Radiographic evaluation of the soap man mummy.

This article describes how mobile radiography was used to examine a mummified cadaver exhumed in 1875 and stored in the Smithsonian Museum. Radiographs revealed artifacts imbedded in the cadaver, indicating 1824 as the earliest possible interment. Through radiographic assessment of the skeleton, researchers were able to approximate the individual's age at death. In addition, evidence of pathology, possibly ideopathic skeletal hyperostosis, suggested the individual may have been employed in manual labor. The radiographs, when compared to x-rays of another cadaver exhumed at the same time and place, refuted information in museum records.