Computed Tomography Evidence of Atherosclerosis in Ancient Mummies The Horus Studies of Mummies from Five Continents

Following the century-old landmark work by bacteriologist and experimental pathologist Sir Marc Armand Ruffer, who demonstrated the presence of atherosclerosis during autopsies of multiple Egyptian mummies (Ruffer, 1911), an international multidisciplinary group of physicians and scientists (the Horus Team, named for the Egyptian deity; Finch, 2011.) formed to evaluate the existence, extent and aetiology of atherosclerosis in ancient peoples. The Horus Team first described atherosclerotic calcifications on computed tomography (CT) scans in 2009 (Allam et al., 2009).