mummy

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>

It Looks Like a Smudge. But Its Significance Is Huge

Mummy tattoos among the oldest ever found, say scientists

(Newser) - The ancient Egyptian mummy has been a favorite attraction at the British Museum since it was discovered a century ago in Gebelein, but only keen-eyed passers-by would've wondered at the dark smudges on the male's upper arm. Turns out, they were worth noticing. Infrared scans have revealed them...

These Mummy Legs Likely Belong to a Great Queen
These Mummy Legs Likely
Belong to a Great Queen
STUDY SAYS

These Mummy Legs Likely Belong to a Great Queen

Researchers think they are the remains of Egypt's Nefertari

(Newser) - Archaeologists say they've likely identified the mummified remains of "one of the truly great and important queens of Egypt," in the same league as Nefertiti and Cleopatra. Three portions of mummified legs found more than a century ago in the looted tomb of Queen Nefertari—wife of...

Preserved Fetus Is Likely Youngest Egyptian Mummy

It is believed to have been miscarried at less than 18 weeks

(Newser) - A tiny coffin believed for a century to be holding the organs of some ancient Egyptian or other actually contains what is likely the youngest mummy ever discovered, Discovery reports. Archaeologists dug up the 17-inch coffin in Giza, Egypt, in 1907, and it was handed over to the Fitzwilliam Museum...

Bizarre Mummies Still Startle in Remote Zone

Villagers in Papua New Guinea used unusual smoking process

(Newser) - "Their facial expressions were cut straight out of a Hollywood scream-fest," writes Ian Lloyd Neubauer, describing 14 smoked corpses found in an indentation under a cliff above the village of Angapenga in Papua New Guinea. The remains, he writes for the BBC , were "arranged on bamboo scaffolding...

Sacrificed Boy May Reveal Clues About Inca Empire

The child was sacrificed 500 years ago, and scientists were able to obtain his DNA

(Newser) - He came to a grim ending, but the mummified remains of a 7-year-old boy sacrificed in an Inca ritual called capacocha are allowing scientists to "learn more about the rise and extent of the Inca Empire," as the Los Angeles Times puts it. The child's frozen corpse...

Mummified Remains Found in Indiana

The head and torso could be 2K years old

(Newser) - Workers exploring the site of an intended quarry in rural Indiana stumbled upon a mummified body that experts say could be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old, the Times of Northwest Indiana reports. "They could distinguish a head and a torso," says a local sheriff. "...

Scientists Find Proof of Pharaohs' Incest

They did so by measuring the height of 259 Egyptian mummies

(Newser) - A new study has found that "pharaohs varied less in height than men of the common population," as a researcher explains—a rather plain statement with some pretty gossipy implications. Swiss researcher Frank Rühli and his colleagues examined the height of 259 mummies—a group that included...

Many of Egypt's Animal Mummies Are Really ... Nothing

Study finds as many as a third are empty, but that doesn't mean it was a big con

(Newser) - Crocodiles, falcons, shrews: The ancient Egyptians are thought to have mummified as many as 70 million animals—and a scan of more than 800 of them reveals that in many cases, what's inside is ... nothing. The work done by radiographers and Egyptologists with the Manchester Museum and the University...

Buddhists: Mummified Monk Is Just in Trance

Lama found in lotus position may not be dead, experts suggest

(Newser) - The 200-year-old Buddhist monk found still seated in the lotus position is not dead, but is rather in a rare spiritual state known as tukdam, Buddhism experts suggest. Dr. Barry Kerzin, a famous fellow monk who is also a physician to the Dalai Lama, tells the Siberian Times that monks...

'Oldest Known Gospel' Found in Mummy Mask

Researchers say Mark fragment pre-dates 90AD

(Newser) - Ancients apparently used various papyrus documents to create mummy masks—including what may be the earliest known fragment of a New Testament gospel, LiveScience reports. Confirming information that leaked in 2012, professor Craig Evans says he's among the researchers who peeled apart the glued layers of a mummy mask...

Jeweled Mummy Found Under Collapsed Roof

Mystery woman died about 4K years ago in Egypt

(Newser) - At some point about 4,000 years ago, a female aristocrat in her 30s died in southern Egypt. Archaeologists have finally found her—along with the jewelry she was wearing when buried, reports Discovery . The find is unusual because tomb raiders have generally picked such sites clean, but a stroke...

Grisly Find in Hoarder Home: Mom's Mummified Remains

Daughter says she didn't report the death because of home's condition

(Newser) - A woman who appears to be a reclusive hoarder in an upscale neighborhood in Gilbert, Ariz., didn't call the cops when her 98-year-old mother died in 2010. Janet Pallone Delatorre says "she 'panicked' and believed police would think Janet killed her based on the condition of the...

Mummy Mystery Solved: It Was Murder

Incan woman died from blunt force trauma 500 years ago

(Newser) - She's been known to German archaeologists for more than a century, but they only now know where a mysterious mummy came from—and how she died. The study in PLoS One explains that the mummified woman was brought to Bavaria in the 1900s. It's possible she was acquired...

What We Learned From an Iceman's Terrible Teeth

Ötzi suffered from cavities, gum disease, and a cracked molar

(Newser) - Cavities are far from a modern woe, reveals a new study of a 5,300-year-old "ice mummy." "Ötzi" didn't just have the bad luck of dying on a glacier, he also suffered from terrible teeth, reports Science . Though his remains were discovered on the Austro-Italian...

Ancient Pharoah Ramses III Was Assassinated
 Ancient Pharaoh 
 Ramses III Was 
 Assassinated 
in case you missed it

Ancient Pharaoh Ramses III Was Assassinated

X-ray points to severe throat wound, say researchers

(Newser) - The mystery of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh's death may have been solved. Experts knew of an assassination and coup attempt on Ramses III, but never ascertained whether the attackers had succeeded, USA Today reports. Now, new X-ray analysis suggests they did: "The extent and depth" of a wound...

Heart Disease Dates Back to Ancient Princess

Scientists discover clogged arteries in 3,500-year-old Egyptian mummy

(Newser) - Heart disease definitely didn't begin with the Big Mac: An Egyptian princess who lived more than 3,500 years ago is the oldest known person to have had clogged arteries, dispelling the myth that heart disease is a product of modern society, a new study says. Ahmose-Meryet-Amon lived in...

How Did Ex-Playmate Turn Into a Mummy?

Arid climate, lack of moisture all helped

(Newser) - How did Yvette Vickers, former Playboy playmate and cult horror film star, turn into a real-life mummy ? After all, she didn't have anyone to wrap her in linen bandages. But mummification does not actually refer to the process undertaken by ancient Egyptians—it refers to the effect that...

Millions of Puppy Mummies Unearthed in Egypt

They likely came from ancient puppy mills

(Newser) - When Egypt's ancient Dog Catacombs were fully excavated for the first time in 2010, scientists found about 8 million animal mummies. They're now examining the 2,500-year-old remains, and new research shows that most of the mummies are dogs—many just hours old when mummified. They were likely the product...

Clues in 1930s Baby-Mummies Case Point to Peter Pan Link

One suspect related to author JM Barrie

(Newser) - Police investigating the two mummified babies found in an LA basement have hit on a curious, but unlikely, person-of-interest. Medical forms found in the same trunk as the bodies refer to a woman named Jean M. Barrie, who was, it seems, a local nurse. But it’s also possible, sources...

'Lost' Since 1885, Tomb Found Near Cairo

Treasure hunters forgot where Memphis mayor's tomb was

(Newser) - Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital's mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 1885, when treasure hunters first carted off some of its trove—only to forget its location. Some of the stolen artifacts ended up in museums, providing...

Stories 21 - 40 | << Prev   Next >>