Bewes, J.Morphett, A.Pate, F.Henneberg, M.Low, A.Kruse, L.Craig, B.Hindson, A.Adams, E.2017-10-152017-10-152016Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2016; 8:173-1772352-409Xhttp://hdl.handle.net/2440/108531In mummified animals and humans, soft tissues like skin and muscle become more dense over time due to dehydration. At the same time, bone becomes less dense as marrow is replaced by air. This is a problem for the radiological examination of ancient specimens, as currently used methods such as single-energy CT and MRI rely on density and water content to produce tissue contrast in an image. Dual energy CT with effective atomic number imaging overcomes this problem, as the elemental constituents and consequently effective atomic number of a specimen remain relatively constant over time. This case study of two ancient Egyptian cat mummies demonstrates that effective atomic number imaging can differentiate desiccated soft tissues from low-density bone in ancient remains. Effective atomic number imaging has the potential for superior tissue contrast resolution when compared to single energy CT and can be used to provide new paleoradiological perspectives.en© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Paleoradiology; computed tomography; Ancient Egypt; mummies; paleopathology; effective atomic number; dual-energy CT; animal mummiesJournal article003005295010.1016/j.jasrep.2016.06.0092-s2.0-84973530979254267Henneberg, M. [0000-0003-1941-2286]Low, A. [0000-0002-1478-4235]