ADA LAB DIRECTOR SEEKS TO UNRAVEL MUMMY MYSTERIES

ADA -- Consider Larry Cartmell a history buff. When he was a child growing
up in Pawnee, Cartmell and his friends collected Indian arrowheads and
dreamed of the buffalo hunts and battles that took place there long ago.

Childhood fascination with the past hasn't lessened with age. It has just
evolved.

Cartmell, the lab director at Ada's Valley View Regional Hospital, travels
the world dissecting mummies to help archaeologists learn more about
ancient people.

In March, his research took him to Hierakonpolis, a 5,500-year-old Egyptian
archaeological site. He's been analyzing hair and tissue samples from
mummies buried there. By this summer, he should know more about how these
people lived and died.

"I just enjoy it," he said. "I don't play golf or any of those sorts of
things. I'm just amazed when I go to these sites."

Becoming an expert Cartmell's first flirtation with archaeology wasn't
positive.

"I met an archaeologist who was out of work," he said. "I decided to do
something that was a little more stable."

So he went into medicine. As a pathologist, his job has him hunting cancer
cells and other abnormalities in patients' tissue samples, but Cartmell's
interest in ancient times never waned.

In 1987, he got his chance to fuel that fascination. A group called
Earthwatch was looking for a pathologist to do research on South American
mummies and asked him if he was interested.

Cartmell accepted the job and traveled to Chile the next year. His findings
- -- the discovery of cocaine traces in two mummies' hair samples -- were
ground-breaking.

Two other labs tested his results and confirmed what had never been
documented before -- that the Chilean practice of chewing coca leaves dates
back thousands of years.

The results of his research were published, and he soon gained acclaim for
pathology studies on mummies. Cartmell was mentioned in a book called "The
Mummy Congress," which in turn spread his name further.

"I kind of got a little niche among anthropologists and mummy people," he
said. "Once the book came out, I wasn't anonymous anymore."

Visits to Egypt While most people spend their vacations in resorts,
Cartmell goes where the mummies are. Such adventures take him to South
America, Greenland and Egypt.

He's gone to Egypt three times. His latest trip, to Hierakonpolis, had him
examining mummies from 3500 B.C.

Hierakonpolis is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Egypt, dating
back to the late Stone Age. It predates the pharaohs and the pyramids and
was once the hub of Egyptian power.

It also holds Egypt's oldest mummies.

Cartmell's research took him to a burial site for the city's commoners and
laborers. Researchers have found everything from pottery to combs in the
graves, as well as makeup palettes belonging to Egyptian women. Residue
from makeup dye was still on some of the artifacts.

"You could tell the importance of that in that they included it (the makeup
palettes) in the burial," Cartmell said.

The bones and teeth of the people were strong and well-formed, indicating a
well-fed and healthy population, Cartmell said, but it's not easy trying to
describe life in pre-dynastic Egypt.

Science provides some insight. By examining hair samples, Cartmell can tell
how much meat, vegetables and grains the people ate.

There is some urgency to the project. Hierakonpolis is next to an irrigated
sugar cane field, and the Egyptian government wants to expand the Nile
Valley's farms.

"They have a large population, and they need the space," Cartmell said.
That means the inevitable destruction of mummies and artifacts still buried
there.

Work in the lab While much of his work is done in the field, the hard-core
science takes place in Cartmell's Ada lab.

He has a partner -- Cheryl Weems, the hospital's technical school
supervisor. Like Cartmell, she got caught up in mummy mysteries.

"When he got back from South America, I was fascinated," she said.

The exhilaration comes with a price, however.

"I get to do some interesting things, but this is all extracurricular," she
said.

As in after-hours and on weekends, but it has its rewards.

A television production company called Cartmell last year with an offer: Do
an autopsy on a carnival sideshow mummy and be part of their program titled
"The Mummy Road Show."

The mummy was Hazel Farris, who had a reputation as a hard-living,
turn-of-the-century prostitute who killed her husband and three Alabama
lawmen before committing suicide with arsenic in 1905.

Her mummified body was never claimed, so a carnival owner bought her and
spun Farris' sordid tale to sideshow audiences.

The production company wanted Cartmell to see if there was any forensic
proof to back the Farris legend.

The mummy had a missing finger, which showed signs of amputation. The
legend said lawmen shot off Farris' finger during her fugitive days. Her
body contained traces of arsenic, seemingly supporting the suicide story.

Cartmell uncovered evidence showing the Farris story to be more myth than
fact. Farris probably died naturally and was embalmed with arsenic, a
common practice at that time.

The missing finger?

"I doubt it was a gunshot," Cartmell said, adding that it was probably
surgically removed.

Further shattering the legend is that there are no records of Farris'
murderous exploits in Alabama.

His conclusions were included in an April 1 episode of "The Mummy Road
Show" series -- part dramatization, part documentary -- on the National
Geographic Channel. An encore presentation of the Farris story will air
June 17.

Cartmell's experience with Farris taught him that reality -- and the
history behind it -- is often more fun than fiction. Cartmell will head to
the deserts of northern Chile this summer for another round of unraveling
mysteries behind some of the world's oldest mummies.

For him, it's a privilege to be part of that process.

"When I stand back and look at it," he said, "I'm kind of in awe."