The patients were old — more than 2,200 years old. But the medical experts were determined to give them a cutting-edge 21st-century exam.

First upwas Nes-Hor, a priest in the Temple of Min, who died circa 190 B.C.E. and whose body was wrapped in a linen shroud that had blackened over the centuries. Then came Nes-Min, circa 330 B.C.E., who had been draped in a netted garment with strands of vibrant beads.

Researchers at the University of Southern California recently used high-resolution CT scanners and medical-grade 3-D printers to conduct virtual autopsies on the two Egyptian mummies. Their goal, as with any patient, was to illuminate ailments and injuries.

The scanner captured 320 different cross-section images of the mummies per rotation, slices that stacked together “like a loaf of bread” to form 3-D digital models, said Summer Decker, the director of the university’s Center for Innovation in Medical Visualization, who oversaw the project. From there, her team analyzed the mummies’ various anatomical structures and used 3-D printers to create life-size reproductions of their spines, skulls and hips.

Radiology is a fast-moving field, and “as technology advances, you’ve got to go back and look, and ask what you might learn from your new tools,” Dr. Decker said. Given the high resolution — the slices were less than half a millimeter thick — the team was able to find artifacts and details that were new or even contradictory to past reports.