Mummies have fascinated people for centuries. Now scientists are starting to understand more about them with the help of modern technology. Researchers at the University of Southern California recently used high-resolution CT scanners and medical-grade 3-D printers to perform virtual autopsies on two Egyptian mummies: Nes-Hor, a priest who died around 190 b.c., and Nes-Min, who lived around 330 b.c. The scanners captured hundreds of images, allowing researchers to build life-sized reproductions of the mummies’ spines, skulls, and hips. Nes-Min, who likely lived into his 40s, had a collapsed vertebra and healed broken ribs—possibly from a fall or an attack—and he may have undergone a primitive form of back surgery. Nes-Hor, who lived to about 60, had a damaged hip that would have caused a limp. These discoveries show that ancient people faced some of the same health challenges we do today, experts say, and they help us view the mummies as individuals. “When people can get beneath the surface of these mummies,” says anthropologist Diane Perlov, “[they] can see them not as exotic artifacts but as human beings.”