Scanning of Golden Mummies in Egypt

Already using long range laser scanners for building surveying, architectural and industrial design and heritage preservation Plowman Craven needed to extend their capabilities in to the sub mm accuracy range for which the EuroPac 3D Scanning system was chosen.

Plowman Cravens customers extend well beyond the UK shoreline and therefore it was imperative that the system chosen would work in all climatic conditions and scan any possible type of material.

The first test for this newly acquired system was to take the equipment into the Bahariyah Oasis located in Egypt’s Western Desert to scan recently discovered mummies. In 1996, so the story goes, a donkey put its leg into a hole near Bawati, which led to the discovery of the first of several tombs containing golden mummies and the renaming of the area, in common parlance at least, as the Valley of the Golden Mummies.

Since the initial discovery of the site, the valley has attracted global media attention, especially in the United States. Beginning in 1999, initially five tombs were excavated and the first season’s work alone led to the discovery of over 100 mummies. Although no radiocarbon or other forms of dating have been carried out at the site, art styles and artefacts indicate a Greco-Roman date for the majority of the cemetery that is between 332BC and 400AD.