UWO 'ground zero' for mummy studies: Researcher

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UWO 'ground zero' for mummy studies: Researcher

KELLY PEDRO, QMI AGENCY

FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2012 01:42 PM EST | UPDATED: TUESDAY, JANUARY 03, 2012 01:58 PM EST

Gayle Gibson, an Egyptologist and teacher at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Roberta Shaw, the assistant curator of Egyptology, talk to Andrew Nelson about the University of Western Ontario’s mummy Lady Hudson. (Mike Hensen/ QMI Agency file photo)

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LONDON, Ont. — Two University of Western Ontario researchers have won international grants for their projects, one of which will make the university the "ground zero" of mummy studies.

Using CT scans to help him look inside mummies, researcher Andrew Nelson and his team are trying to determine cultural, political and foreign influences in ancient Egypt.

"To look at that pattern, you need to assemble data from lots of mummies," said Nelson, an associate professor of anthropology and associate dean of research in the faculty of social sciences.

Nelson is partnering with research groups in the U.S.

The project has won him a $165,000-grant as part of the second annual digging into data challenge.

The grant allows him to set up a dedicated server for all the research.

"It makes Western the ground zero for mummy studies," he said.

Nelson is trying to track down all Egyptian mummies that have been scanned around the world to help him build the database that can be accessed by academics around the globe.

So far, he has about 20 scans from Tanzania, the United Kingdom, Europe and the U.S.

He estimates there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Egyptian mummies in museums worldwide.

The international challenge is part of a push to use digital media and marks a shift in research that typically studies individual mummies to one that looks at larger patterns.

"The challenge then is to move beyond single studies and try to put together large databases and efficiently utilize, manage and extract information from those databases," said Nelson.

A second team led by Western researcher Lu Xiao of the faculty of information and media studies was also awarded $235,000 as part of the same challenge.

Xiao's team is developing an automated reader to search archives of human rights abuses. By detecting patterns in words, the reader will help identify victims and abusers of violence in Guatemala, Burma and Chechnya.

The research will give human rights advocates new tools and witnesses for trials.

The international challenge is funded by eight organizations from four different countries, Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and the Netherlands.

Nelson and Xiao's research teams are two of 14 projects that received part of nearly $5 million U.S.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/01/03/uwo-ground-zero-for-mummy-studies-researcher