|
BURIAL:
PHILIPPINES
|
Two
Kabayan mummies returned to Timbac Cave
(sunstar.com.ph)
"The
two mummies, a man and a woman, stayed at the Provincial Museum for two
years after they were returned to the provincial government unit by a man
whom Molintas described to be an antique collector from Baguio."
|
|
EXHIBIT:
VIRGINIA
|
Iceman
sculpture displayed at Richmond museum
(timesdispatch.com)
"Smith,
the subject of a retrospective exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern
Art, was inspired to create "Ice Man" by the 1991 discovery of a
5,300-year-old male body in a glacier by two German tourists who had
strayed from their path during a hiking trip in the Italian Alps."
|
|
MUMMY
DUMMY: PERFORMERS
|
Body
wanted for London stage performance (reuters.com)
"Two British performance artists
are searching for a corpse for their newest production -- and have put the
word out at the country's hospices in hope of a volunteer."
|
|
DISCOVERY:
VIETNAM
|
More on Praying Monk: Mummy
of praying monk to be restored (iol.com)
"The corpse of a Buddhist monk
sitting in a lotus position, which had been uncovered in a Pagoda in
northern Vietnam over 280 years after he died, is to be restored a museum
official said on Tuesday."
|
|
DISCOVERY:
VIETNAM
|
Mummified
body of praying monk discovered in Vietnamese pagoda
(khaleejtimes.com)
"The body of the monk, Nhu Tri, who
died in 1723 in a tower at the Tieu Pagoda in Bac Ninh province, was
covered in a layer of special preservative paint."
|
|
UNUSUAL:
COLORADO
|
Coffin
races celebrate freeze-dried grandfather in 'Frozen Dead Guy' Days'
(rockymountainnews.com)
"Now in its third year, the
festival pokes fun at one of the town's quirkiest facts: There's a dead
grandfather being preserved on dry ice in a shed at the behest of his
grandson...."
|
|
CHARGES DROPPED: VON
HAGENS
|
More on Von Hagens: Charges
dropped by Heidelberg prosecutor (faz.com)
"German anatomist Gunther von Hagens,
who has stirred up controversy for eight years with his display of
plastinated bodies, will not be charged with violating laws covering
respect of the dead, prosecutors announced this week.... The
exhibition of roughly 25 plastinated dead bodies and 200 body parts is
on display through April 18 in the Naxos-Halle in the Fechenheim section
of Frankfurt. He told the news agency dpa on Wednesday hat he was
considering taking the exhibition to the United States after the display
leaves Frankfurt."
|
|
DISCOVERY:
PERU
|
- More on the Peruvian mummy bundles:
Even
more mummy bundles
found in path of new highway (nationalgeographic.com)
"Three days after their excavations
began on March 3, the team found the cemetery. The bundles—cocoons of
one or more adult and child mummies wrapped together in layers of
textiles—date back more than 500 years to the Inca Empire." with photo
|
|
CRIME: PENNSYLVANIA
|
Mummified
body of murdered woman discovered in alleged Pittsburgh crack house
(post-gazette.com)
"Authorities
yesterday used dental records to identify mummified remains hidden under
bags of clothing in a basement on Spring Garden Avenue as Melissa
Snodgrass. The Allegheny County coroner's office said Snodgrass, who was
21 when she vanished, died from head injuries."
|
|
CRIME: COLORADO
|
Photo
of accidentally mummified body found in landfill used as evidence in
murder trial (denverpost.com)
"About
seven months after she disappeared, Jennifer Blagg's body was found in
the Mesa County landfill by investigators in what Daniels called "a
vein of trash" from Michael Blagg's workplace. Daniels showed
jurors a slide of her mummified, flattened body Wednesday, a grisly
image that had Blagg and some of Jennifer's family members lowering
their heads and closing their eyes."
|
|
MUMMY
DUMMY: UNACKNOWLEDGED CADAVER RESEARCH
|
Surplus
cadavers from medical school sold to U.S. Army for explosive testing
(msnbc.com)
"The
anatomical services company sold seven cadavers to the Army for between
$25,000 and $30,000, said Chuck Dasey, a spokesman for the Army’s
Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Md. The bodies
were blown up in tests on protective footwear against land mines at Fort
Sam Houston in San Antonio...Michael
Meyer, a philosophy professor at Santa Clara University in California
who has written about the ethics of donated bodies, said the
military’s use is questionable because it knows donors did not expect
to end up in land mine tests."
|
|
EXHIBIT:
EGYPT
|
Rameses
I given final resting place in Luxor Museum
(uk.sis.gov.eg)
"The
south Egyptian city of Luxor will Tuesday receive the mummies of King
Ahmose, who defeated the Hyksos, and King Ramses I. The
mummies will arrive from Cairo with Secretary-General of the Supreme
Council of Antiquities (SCA), Dr. Zahi Hawas to put them on display
inside the Luxor Museum annex, which is being prepared to be the first
museum to tell the military history and glory of Thebes, the ancient
name of Luxor."
|
|
CRIME: BODY PARTS
|
More on UCLA body part
investigation: Big
bucks reportedly made for selling UCLA cadavers
(cnn.com)
"The man
who allegedly illegally sold body parts from cadavers donated to UCLA
apparently netted hundreds of thousands of dollars for his work,
according to documents provided to CNN."
|
|
CLEARED OF CRIME: VON
HAGENS
|
Von
Hagens cleared of obtaining corpses illegally
(bbc.com)
"A
German scientist who created an exhibition of human corpses has been
cleared of allegations that he illegally obtained some of the bodies.
Gunther von Hagens was accused in several press reports last year of
using bodies from China and Kyrgyzstan. But prosecutors in Heidelberg,
Germany, said the corpses had been sold legally by institutions such as
hospitals."
|
|
EXHIBIT:
GOOSE MUMMY
|
Making
a Victual Mummy: Cooking a Goose for the Egyptian Afterlife (newsday.com)
"The [goose] mummy, found in the
tomb of the fan bearer Maherpri in Thebes, is in the Cairo Museum....
[Chef] El Sayed wanted to do more than simply give money to help
preserve the mummified goose. He wanted to prepare a goose that might
have been eaten by Maherpri in life." includes recipe
|
|
CRIME?
BODY PARTS
|
- More on UCLA body part
investigation: Second
arrest made in sale of cadaver body parts
(latimes.com;
requires free registration)
"An alleged middleman in the sale of
body parts from corpses donated to UCLA medical school said Sunday night
that he cut up about 800 cadavers with the full knowledge of UCLA
officials and then sold them to "giant" medical research
companies over a six-year period.... [the] sale of body parts was simply
aimed at enriching science."
|
|
DISCOVERY:
PERU
|
- More on the Peruvian mummy bundles:
Mummy bundles
found by edge of road (abc.net.au)
"The mummies were once farmers and
craftsmen and lived under the dominion of the Lati and Ishma Inca
leaders, who ruled over the Rimac River valley, home to modern-day Lima,
Cock said." with photo
|
|
POSSIBILITY?
SCOTLAND
|
- Not quite a mummy, but a story too
good to miss: Toe
bone, possibly from Robert the Bruce, to be exhibited in Scotland
(scotsman.com)
"He stole into
the abbey in the dead of night, intent on stealing a personal memento of
Scotland’s greatest king. Not a thief nor a grave robber but a
respected town dignitary and 'man of science', Joseph Paton found
himself irresistibly drawn to the body of this icon of Scotland’s
14th-century fight for independence. Reaching forward, he snapped off a
toe from the remains of Robert the Bruce and held aloft the trophy
before wrapping it in a fragment of the king’s golden shroud. In
satisfying his urge to steal the Royal digit, Paton was risking his
reputation by defiling the Bruce’s skeleton, which had been uncovered
by workmen in 1818 where it lay inside Dunfermline Abbey."
|
| CRIME?
BODY PARTS |
- More on UCLA body part
investigation: Head
of cadaver program arrested (latimes.com;
requires free registration)
"The university's willed body
program, the oldest in the country, receives about 175 donated bodies
every year and has a waiting list of more than 11,000 people who have
agreed to donate their bodies for use by researchers and medical
students. The school has put a guard on the seventh floor of UCLA
Medical Center, where cadavers — worth thousands of dollars to
biomedical firms — are stored in a large freezer."
|
| CRIME?
BODY PARTS |
- Two
UCLA employees investigated for selling preserved body parts from
medical cadavers (latimes.com;
requires free registration)
"People familiar with the case said
it probably involved dozens of cadavers donated to the school's willed
body program over a period of five years. If so, it would dwarf previous
scandals involving the sale of cadaver parts at other medical centers
around the country."
|
| DISCOVERY:
PERU
|
- 26
mummy bundles discovered by highway builders outside Lima (reuters.com)
"Archeologists uncovered 26 burial
bundles, each containing one or more adult and child mummies dating from
1472 to 1532..archeologists did not know the exact number of mummies at
the site because they had not opened any of the bundles, which are still
half-buried." with photos
|
| DISCOVERY:
INDIA
|
- 500-year-old
mummy of Tibetan Buddhist monk found in India (news.com.au)
"A mummy of a Tibetan Buddhist monk,
believed to be about 500 years old, has been found in India's northern
Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, the Hindustan Times.com website
reported...the mummy is remarkably well preserved for its age. Its skin
is unbroken and there is hair on the head."
|
MUMMY
MAGAZINE
|
- Archaeology: Pets
of the Pharaohs (archaeology.org)
" 'This morning I was cleaning one of
these 18-foot-long mummified crocodiles," she says, "and
suddenly discovered that there was a baby crocodile in its mouth. It was
amazing! I was going behind its jaws, and I thought it was just some
funny part of the nose that's broken off, and it turned out to be a wee
crocodile. It's great!' " Online article is severely condensed;
newsstand issue has many photographs and more compelling article.
|
| MUMMY
MAGAZINE |
- National Geographic: Rameses
I's Return to Egypt Spotlights Smuggling
(nationalgeographic.com)
"The mummy's return to Egypt was
facilitated by the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia. While the museum had obtained legal rights to own and
display the mummy, museum officials decided that the pharaoh's proper
place was in Egypt.... The repatriation served to highlight Egypt's
ongoing struggle to restore lost cultural heritage and stem the black
market trade in antiquities."
|
| CRIME?
VON HAGENS |
- More on von Hagens: The
professor must pay almost $180,000 in fines for misuse of title
(bbc.com)
"...fined 144,000 euros (£96,000)
for using the title Professor...Dr Gunther von Hagens was found guilty
of "abuse of an academic title" by prosecutors in Heidelberg,
Germany. His title was awarded by a Chinese university - but the
University of Heidelberg complained that he gave the impression he got
it in Germany."
|
| CRIME?
VON HAGENS |
- Is
the professor of plastination a professor at all? German court rules
against von Hagens (canada.com)
"The complaint about von Hagens'
title was filed last year by Heidelberg University, where he worked
between 1974 and 1996. The university, which argues that he wrongfully
gave the impression that he had a German professor's title, refused to
comment on Tuesday's ruling."
|
|
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...."
|
|
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...."
|
|
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...."
|
| 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."
|
| 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)
|
|
POSSIBILITY:
OUTER SPACE
|
- Mummies
in outer space? A question with honest answer
(readthehook.com; third question
on page)
"
|
| 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)
|
|
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."
|
|
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...
|
| 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."
|
| 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."
|
|
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.'"
|
| 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."
|
|
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."
|
| 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."
|
| 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
|
| 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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