauma.

Most of her organs had collapsed and liquefied, like most mummies examined by Conlogue and Ronald Beckett, also a Quinnipiac University professor. Sylvia dates to the early 19th century.

The 13-part series, titled ''The Mummy Road Show,'' follows Conlogue and Beckett as they examine mummies around the world.

Produced by Larry Angel of New York-based Angel Brothers Media, the series will air in the fall on National Geographic cable.

Next week Conlogue, Bequeath and crew are off to West Virginia, where they'll study the work of a mad scientist who embalmed patients from a mental institution.

Said Angel: ''We're following two guys with a sense of humor, who respect their mummies and have a good time.''

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001

Answers

Apparently mummified bodies for a time fuelled American steam locos.They were imported from Egypt.in great quantities so that the mummy wrappings could be turned into paper !

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001