From the Vault: The Oldest Patient

In 1974, Halifax artist and arts educator Donald Cameron Mackay donated an ancient Egyptian mummified head to the Dalhousie Art Gallery. Although it arrived without the linen wrappings typical of the mummification process, thus affording a thorough visual examination of the face, skull and neck, the contents of the head remained a mystery. Medical imaging technology has been used by Egyptologists to “reveal” the interior of wrapped mummies without disturbing the original wrappings, and in July of 2014 Dalhousie Art Gallery Registrar/Preparator Michele Gallant and Matthias Schmidt and Pierre Schmit, both Professors at Dalhousie University Medical School’s Department of Radiology, conducted an X-Ray computed tomography (CT) scan of the head. The Radiologists’ interpretations of the scans, with 2D and 3D video projections of the imaging, will provide the context for the first public presentation of the mummified head, their “oldest patient”. Visitors are advised that this exhibition contains human remains.