Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Forensic Imaging journal homepage: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/forensic-imaging “Mummies outside their closets”. Paleoradiological investigation of Egyptian mummified remains Roberta Fusco a , Marta Licata a, ⁎ , Omar Larentis a , Barbara Cermesoni b , Annamaria Ravagnan c , Rosagemma Ciliberti d , Antonio Pinto e , Chiara Tesi a a Centre of Research in Osteoarchaeology and Paleopathology, Department of Biotechnology and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy b Civic Museums of Varese, Italy c International Council of Museums’ Committee for Egyptology (ICOM – CIPEG), Milan, Italy d Section History of Medicine and Bioethics, Department of Science of Health, University of Genoa, Genova, Italy e Department of Radiology, CTO Hospital, Azienda Ospedaliera dei Colli, Naples, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Egyptian mummified remains Paleoradiology Museums Paleopathology Embalming techniques Biparietal thinning ABSTRACT Paleoradiological investigations of three mummified remains housed in the archaeological museum of Erba allowed us to investigate the origin, biological profile, embalming techniques and pathological conditions of finds unknown until now. These mummified remains, belonging to the private collection of the Majnoni family, were donated to the museum without any information about their origin. We are well aware of the past issue on the commercialization of mummified remains and of the low possibility for anthropologists to have access to ancient mummies. For this reason our intent is to stimulate curators of small collections to contact team of anthropologists, radiologists and paleopathologists to grant the study of finds housed in museums with the aim of obtaining more information about the anthropological cultural heritage. Introduction How many times have you – physical anthropologists, pathologists, archaeologists etc. - wished to study an Egyptian mummy? Many, cer- tainly. Also, because we know that not many researchers in the field of archaeology have access to these extraordinary preservations of human remains [1,2]. Archaeological excavations conducted in European territories, or generally in the areas of the continental planet, usually bring to light human skeletal remains from cemetery contexts [3,4]. Apart from the exception of some highly successful natural mummifications [5] of ancient human remains [6], including frozen mummies [7, 8] and bog bodies [9, 10], and of some collections of intentional mummifications, such as the crypt of the Capuchin friars in Palermo [11], the anthro- pologist has very few opportunities to study mummies especially those resulting from the practice of embalming [12, 13] and in particular from the evisceration of organs [14, 15]. Moreover, when this happens, of course we must use the necessary expertise of the radiologist. Radiology, or better now, Paleoradiology, is the only correct way to study mummies because it is clear that their scientific investigation must not compromise their conservation [16, 17], considering also that, given the exceptional nature of these human remains, a museum destination is envisaged [18, 19]. It is clear that finds of this type should be analysed. Overall, as often happens, if specimens have never been studied, consequently even their museum display is vitiated by the lack of descriptive information. So “mummies outside their closets” means to stimulate the study, using the updated techniques that today support anthropological analyses, of all those exhibits that have been displayed in a museum but not yet in- vestigated. Firstly, for these specimens generally it is necessary to in- vestigate the authenticity especially when no provenience documenta- tion is present. In fact, the support of radiological analysis can show the type of bandage, the ornaments and the morphology of human remains (tissues and bones) [20], all to investigate if the mummy is authentic Egyptian or not. In addition, paleoradiological investigation, through the analysis of all the materials of the mummies, allows us to adopt the better choice to preserve and expose the finds in the museum. In this regard, the ana- lysis of an illustrative case related to the conservation of three parts of Egyptian mummies at the archaeological museum of Erba (Como- northern Italy) allows us to highlight the importance of paleor- adiological investigation of human remains [21]. The finds are ex- hibited in a display case, inside a room dedicated to oriental studies, where various kinds of artefacts are exhibited, above all potteries and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fri.2020.200397 Received 19 March 2020; Received in revised form 12 June 2020; Accepted 17 July 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: marta.licata@uninsubria.it (M. Licata). Forensic Imaging 22 (2020) 200397 Available online 18 July 2020 2666-2256/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T