Mummification was not limited to Egyptians. Greeks and Romans who resided in Egypt were also mummified in Egyptian fashion. The process of mummification continued in Egypt as late as the fifth century C.E., then slowly tapered off when Christianity took hold. From 400 to 1400 C.E. there was a common belief that mummia was a potent medicine with curative powers. This mummia was obtained by grinding up actual mummies. Many travelers who visited Egypt from Europe in the 1600s and 1700s took mummies home and displayed them as centerpieces or in curio cabinets. The study of Egyptian antiquities, known as Egyptology, became a popular academic discipline in the 1800s. The event of "unwrapping a mummy" became a popular attraction and draw to European museums. In 1896, British archaelogist William Flinders Petrie began using X-ray techniques to examine mummies without unwrapping them. In the early 1970s, scientists began using computed tomography, or CAT scans, to create ...
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