Holding Eternity in One's Hand: First Three‐Dimensional Reconstruction and Printing of the Heart from 2700 Years‐Old Egyptian Mummy

Abstract

The heart in ancient Egyptian mummification procedure is the central organ that should stay in place in the chest and waiting for the afterlife judgment. Here, we show the first case of three‐dimensional (3D) CT scan reconstruction of a mummified heart from a person embalmed in Egypt around 2,700 years ago, and present a 3D printing of the same heart using a low‐cost yet accurate 3D printer. A multi‐slice computed tomography scanner was used to scan the mummy. We applied the following radiological protocol: 80 keV and 140 keV, 140 mAs, with a slice thickness of 0.9 mm. The mummified heart and ascending aorta were extracted with semi‐automatic segmentation. We used a low‐cost 3D printer (Up plus 2) using fusion deposition modeling technology. The 3D printed model was then painted with acrylic paint to color code structures of interest. The 3D CT multi‐resolution imaging allows us to identify the gross anatomy of the heart, the ascending aorta, the pulmonary arteries, and the presence of multiple atherosclerosis lesions. Using 3D printed model we recognized upper auricle, vein cave inferior, and the two coronary arteries. The brachiocephalic artery, common carotid artery, and left subclavian artery were clearly cut to dissociate the heart from surrounding tissues. This multi‐3D approach allows for a better understanding of complex and distorted anatomy of the mummified heart, of paleopathology (arteriosclerosis), and of mummification techniques. Anat Rec, 302:912–916, 2019. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Additive Manufacturing Processes in Medical Applications

“…The materials usually used in directed energy deposition are metals, such as titanium alloys, for implants and, therefore, it limits its use, for example, in medical models. Sheet lamination is only used for medical models or phantoms [ 72 , 95 ], which makes sense, since it can be used to make full-color realistic looking models [ 118 ]. Other areas using starting material as a sheet are challenging, since new material examples are not usually in the form of sheets.…”

Preservation of the heart in ancient Egyptian mummies: A computed tomography investigation with focus on the myocardium

“…This was also reported by Wade and Nelson (2013). The heart examined by Olszewski et al (2019) was also dislocated to the right hemithorax. As mentioned above, the literature of ancient Egypt describes care being taken to preserve the heart in situ during mummification; if it was accidentally removed, it had to be returned or replaced by a heart scarab (Ikram & Dodson, 1998; Raven & Taconis, 2005; Taylor, 2001).…”

“…Raven and Taconis (2005) identified tubular and linear structures as remnants of the heart and great vessels. Recently, a 3D print of an ancient Egyptian mummy has been obtained (Olszewski et al, 2019). However, detailed descriptions of the anatomy of preserved hearts including the myocardium are rare.…”

The Restoration of Mummies in Ancient Egypt

“…The mummy is in the Royal Museum of Art and History, Department of Egyptian Collections in Brussels, Belgium since 1874, and bears No. E.5889 [58] and by examining a three-dimensional CT scan, the method of restoration applied to this mummy was by using a wooden board placed on the front side of the body and another wooden board on the back side of the body, and a wooden stick was inserted in the rib cage until reaching the edge of the bottom of the skull extending to the pelvis, to support the multiple fractures in the rib cage and damage to the spine and the head (Fig. 4a).…”