With micro-CT and Stradview, our visualisation and analysis package for 3D imaging data, we can hunt for clues and reveal, in this case, artefacts’ hidden secrets – I like the chase! I find it fascinating.

Professor Graham Treece

The structure of a curiously shaped clay jar, identified as a mandrake fruit vessel (1479-1425 BCE), initially intrigued Egyptologists at the Fitzwilliam Museum due to its complicated design. What was it like on the inside? And how did all the different elements connect?

Professor Graham Treece, from the Department of Engineering’s Medical Imaging Group, part of the Machine Intelligence Laboratory, was able to show – by careful analysis of micro-CT – how the 19-cm-tall artefact had been made. Micro-CT is a non-destructive imaging tool that enables the visualisation of materials of different densities.

After completing the micro-CT scanning at the Department of Zoology, high-resolution 3D images and a fly-through video of the interior of the artefact were then created using a visualisation and analysis package for 3D imaging data^[1].

The results show the potter combined moulded and handmade elements to create six mandrake fruits tied together with a loop at the top. The jar was burnished (polished with a hard tool) before firing to help make it more watertight and has the capacity to hold 135ml of liquid.

Next up for a closer inspection via micro-CT scanning was an ancient Egyptian mummy-board of Nespawershefyt, the supervisor of scribes and of craftsmen’s workshops, that dates back about 3,200 years (1000 BCE).

Made of wood, linen, paste, paint and varnish, the mummy-board was ‘stripped back’ using a micro-CT scan, carried out at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which revealed what it looked like before it was painted. The micro-CT scan also revealed a surprise – rudimentary joins were discovered that failed to connect the roughly cut planks and pieces of wood. This suggests that the lid had been remade at some point from a different coffin. Tomb robbery was widespread at the time, so it is likely the original lid had been stolen from a burial. 

• The public can view these artefacts and more at the Fitzwilliam Museum’s Made in Ancient Egypt Exhibition which runs until 12 April.

Professor Treece said: “With micro-CT and Stradview, our visualisation and analysis package for 3D imaging data, we can hunt for clues and reveal, in this case, artefacts’ hidden secrets – I like the chase! I find it fascinating.

“The mandrake fruit vessel for example is beautifully regular on the outside but quite complicated on the inside. Why has the potter gone to so much effort to interconnect everything? It was fascinating to be able to ‘go inside’ the vessel and discover that each of the hollow mandrake fruits joined up.

“And similarly, being able to ‘peel back’ the layers of the mummy-board revealed flaws and gaps in the craftsmanship that would otherwise remain hidden to the naked eye. We were also able to see whether the variety of joints used by the carpenter were actually holding the wood together.”

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^[1] Stradview, the visualisation and analysis package used for generating the 3D images, is written by Professor Treece and Professor Andrew Gee, also from the Medical Imaging Group.