mummy

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This Is the Face of a Teen Sacrificed by the Inca

Archaeologist and sculptor Oscar Nilsson reconstructs the face of Peru's 'Juanita' mummy

(Newser) - The possible living face of Peru's most famous mummy, a teenage Inca girl sacrificed in a ritual more than 500 years ago atop the Andes, was unveiled Tuesday. The silicone-made bust portrays a young woman with pronounced cheekbones, black eyes, and tanned skin, per the AP . Produced by a...

After 128 Years on Display, Mummy Finally Gets His Burial

'Stoneman Willie' identified as James Murphy, of Irish descent from New York

(Newser) - A dead man whose body sat on display for 128 years in Pennsylvania has finally been laid to rest. James Murphy—better known as "Stoneman Willie" due to his hardened skin, the result of an experimental embalming technique—was buried Saturday in Reading under a black tombstone carrying both...

Cops Make Unusual Find in Ex-Food Delivery Man's Bag

Man in Peru called 'Juanita' his 'spiritual girlfriend'; police say it was an ancient mummy

(Newser) - Peruvian police have arrested a 26-year-old man allegedly found carrying an ancient mummy—whom he reportedly described as his "spiritual girlfriend"— in his food delivery bag. Police said three men were acting drunk at a park, also described as an archaeological site, in the southern region of Puno,...

'Time Machine' Unearthed on Ancient Egypt's Mummies

Embalming workshop found in 2016 offers hints on the mummification process

(Newser) - For thousands of years, ancient Egyptians mummified their dead in the search for eternal life. Now, researchers have used chemistry and an unusual collection of jars to figure out how they did it. Their study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature , is based on a rare archaeological find: an embalming...

Small Mummy at Cornell Wasn't What It Seemed

Carol Anne Barsody uncovers misidentified ibis

(Newser) - A football-sized mummy, thought to hold an ancient Egyptian hawk, actually holds "something sacred." When and how the remains ended up at Cornell University are unclear, and it's also unclear why the mummy was mislabeled as a hawk. But Carol Anne Barsody, a master's student in...

Mummy That Escaped Others' Fate Gives Up Secrets

Amenhotep I was never unwrapped, unlike other pharaohs found in 19th, 20th centuries

(Newser) - Amenhotep I ruled Egypt from 1525 to 1504 BC, and his mummy managed to escape the fate of many others: Though it was discovered in 1881, it was never unwrapped in modern times, with a press release saying it's the only royal mummy found in the 19th and 20th...

Mummy May Rewrite the History of Mummies
Mummy May Rewrite
the History of Mummies
in case you missed it

Mummy May Rewrite the History of Mummies

Remains in Egypt may be oldest ever found by about 1,000 years

(Newser) - A dignitary named Khuwy who lived about 4,400 years ago just might end up being one of the more famous mummies in history. Provided his story checks out. Archaeologists in Egypt say the remains discovered in 2019 could prove that Egyptians were carrying out sophisticated mummifications about 1,000...

Alleged Cult Leader Dies, Followers Apparently Can't Part With Her

7 members of Love Has Won religious group kept mummified remains of Amy Carlson in home

(Newser) - Police say a man returned to his rural Colorado home last week to find a mummified woman, who "appeared to be set up in some type of shrine." The face, with missing eyes, was caked in glittery makeup, and the body was wrapped in a sleeping bag and...

Scan Reveals Big Surprise: a Pregnant Mummy
Scan Reveals Big Surprise:
a Pregnant Mummy
new study

Scan Reveals Big Surprise: a Pregnant Mummy

It might be a first; researchers were expecting to find a male Egyptian priest

(Newser) - When researchers from the Warsaw Mummy Project in Poland began examining an Egyptian mummy with X-ray scans, they expected to be looking at a male priest. Instead, the scans revealed the mummified person was actually a woman about 7 months pregnant, reports the Guardian . It's more than a small...

Egypt Just Moved the Remains of 22 Royal Mummies

They'll go on display at the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

(Newser) - They've been dead for centuries, but on Saturday they were on the move. NPR reports that 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies were paraded from the nearly 120-year-old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The Pharaohs' Golden Parade, as the spectacle was called,...

Pharaoh Who Risked His Life 'to Liberate Egypt' Died Horribly

Study suggests a bound Seqenenre Tao was attacked on all sides

(Newser) - The death of Seqenenre Tao is said to have indirectly led to the reunification of ancient Egypt, which was divided during the pharaoh's lifetime in the 16th century BC. Only now do we know what exactly that death entailed. Researchers studying the mummy of the pharaoh, first discovered in...

What Did the 3K-Year-Old Mummy Say? 'Eeuuughhh'

Sound emerges from reconstructed vocal tract of ancient Egyptian priest Nesyamun

(Newser) - "Every Egyptian hoped that after death their soul would be able to speak," says University of York Egyptologist Joann Fletcher—who just sort of made that happen, at least for one 3,000-year-old Egyptian. But the priest who served under Rameses XI didn't confess of a good...

Egypt Unveils Another Kind of Mummy
From Egypt, Another
Kind of Mummy

From Egypt, Another Kind of Mummy

Exhibition of animal mummies in Saqqara includes crocodiles, birds, and cats

(Newser) - Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities on Saturday revealed details on recently discovered animal mummies, saying they include two lion cubs as well as several crocodiles, birds, and cats, the AP reports. Items from the new find were displayed at a makeshift exhibition at the famed Step Pyramid of Djoser in...

Crusader Knight's Stolen Head Has Been Found

Mummified head was found after Dublin police got a tip

(Newser) - An 800-year-old Crusader knight has been reunited with his head. The mummy was decapitated and the head stolen from the crypt of Dublin's St. Michan's church over the weekend of Feb. 23-24, but Dublin police, acting on a tip, have now recovered the head. The church's archdeacon...

Hidden in Rock Chambers, Egypt's First Big Find of 2019

40 mummies, including 10 that were children, unearthed at Tuna El-Gebel necropolis in Minya

(Newser) - Egypt says it just made what Ahram Online calls its "first antiquities discovery of 2019," and it's a big one: a number of ancient burial chambers containing some 40 mummies at the Tuna El-Gebel necropolis in the desert province of Minya, south of Cairo, the AP reports....

Reaction to Revolting Sarcophagus Liquid? Let Us Drink It

Or so reads a petition with 17K signatures

(Newser) - Where there's a will, there's a way? A 2,000-year-old black sarcophagus was opened last week and revealed the revolting : three skeletons, a vile red liquid, and a terrible smell. Now there's a Change.org petition going from people who are fighting for the right to drink...

FBI Solves the Mystery of an Ancient Severed Head
FBI Solves the Mystery
of an Ancient Severed Head
In Case You Missed It

FBI Solves the Mystery of an Ancient Severed Head

In an Egyptian tomb belonging to Djehutynakht and his wife, there was just one head

(Newser) - It has to rank among the less usual undertakings doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital had attempted: In 2009 they removed a molar from a severed Egyptian mummy's head via an endoscope with grasping forceps they inserted through the neck. The tooth was a hopeful clue in a nearly...

Research on 'Alien' Skeleton Causes Outrage in Chile

Body of stillborn girl was dug up near church

(Newser) - A tiny skeleton long rumored to be some kind of alien-human hybrid is actually the body of a stillborn baby girl , researchers say—and the finding has caused outrage in Chile, where the body was dug up near an abandoned Catholic church in 2003. Chilean scientists say it appears that...

Egyptian Coffin Is 'Dowdy,' but the Inside Is 'Astonishing'

An Egyptian sarcophagus is found to contain mummified remains

(Newser) - An archaeologist a continent away from Egypt made what he calls an "unbelievably astonishing" discovery: a 2,500-year-old coffin that had always been assumed to be empty actually wasn't. Australian scientists led by Dr. Jamie Fraser of the University of Sydney's Nicholson Museum tells the BBC the...

Truth About Mummified 'Alien' Skeleton Revealed

'Ata' was human girl with severe genetic mutations

(Newser) - You can definitely see why the tiny mummified skeleton—found inside a leather pouch behind an abandoned church in Chile's Atacama Desert in 2003—had many claiming an alien had been discovered. The 6-inch skeleton—nearly 2 inches shorter than the shortest baby ever born—had a cone-shaped head,...

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