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POSSIBILITY?
LEBANON
|
- Miracle
mummy of 19th century Zghortan patriot? Lebanese artist spreads the
word (dailystar.com.lb)
"A few years ago, while he was
changing the gauze that covers Youssef Bey Karam’s mummy in Saint
George Church in Ehden, Breich took a cotton swab from the mummy’s
mouth where he had seen blood. 'Can you believe it? Blood! After 103
years! Isn’t it a miracle?' he said in astonishment...."
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DISCOVERY:
CHINA
|
- Mummy
found in ancient Chinese tomb
(news.xinhuanet.com)
"A farmer in Turpan in the Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, recently found a
well-preserved ancient tomb on his farm. Inside was a mummified man
dressed in cotton-padded clothes, a cap on his head and face covered by
a document paper...."
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DISCOVERY:
PERU
|
- Two
well-preserved Peruvian mummies placed on display
(reuters.co.uk)
"Officials from the National
Institute of Culture said the two mummies -- a young boy and a man in
his mid-30s -- were at least 700 years old. They came from a culture
that predated the Incas, who dominated a vast swathe of South America
from Colombia to Chile until being toppled by Spanish conquerors in the
1530s...so well-preserved that one had an eye and internal organs intact...."
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| BURIAL:
PHILIPPINES |
- More on Kabayan mummies: Stolen
Kabayan mummies buried in
Philippines cave (abs-cbnnews.com)
"The Timbac Cave where the eight
mummies were buried has been designated a burial ground for recovered
mummies. The mummies were said to have been lost at the peak of the
notorious looting of heritage artifacts, including the Kabayan mummies,
in the ’60s and ’70s."
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| CRIME?
ITALY |
- A
675-old murder mystery: Mummified remains of Cangrande della
Scala, Veronese nobleman, exhumed in Italy
(washingtonpost.com; requires free registration) with one photo
"Was it possible that, as records
say, a few drinks of foul water ended his life? Or was he poisoned, as
the rumor went? It was high time to solve the mystery. The man has been
dead for 675 years.
..His heirs took extraordinary steps to glorify his memory. They
mummified him, a procedure usually reserved for saints and the
occasional pope."
LINKS TO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
(same
story at MSNBC.com, without photo; no registration required)
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POSSIBILITY:
OUTER SPACE
|
- Mummies
in outer space? A question with honest answer
(readthehook.com; third question
on page)
"Q: Space Agency officials don't
like to talk about it, but what might become of astronauts lost in outer
space? A. Dead bodies in a sealed spacecraft with atmospheric pressure
like Earth's would likely start decomposing fast, says Dr. Kenneth V.
Iserson in Death to Dust. No craft is totally airtight however, so
leakage would occur, and the bodies would eventually be exposed to the
vacuum of outer space. Rapid exposure would cause a body to
disintegrate, possibly even explode, but slow exposure would put it into
a deep freeze, halting decomposition. Without insects and small animals
to disturb it, the corpse would remain intact, drying out over time to
become a freeze-dried mummy adrift in the heavens."
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| BURIAL:
PHILIPPINES |
- Stolen
Kabayan mummies returned to
Philippines for cave burial (ananova.com)
"The group of Filipino mummies, made
by members of the Ibaloi tribe between 1200 and 1500AD, were originally
found in caves in an area around Kabayan, a town north of Manila."
(with photos)
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POSSIBILITY:
CHINA
|
- Will
Mao's mummified body be moved? (asianews.it)
"Mao Zedong’s embalmed corpse
might be sent back to the deceased dictator’s place of birth, thus freeing
Tiananmen Square from his body where it now rests.... Mao wished to be
cremated and upon the night of his death the communist party had to
decide quickly what to do. Inspired by the success found in Russia and
Vietnam (with Lenin and Ho Chi Minh's preserved bodies), the party
decided to embalm Mao’s corpse with formaldehyde. Immediately
afterward a mausoleum was built in the deceased dictator’s honor
–similar to that of Lenin and Ho Chi Minh –on the central-west
side of Tiananmen Square."
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EXHIBIT:
KENTUCKY
|
- An
honest 2000-year-old ibis, killed for a pilgrim, on display in
Louisville (louisvillescene.com)
"The mummified ibis with jar is
located among antiquities on the second floor of the Speed Art Museum...
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| CRIME:
NEW YORK |
- Accidentally
mummified woman reveals secrets of her murder
(timesunion.com)
"Detectives said they were able to
quickly identify the remarkably preserved corpse over the weekend
because of a bracelet on her right hand that was inscribed with her
maiden name.... She also wore a wedding band and in her pockets was
about $200 in currency issued in the 1940s. The tiny vertebrae in her
neck were crushed, which led a coroner to determine she had been
strangled 58 years ago."
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| CRIME:
EGYPT |
- Stolen
scorpion and snake mummies rescued from Egyptian smugglers
(iol.co.za)
"Egyptian authorities on Monday
captured a smuggling ring that unearthed and illegally sold ancient
artifacts, police authorities said.... The artifacts included a statue
of the falcon-headed god Horus, kitchen tools, royal Pharaonic seals and
jars containing mummified scorpions and snakes."
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|
MUMMY
MASTER? VON
HAGENS
|
- More on Von Hagens: Profile
of controversial
mummymaker (straitstimes.asia1.com)
"He
traces his interest in medical science to a severe head injury incurred
when an iron door fell on him when he was six. 'I
was bleeding very badly and nearly died,' he recalls of the incident
which led to a six-month stay in hospital.'"
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| CRIME?
VON HAGENS |
- More on Von Hagens: Controversial
mummymaker didn't deliberately buy executed Chinese criminals for
plastination (channelnewsasia.com)
Von Hagens "...has denied knowingly
using Chinese execution victims in his exhibits of dead bodies....,
[but] he cannot rule out receiving executed prisoners among the corpses
he purchased in China."
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|
POSSIBILITY:
VON HAGENS
|
- More on Von Hagens: Controversial
mummymaker wants to turn world's tallest man into mummy after his
death, offers money (pravda.ru)
"The Institute of Heidelberg is
ready to make lump-sum payment after conclusion of an agreement with
former basketball player Alexander Sizonenko and to provide a lifelong
pension if the man agrees to let the Institute have his body after
death."
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| CRIME?
VON HAGENS |
- Von
Hagens' plastinated mummy factory in China causes controversy,
outrage (seattlepi.nwsource.com)
"The
anatomist, whose exhibits of preserved human corpses have riled
religious leaders in Europe and attracted the curious and the outraged
across the world, set up shop here three years ago to process bodies for
his shows. Last month, media
reports from von Hagens' native Germany asserted that at least two of
the corpses, both Chinese, had bullet holes in their skulls - the method
China uses for execution. It's a charge that von Hagens rejects
vehemently, saying all his specimens were donated by people who signed
releases." one photo
|
|
EXHIBIT:
RUSSIA
|
- Keeping
Lenin's mummy intact: A bath every 18 months
(khaleejtimes.com)
"'Examination
of the body shows it is in an extremely good state of preservation with
no signs that it will deteriorate,' said Valery Bykov, whose team of 15
scientists tends the macabre exhibit. This week marked the 80th
anniversary of Lenin's death on January 21, 1924."
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| BURIAL:
TEXAS |
- 'Dead
Bob,' partially mummified French sailor, to be buried in Texas, 300
years later (lat.com; requires free
registration)
"Officials are planning to bury the
remains of the 17th century French sailor at the Texas State Cemetery in
Austin...His remains, largely skeletal and well-preserved, have been
studied exhaustively by historians and archeologists — poked and
prodded and scraped for DNA. He appears to have had a hard life."
LINKS TO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
"tendon
tissue remained on various bones and, most significantly, a large
portion of the brain was preserved in the cranium" with photos
"This
facial reconstruction shows him more as he might have looked on leaving
France in 1685 and is a face that his mother and close acquaintances
would probably recognize..." with photos
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| MEDICAL:
SOUTH AMERICA |
- Then
and now: Deadly blood disease found in recent studies of
9000-year-old South American mummies (abc.com)
"Chagas disease, a deadly parasitic
blood illness that recently has drawn attention in this country, has
infected some South and Central Americans for at least 9,000 years,
researchers said Monday....[there is mummy] evidence that the disease
infected residents of the coastal Andes mountains as long as 9,000 years
ago."
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