Med Center unravels mummy mystery

When Sylvester, and Sylvia were given CT scans, they drew a lot of attention, including that of National Geographic.

Sylvester and Sylvia are the two mummies from Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, at Pier 54 on the Seattle waterfront. The mummies received CT, or "Cat" scans Saturday at the UW Medical Center's department of radiology as part of an on-going research project conducted by professors Ron Beckett and Gerry Conlogue of Quinnipiac University, in New Haven Connecticut.

The two scans would have cost between $5,000-$8,000, said Dr. Udo Schmiedl, doctor of body imaging at the UW Medical Center (UWMC). As part of the UW's research mission to help other colleges, the UWMC scanned the mummies free of charge.

As co-directors of the Bioanthropology Research Institute, based at Quinnipiac College, Conlogue said they perform virtual autopsies on mummies from around the world in order to learn more about changes in population, diseases, health and other aspects of society over time.

The mummies will also be shown in "The Mummy Road Show," a 13-part series for National Geographic's cable channels, that will air this fall.

Sylvester, the male mummy, and Sylvia, the female mummy, are owned by Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. According to Joe James, owner of the shop, Sylvester was a white male, who died at about the age of 45. He is at least 100 years old.

"He was probably a prospector, but they were never able to identify him," James said.

For years, Sylvester has been a local icon, James said. Sylvester was purchased by the shop in 1955, and was shown at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The history of Sylvester has always been a bit of a mystery, he said. According to James, Sylvester was found in the Gila Bend Desert in 1895.

"We always said that he had been preserved by the sand in the desert," he said.

When Dr. Stacie Mars, a body imaging specialist, and Sam Corpus, an imaging technologist -- both from the UW Medical Center -- made the CT scan of Sylvester they discovered that his remains were remarkably well preserved. Conlogue said Sylvester provided them with a unique opportunity to learn about the past.

"This is the best preserved mummy we have ever seen," Conlogue said. "The shape is always collapsed, blob-like. This is just shrunken. He had to have been embalmed, preserved somehow. This is just perfect."

According to Conlogue, the CT scans revealed something in Sylvester's arteries. Some person or persons performed at least a partial embalming process on Sylvester, after his death, he suspected. Conlogue said the findings, when studied further, will provide a look at embalming technology and techniques from more than 100 years ago.

Neither Conlogue nor James, had any theories on why Sylvester would have been so preserved. There were some other interesting findings from the CT scan.

"Sylvester has pellets in his face and neck. There is also one in his lung," said Schmiedl.

The pellets, Schmiedl said, are the size of shotgun pellets. Although the pellets are in areas that could kill someone, they may have been the result of an injury earlier in his life, due to a lack of skin wounds.

Sylvia, the female mummy, was purchased in 1970 by the curiosity shop. Sylvia was found in a cave in Central America, James said. Sylvia is a white European female who was approximately 30 years old when she died. According to Conlogue, she is typical of an un-embalmed mummy.

Unlike Sylvester, who weighs 120 pounds, Sylvia weighs only 20. According to Conlogue, this is the normal weight for a mummified body. Sylvester's organs "are smaller, but they have retained their shape," he said, but "Sylvia's organs are more blob-like."

According to CT scan images, and interpretations by Dr. Stacie Mars and other medical staff, Sylvia died of tuberculosis, confirming the story that James had.

"We'll have to redo their stories a little bit," said James. "Hopefully they'll be a bit more famous."