Photos: Unwrapping the mummies

An Egyptian wooden coffin from the late period, the 27th to 30th dynasties (525-343 BC), in the “Mummies” exhibition. Some of the displays include CT scans that allow inside looks at the mummies.

The mummy known as the Gilded Lady is accompanied by a CT scan that sees beyond the wrappings.

Details of a wooden coffin from Egypt’s late 25th to early dynasties (circa 700 to 600 BC) show hieroglyphics and depictions from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Egyptian sarcophagus fragments made of limestone date from the late Ptolemaic periods (664-30BC).

A wooden coffin lid from the Roman period.

A Peruvian figurine, front, made of ceramic, and the mummy of a young child of the Chancay culture (circa 1000-1400).

A clay Peruvian statue on display at the “Mummies” exhibition would have been entombed with a mummified body.

Detail of a wooden Egyptian coffin (circa 700-600 BC) includes a depiction of a false beard and the image of the goddess Nut with outstretched wings.

A mummified baboon in wood.

A view of an Egyptian stone tablet known as “Stela of Nesmin” from the Roman period (30 BC to 395 AD) includes heiroglypics and depictions of several gods and goddesses.

An Egyptian mummy from the late Ptolemaic period.

Peruvian “false head” made of pigment and cloth with a reed hat, from the Pachacama, Yschma culture (1000-1400).

Modern technology gives various views of the mummies in the Natural History Museum exhibition.