Correlative tomography and authentication features of a shrunken head (tsantsa).

Museum personnel and the general public have become quite familiar with the presence of shrunken heads in museum collections, but the procedures to authenticate the history and origin of these unique cultural items are not yet reliable. These shrunken heads, called tsantsas, are meant to be the cultural material remains of ceremonies conducted by the Shuar and Achuar Peoples of South America. This project seeks to integrate the use of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scanning with methods used in previous studies (clinical computed tomography (CT) and visual inspections) to examine authentication procedures of shrunken heads (tsantsas) held in contemporary museum collections. We use a correlative tomographic approach using several scans at successively higher resolutions to determine whether a tsantsa was created from human remains, and if so, what key features can best contribute to its authentication. Conclusively, our correlative tomographic approaches provide new insights into the determination process of whether a tsantsa was created from real human remains or not. Also, this study questions whether the previously conceptualized dichotomy of ceremonial or commercial might be better thought of as a continuum of practice. Investigating and redefining the examination and authentication procedures of tsantsas is crucial for future ethical curation, management, and repatriation efforts of this unique cultural material of the Shuar and Achuar Peoples.

Impact: development of a radiological mummy database.

The Internet Mummy Picture Archiving and Communication Technology (IMPACT) radiological and context database, is a large-scale, multi-institutional, collaborative research project devoted to the digital preservation and scientific study of mummified remains, and the mummification traditions that produced them, using non-destructive medical imaging technologies. Owing to the importance of non-destructive analyses to the study of mummified human remains, the IMPACT database, website, and wiki provide a basis for anthropological and palaeopathological investigations, grounded in the most current technological imaging and communication standards, accessible through any internet connection, and protected against rapidly changing media standards. Composed of paired online radiographic and contextual databases, the IMPACT project is intended to provide researchers with large-scale primary data samples for anthropological and palaeopathological investigations. IMPACT addresses the limitations of the case-study approach to mummified human remains and contributes to the development of standards of practice in imaging of mummified remains. Furthermore, IMPACT allows researchers a greater appreciation of, and engagement with, patterns of health and disease in ancient times as well as the variability present in the mummification traditions of ancient Egypt and other cultures that sought to preserve their dead for eternity.