Too bad we didn't have this story in time for Halloween.

On second thought, it's just as well. The mummy who is the centerpiece of the Walters Art Museum exhibit "Mummified," opening Saturday, Nov. 15, was not a creepy creature of holiday thrills and chills but a real human being, a petite woman living almost 3,000 years ago in Thebes who suffered from osteoarthritis and severe dental disease, which may in fact have led to her death somewhere between the ages of 50 and 60.

No evidence remained of her identity, so museum staff members decided to call her Mery, meaning "the beloved" in ancient Egyptian.

Her height is only 57 3/8 inches -- and not because of any shrinkage -- short even for those distant days, according to information supplied by the Walters. She didn't even fill her brightly-painted linen and plaster cartonnage (casing) and wooden coffin.

As for her dental problems, Mery's teeth were worn flat and she suffered from at least 16 abscesses (then incurable infections); her death may have resulted from the septicemia they caused.

The Walters and the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Diagnostic Radiology department joined forces to perform a virtual autopsy by way of a computerized tomography (CT) scan on the mummy last spring. This is some of the information they discovered, and it's just part of what visitors to "Mummified" can learn from the exhibit.

"I can say she's the oldest patient we've ever had here," pronounces Dr. Barry Daly, professor of diagnostic radiology and chief of abdominal imaging, who performed the procedure.

Computerized tomography produces a three-dimensional image of both hard and soft tissue from thousands of wafer-thin photographs -- here's another amazing fact, but this time a 21st century one -- taken over a mere five minutes, according to Daly.

This virtual autopsy enables scholars and scientists to learn about the subject non-invasively and in a respectful manner. After all, the whole point of the Egyptian mummification rituals was to preserve the body of the deceased to guarantee eternal life.

Thus the white spots still visible scattered over her skeleton are natron, the salt used to remove all moisture from body tissues.

Features such as teeth and inner ear bones are clearly visible in one of the photos supplied by the museum and the university's Department of Diagnostic Radiology.

One thing it was not possible to tell from the skeleton is whether the mummified woman had borne any children.

Organs were removed for separate burial, except for the heart, which particularly impressed Daly.

"You could see the chambers of the heart" -- dried out and leathery as they are -- "and the optic nerves of the eyes," he reports. "It's very interesting to look back in time, realize how long ago it was and how well preserved the mummy is, how well she looks considering her age."

Even so, Mery's skeleton revealed a number of postmortem fractures, which the radiologist, who studied up on the subject in order not to miss anything in his examination, guesses are due to the number of times mummies were moved around to protect them from grave robbers.

Handled with care

She and her cartonnage are extremely fragile, of course, and no one wanted more damage to occur. Fortunately, there are conservators and professional art handlers who worked out a means of protection, filling the smallest gaps in the travel crate surrounding her. And the good part is that no packing materials had to be removed for the scan.

Was it worth the effort and risk?

"When you collaborate, you get so much more information," says Terry Drayman-Weisser, the Walters' director of conservation and technical research, who examined the scan along with other specialists, including exhibit curator Regine Schulz and forensic dentists Warren Tewes and Scott Swank.

"This is the ultimate cold-case file," she adds. "It was truly amazing to see [the mummy] going in [to the scanner] and see the image coming up on the screen. I've been here 35 years. That's a lot of time to look at the outside."

Interactive computer programs in several museum locations offer the rest of us more views and information about the virtual autopsy.

Mery's not the only one whose secrets are revealed in this exhibit. For instance, a rare, small, but stunning falcon-headed mummy was discovered to be a "counterfeit" corn mummy made of mud, sand, grain and seeds, sans any body parts, which served as a resurrection ritual object.

Animal mummies will be on display along with their X-ray images, as well as mummy containers and statuary of mummiformed humans and deities.

Mesmerized by mummies? Others can be viewed, if not so thoroughly, in the funerary section of the museum's Egyptian galleries, the Dutch "Chamber of Wonders" and the Collector's Study.

"Mummified" will run at the Walters Art Museum, 600 N. Charles St., in Baltimore, from Nov. 15 through Nov. 8, 2009. Regular hours are Wednesday-Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., with some holidays as well. Admission to the museum and the exhibit is free. For more information, call 410-547-9000 or see www.thewalters.org.

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