Dr. Daniela Picchi is Head of the Department of the Egyptian Collection at Archaeological Museum of Bologna and Secretary, CIPEG (ICOM International Committee for Egyptology).
The Bologna Mummy project (BOmp) stems from the institutional collaboration between the Bologna Archaeological Museum and the Institute for Mummy Studies of Eurac Research. The project was launched in 2019, following the international conference Human Remains, held in Turin in the same year (30 September–1 October).
Three Egyptian mummies kept in the museum's storage rooms in Bologna since the late 1970s, inside wooden and metal crates, were considered an interesting case study by the researchers of the Institute for Mummy Studies. After the opening of these crates containing two subadult mummies and one adult mummy, the study and conservation treatment of a female mummy with a rare painted shroud and the mummy of a male child with three tunics was undertaken.
The process required an interdisciplinary scientific approach to acquire computed tomography (CT) scans of the bodies, to obtain radiocarbon (14C) dating, to reconstruct biological (e.g., anthropological and molecular sex, age at death) and palaeopathological profiles, and to gain insight into embalming techniques (including VOC emissions). In addition, two mummies were subjected to complex conservation interventions. The project will continue with the study of other Egyptian mummies in the Bologna Museum.