Unmasking the Secrets That Ancient Mummies Hold

[Narrator] If mummies could talk,

what would they tell us?

That's one of the questions at the heart

of Mike Toth's research.

Artifacts like these offer unique insight

into the culture of ancient Egypt.

Middle class Egyptians would bury their mummies

with a mask that was made out of papyrus layers,

just like my mom would make a Halloween mask

out of paper mache using old newspaper.

They would use old papyrus to make this mask.

Now, they used ancient reed to write on their papyrus.

And, in those, you'll find documents that give us

a record of the history of ancient Egypt.

[Narrator] Because they're layered and stuck together,

it's pretty difficult to read the text without

damaging the mask.

Some archaeologists have gone to extreme lengths

to pull them apart.

With the destruction of these objects,

we're losing insight into how they worshiped,

and to how they buried their dead,

and their concept of the afterlife.

[Narrator] So, Toth is developing technologies

to read the text while preserving the masks.

The trouble is that no two mummy masks are identical,

which means there's no single way to image them.

That's why Toth is working with physicists,

archaeologists, and even ophthalmologists,

to test a range of technologies.

Our goal is to make all these data freely available,

and, also, our techniques for studying these objects.

[Narrator] One promising approach is called

Phase Contrast Imaging.

We witnessed a test run at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab.

Here's how it works.

The scrap goes into an X-ray chamber,

where it gets scanned as it rotates.

Then, a team combs through the scanned images,

looking for texts.

Initially, there were concerns that the powerful X-rays

could create tiny distortions in the paper,

but, so far, that hasn't been a problem.

We are trying to offer nondestructive means

by which one can study the object itself,

and the underlying texts, or artwork, or cultural heritage

that may not be seen by the human eye.

[Narrator] But don't worry, they won't be aiming

any X-rays at the mummies in your life.