In 1989, at the occasion of a public lecture of Dr. Renate Germer (at that time with the Department of Egyptology ot the University of Hamburg) the idea of transfering 3D modelling to mummy research was born. A 3D model of the head of a 30 year old woman passed away 2300 years ago ("Mrs. X") was created from computer tomograms. It offered the possibility of a detailed investigation. As a "spin-off" from medical research a long term cooperation involving further mummies was established.

The movie originating from 1989, illustrates the insights offered by the 3D modeling technique. In 1991/92 it was shown in the exhibition Mummy + Computer in the Kestner Museum, Hannover (Germany) gezeigt.

In 1997 the same data were reprocessed for the exhibition Mummies: Life after death in Ancient Egypt (Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg) and posted on the web as The Virtual Mummy. Around the year 2000 it was the most visited web page of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. Even the magazine Science* found it worth mentioning under the title "Cool images" .

In 2003 a 2600 year old mummy of the Kestner-Museum ("Mr.X") was investigated with computer tomogaphy.