Hundreds of respected scholars from around the world are in San Diego this week to sift through the latest discoveries of ancient remains.
The University of San Diego hosted the mummy meetings for the annual Pacific Division of the “American Association for the Advancement of Science” convention.
Alana Cordy-Collins, Ph.D., is an anthropologist at USD. She believes new technology like computer-assisted face reconstruction improves forensic investigation of the past and present.
“Mummies are important to modern humans because they give us a window on the past that we can’t peak through any other way,” said Cordy-Collins.
The scientific discussions also involved how to capitalize on medical advances to better study mummies and implications for modern man.
“They can give us incredible insight into human culture in the past and the state of health and we can learn a lot about ancient disease and by extension contemporary disease,” Cordy-Collins said.
A “modern day mummy” is currently on display at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park.
