Radiologists at the Stanford University School of Medicine tended to an unlikely patient in August: A more than 2,000-year-old mummy believed to be an ancient Egyptian priest.

The mummy, who belongs to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, arrived at Stanford in a climate-controlled truck, where radiologists were ready and waiting.

Using cutting-edge computed tomography, or CT, scans to peer through its dressings at the preserved body inside, the scans enabled scientists to create three-dimensional images of the body from the inside out. Researchers also plan to use images of the man’s skull to build a clay reconstruction of his face, providing a peek at what he might have looked like. In addition to those uses, the scans may help to determine what materials the ancient Egyptian is wrapped in.

Following a thorough examination by Stanford radiologist Rebecca Fahrig, Ph.D., as well as Renee Dreyfus, FAMSF antiquities curator, and Jonathan Elias of the Ahkmin Mummy Studies Consortium, the mummy returned to San Francisco, where it will be the centerpiece of the Legion of Honor’s “Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine” exhibition, which opens on Oct. 31, 2009.

The mummy is thought to be that of Iret-net Hor-irw, who was a minor priest in the city of Ahkmim on the east bank of the Nile in Egypt. X-rays done in 1970 suggest that he was in his mid-20s when he died of unknown causes. The mummy had been on loan to the Haggin Museum in Stockton, but was returned this month to the San Francisco museums in preparation for the new exhibition. He will remain on display at the Legion of Honor through the summer of 2010.