5,000-year-old tomb with 3 mummies discovered (xinhuanet.com)

"A joint Egyptian-US archaeological team has discovered a 5,000-year-old funerary complex in Upper Egypt, the Egyptian Gazette reported Wednesday. The tomb was found in the Kom al-Ahmer region near Edfu, some 97km south of the famous ancient city Luxor on the west bank of the Nile, Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egyptian Supreme Council ofAntiquities, was quoted as saying...."

400 embalmed fetuses found in garage of funeral home director (reuters.com)

"Officials in Pennsylvania are investigating the discovery of some 400 fetuses found in a garage that once belonged to a funeral home director under contract with a local hospital to cremate them. Most of the fetuses were preserved in embalming fluid inside plastic containers that were labeled, and officials plan to notify the hospital patients involved, once all the remains have been identified, officials said. The fetuses were discovered in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, last Friday by a relative of the garage's former owner. The former owner ran a funeral home, now closed, that contracted with Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh to cremate aborted or miscarried fetuses...."

Second room of royal mummies to open in September at Cairo's Egyptian  Museum (arabicnews.com)

"Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni is to open next month the second hall displaying royal mummies at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square after the Ministry completed a project to develop display room 52 complete with modern technology...."

Egyptian exhibit opens in Newcastle (24hourmuseum.org.uk) 

"Brave explorers and code breakers should head to the Hancock Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne to find out how ancient Egyptians lived and what happened to them after they died. The new exhibition, Egypt Revealed: Life & Death in Ancient Egypt – presented in partnership with the British Museum – contains many fascinating artefacts which shed light on the beliefs of a civilisation. It will run until April 23, 2006. Displays of mummified animals and live scorpions, scarab beetles and snakes show the importance of animals to the Egyptians; who gave them spiritual significance and even shaved off an eyebrow as a mark of respect to a dead pet. The scarab was often used in amulets and scarab shaped stones were placed on the heart at the time of burial to encourage it to be kind in the spirit world...."

More on teenager accused of corpse and cemetery desecration Body belonged to Civil War veteran (boston.com)

"A 19-year-old man from Salisbury was supposed to be cleaning up a cemetery last week as part of court-ordered community work after he broke into an apartment building last fall. Instead, officials said, Neil J. Goodwin Jr. invaded the tomb of a Civil War veteran, pulled apart the 142-year-old skeleton, and then played with the bones, balancing the skull on his shoulder and posing for pictures.... Goodwin pleaded not guilty yesterday in Newburyport District Court to a charge of desecrating a corpse and breaking into a tomb, both felonies. Prosecutors said he was doing community service in the Old Hill Burying Ground on Aug. 17 when he kicked in the thin marble entrance to a tomb marked ''1863 Pierce" and twisted off the spine, collarbone, and skull...."

Photo of teen posing with mummified head, hacked from corpse and stolen from grave, leads to his arrest (townonline.com)

"The photograph is one of the most bizarre the Newburyport police have ever seen: a teenage boy with a decomposed head resting on his shoulder. The photograph is now evidence against Neil Goodwin, 19, of Salisbury, whose twisted rampage Saturday in the Old Hill Burying Ground left the leathery remains of a 142-year-old body strewn about, police say. Goodwin was arrested yesterday for allegedly desecrating a grave and disinterring a body, a charge so unusual Lt. Richard Siemasko said police had to look it up.... Siemasko described the body as having 'a mummified quality,' with one eyeball still visible...."

Possible Sindhu-period mummy found in India (outlookindia.com)

"A mummified body, wearing copper bracelets, some pottery and other artefacts dating back to the Indus Valley civilisation 3,000 years ago, have been found at a village in Baghpat district where the Archaeological Survey of India is conducting an excavation. The body, caked in mud and dirt collected over the centuries, was found at Sinoli village in Baghpat district and 'could belong to the Sindhu period (or the Indus Valley era) about 3,000 years ago', archaeologist Dharamveer Sharma said today...."

Exhumed, well-preserved corpse from 1948 may help investigators solve murder (chicagotribune.com)

"The body of Mary Jane Reed was exhumed Tuesday in the hopes of solving a 57-year-old sordid murder shrouded in rumors of conspiracies and ghosts. A crew pulled Reed's burial vault from Daysville Cemetery near Oregon about 9:10 a.m. and took it to a warehouse behind the Ogle County sheriff's office, where it was opened about 10:40 a.m. A little more than five hours later, after two police chaplains said a few prayers, her body was returned to the family burial plot in a new casket and accompanied by a Bible signed by relatives and a friend she never met.... An encouraging, if macabre, aspect of Tuesday's exhumation was that the body was surprisingly well-preserved. Skin covered almost the entire body, said Warren Reed, who observed the procedure with a son and two daughters...."

More on the facial reconstruction of fourth saltman mummy Danish professor to help recreate face of fourth saltman mummy (iranmania.com)

"Modern equipment such as CT Scan and MRI will be used to recreate the faces of 'saltmen', a name given to well-preserved ancient bodies found in salt mines in Zanjan province, according to CHN. Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) department in Zanjan province has sought the cooperation of a Danish university to recreate the face of Saltman Number Four. The body of the saltman is being kept at Reyhan Museum in Zanjan. Professor Niels Lynnerup, a forensic anthropologist and an expert in mummified bodies from Copenhagen University, will visit Iran in September to take 3D scan of the skull of Saltman #4 and his face will be recreated using advanced equipment...."

More on Tampa's controversial plastination exhibit

Heavy turnout for plastination exhibit during first two days (nytimes.com; free registration required) with photos

"There are skinless cadavers sliced in two, tarred human lungs in glass cases, dehydrated brains you can touch. One corpse is posed as a soccer player, balancing on one foot and exposing the complex connection of bones, tendons and muscles. Shrugging off recommendations from a state medical board and the Florida attorney general, this city's Museum of Science and Industry opened this educational exhibition of human corpses and body parts on Thursday, two days earlier than planned. By the second day, the show, "Bodies: The Exhibition," had drawn about 3,600 visitors...."

Florida anatomical board says no, but museum plans to open plastination exhibit anyway--two days early (sptimes.com)

"Hours after the state Anatomical Board denied approval to a public display of posed cadavers Wednesday, the Museum of Science and Industry announced the exhibit will open at 9 a.m. today [August 18, 2005]. That's two days ahead of schedule.... The Anatomical Board, which has statutory oversight of bodies used for medical research and education, took a stand against "Bodies, the Exhibition" during an emergency meeting Wednesday in Gainesville and called on Attorney General Charlie Crist to get behind the ruling.... But when told of the board's 4-2 vote, Crist said he did not plan to seek an injunction to keep the exhibit from opening. Nor did he expect to take legal action against MOSI or Premier Exhibitions. He said that would be up to the board...."

Florida anatomical board scheduled to vote on Tampa plastination exhibit (sptimes.com)

"A state board of medical professors quickly vetoed a plan to bring an exhibit of skinless, posed cadavers to a Florida museum. But it wasn't "Bodies, the Exhibition," the show scheduled to begin Saturday at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry. The state Anatomical Board, the clearinghouse for all bodies donated for medical research, rejected a similar exhibit in 1998 after members were told an entrepreneur named Gunther von Hagens was eyeing Florida...."

'Bodies, the Exhibition' vs. 'Body Worlds': Are competing exhibits playing dirty? (sptimes.com)

"Months before Premier Exhibitions agreed to bring its exhibition of dramatically dissected bodies to Tampa, it looked to Cleveland.The Great Lakes Science Center seemed a perfect fit. In 2002, the center on the shores of Lake Erie had hosted Premier's blockbuster exhibition of Titanic artifacts, which attracted 350,000 visitors. But the science center took a pass. Instead, it signed up with 'Body Worlds,' the touring exhibition owned by German businessman Gunther von Hagens that began the international craze for peering at posed cadavers. Premier did not retreat without a fight. In a lawsuit originally filed in state court in Cleveland, Premier officials say they were elbowed aside by Plastination Inc., the parent company of 'Body Worlds,' alleging Plastination spread false rumors about the source of the bodies Premier displays...."

Florida attorney general wants proof that plastinated cadavers' families signed consent forms--or exhibit will not open (miami.com)

"A decision by Florida's attorney general Friday could scuttle plans for a controversial museum exhibit featuring human bodies preserved and posed to reveal their inner workings. The board that oversees the use of human specimens at Florida's medical schools wants proof that the deceased or their families authorized the use of the bodies. The Tampa Museum of Science and Industry argues that the Anatomical Board doesn't have jurisdiction...."

Museum may not receive permission to open exhibit--without consent forms (sptimes.com)

"The Anatomical Board of Florida said Thursday that Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry didn't get permission to exhibit fully preserved human bodies - and won't get permission without signed consent forms for individuals on display. That's an impossible task, since MOSI officials have said the cadavers of "Bodies, The Exhibition" belonged to people from China who died unidentified and unclaimed by family members. Their remains went to China's Dalian Medical University of Plastination Laboratories, which charges a fee to use the bodies for education...."

The ugly side of Tampa's forthcoming plastination exhibit (sptimes.com)

"...when they were alive, the people whose preserved bodies soon will be on exhibit at Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry never gave their permission to be part of such an the unusual public display. The bodies belonged to people from China who died unidentified or unclaimed by family members, said Dr. Roy Glover, a retired University of Michigan anatomy and cell biology professor and spokesman for 'Bodies, the Exhibition,' which opens next month.... As a result, their remains went to the Dalian Medical University of Plastination Laboratories in the People's Republic of China.... The university in turn charges a fee to use the bodies for educational purposes. 'These particular individuals are helping us to understand our bodies,' said Glover. 'I think they would be pleased.' Some experts in medical ethics aren't...."

Plastinated mummy exhibit begins in Tampa next month (sptimes.com)

"A science exhibit featuring preserved human bodies, similar to shows that have been drawing large, curious crowds around the world, is coming to Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry. At a news conference Wednesday, MOSI officials will unveil a full human body, preserved by a special process known as plastination, as a prelude to their new presentation, called "BODIES, The Exhibition." ...MOSI announced the national premiere of "BODIES" will open Aug. 20 and run through Feb. 26.... " 

A monograph about plastination at Amazon.com:

Plastination: A Tool for Teaching and Research

Update on CT-scan of child mummy in San Jose 

New image of CT-scan published (sciencedaily.com) with photo

"Frame by frame, layer by layer, the images of a mummified Egyptian child who died two millenia ago spring to life on a 25-foot computer screen, revealing every remarkable detail of the skeletal remains, down to the last vertebrae. The three-dimensional images, the result of high-resolution scans done at Stanford, reveal a girl of 4 to 5 years old with short, resin-coated black curls, a receding chin and an angular face reminiscent of her famous counterpart, King Tut.... The girl, who has been dubbed, Sherit, ancient Egyptian for “little one,” has been a resident of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose for the last 75 years—her story a complete mystery until now, said museum curator Lisa Schwappach-Shirriff.... "

Another new photo (nationalgeographic.com)

CT-scan of child mummy reveals details of mummification (mercurynews.com)

"The youngest, smallest and most mysterious of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum's mummies has been opened wide to public scrutiny.... In a spectacular display of how futuristic technology can illuminate the past, the museum sent the little mummy to Stanford Medical Center three months ago to be minutely scanned. The results were on display Wednesday at Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, and they were spectacular: brilliantly detailed inner and outer views of a healthy child dead some 2,000 years, using technology that will enable physicians to perform virtual surgeries -- non-invasive practice sessions -- on modern humans in the near future...."

Additional story (with photo)

Additional story (with photo)

No mummy or sarcophagus in Missoula: want ad hoax unravels (missoulian.com)

"As difficult as it may be to believe, there were no ancient Egyptian artifacts - neither a sarcophagus nor a mummy - found in Missoula's South Hills. In fact, the man who claimed to have found the artifacts in a Missoulian classified ad that ran Monday and Tuesday said he didn't even know how to spell sarcophagus when he decided to pull off the hoax. The ad read, "Found: Ancient Egyptian Sarcophagus w/mummy & other important artifacts. S. Hills area," followed by a Los Angeles-area telephone number...."

More on well-preserved Civil War teenager buried in iron casket Scientists answer some questions about Civil War teen's death (fortwayne.com)

"The mysterious boy on the Smithsonian laboratory table had probably died of pneumonia about 1850 – too sick to eat, and delirious from fever. His body had been dressed in a pleated shirt, finely tailored waistcoat and white sateen trousers and buried in an elegant iron coffin along Columbia Road NW in the District of Columbia. His remains were amazingly well preserved: He was 5 feet tall, dark haired and looked about 13. Beyond that, almost nothing was known. Who was he? Where had he lived? Why was he buried near a college in what was then the farm country well outside town?..."

Well-preserved teenager from Civil War era discovered in iron casket (kansascity.com) 

"The rusty iron coffin stubbornly resisted hammer and chisel as researchers in a warm Smithsonian laboratory sought a glimpse of an American who lived more than a century and a half ago. An electric drill, its orange cord snaking around the pre-Civil War artifact, finally freed the lid.,,, The scientists hope to identify the remains so they can have a properly marked grave. In the process, they have a chance to learn about mortuary practices of the period, what disease and trauma people may have suffered, their diet, past environments, clothing and perhaps even social customs. Based on the small size, they had expected the coffin to contain a female body. On examination, it turned out to be a boy, about age 13...." 

Photo (msnbc.com)

4 Photos (npr.org; click on gallery)

Mummy smugglers given life sentences (bbc.co.uk)

"Three men have been jailed for life over a scam to smuggle artefacts worth more than $50m out of Egypt. Those found guilty included the former head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Abdul Karim Abu Shanab. He was accused of giving smugglers certificates showing genuine artefacts were imitations, so they could be carried through customs.... Four other defendants received sentences ranging from fines to 15 years in prison. They included a Swiss citizen and a German of Egyptian origin.... Officials estimated the smuggling gang exported some 57,000 pieces worth about $55m (£30m), including human and animal mummies, coins, statues and wooden sarcophagi...."

Move over, Ötzi! Possible prehistoric ice-hare discovered in same vicinity as Iceman (ansa.it) 

"The chief scientist studying Oetzi, the 5,000-year-old 'Iceman' discovered in a glacier in 1991, is now to turn his attention to an 'Ice Hare' . The mummified remains of what is thought to be a prehistoric white hare were discovered recently by a mountain walker on the Gran Pilastro glacier in the Val di Vizze near the Italian-Austrian border. The 35-cm animal, whose precise age will be established with carbon dating techniques, was found in the same area of the Tyrolean Alps where the famous Iceman turned up 14 years earlier, sending scientists wild with excitement...." 

Real purpose of traveling King Tut exhibit: Raising money for new Giza museum (indystar.com)

"...Miles to the west of Cairo, near the Giza pyramids, a team of 25 architects and 350 construction workers are building a huge antiquities museum. Egypt has launched a global campaign to raise the project's estimated $550 million budget. The first money-making effort is 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs,' now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (The exhibit will later be on view in Fort Lauderdale, Chicago and Philadelphia.) For the Egyptian government, it's well worthwhile. The Grand Museum of Egypt is expected to open its doors to visitors on the Giza plains by 2009, exhibiting at least 100,000 artifacts from the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods. The government is gambling that the museum will lure an additional 3 million tourists to Egypt every year. That would give a badly needed boost to the country's $6 billion annual tourism industry, whose short-term future has been thrown into doubt by recent bombings in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik...."

Von Hagens to return to Edinburgh with body in tow (independent.co.uk)

"The controversial anatomist Professor Gunther von Hagens is to display one of his preserved corpses in Edinburgh during this month's festival - two years after his macabre exhibits were barred by the city. The German doctor achieved notoriety for displaying dozens of real human bodies, with skin peeled back to expose muscle and bone tissue and arranged in bizarre poses, at his "Body Worlds" exhibition. He also performed the UK's first public autopsy for 170 years, which was televised by Channel 4 in 2002. Now Professor Von Hagens is to bring one of the bodies to the Edinburgh International Television Festival, where he is to speak in a debate about the portrayal of death and terminal illness on TV...."

Mummy exhibit from British Museum will travel to Houston, then Mobile (al.com)

"Mobile will not have to wait long for another blockbuster show of ancient artifacts. The Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, building on the success of 'The Dead Sea Scrolls,' will add a new chapter to the city's growing reputation as a showplace for high-profile exhibitions when it opens "Mummy: the inside story" on March 9, 2006.... "

The book about the exhibit; click to read the Mummy Tombs review.

More on the burial of fake ancient mummy 'No one interested' in fake mummy anymore, so it's time to bury it (bbc.co.uk) with photo

"A 'mummy' that duped archaeologists and nearly sparked a diplomatic row between Pakistan and Iran is finally being laid to rest. Discovered in a wooden sarcophagus in October 2000, the mummy was thought to be Persian and date to about 600BC. Iran laid claim to the sarcophagus and Pakistani provinces squabbled over it until tests showed the 'mummy' was a fake only a few decades old. A charity has now agreed to perform the last rites and bury the body...."

Plastination exhibits at center of scandals (salon.com; free site pass required) with photo

" 'The Universe Within,' now at San Francisco's Nob Hill Masonic Center, is a traveling road show of 21 provocatively posed human bodies and a menagerie of organs, all embalmed by a process called 'plastination,' in which body fluids are replaced with liquid plastic. It hails from China and joins two other wildly successful touring exhibits: 'Body Worlds' and 'Body Worlds 2' (currently in Chicago and Cleveland, respectively). Those exhibits are promoted by plastination's inventor, Gunther von Hagens, and have grossed nearly $1 billion worldwide. They've also incited almost perpetual controversy, due in part to von Hagens' Barnum-esque eccentricities. (Most notoriously, after bullet holes were found in two of his specimens' heads, he was accused of, but never charged with, using the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. Then in March, when the Body Worlds 2 exhibit was in Los Angeles, someone walked off with a 13-week-old plastinated fetus.) Last week, San Francisco's ABC affiliate reported that the bodies were leaking a viscous combination of silicone and liquid human fat (signs of a 'rush job,' according to anonymous plastination experts cited by the news station). Moreover, the station reported, the corpses were not the property of the Medical University of Beijing, as initially claimed by one of the exhibit's promoters. So whose bodies are they?..."

More on Tampa's scheduled plastination exhibit Museum may not receive permission to open exhibit--without consent forms (sptimes.com)

"The Anatomical Board of Florida said Thursday that Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry didn't get permission to exhibit fully preserved human bodies - and won't get permission without signed consent forms for individuals on display. That's an impossible task, since MOSI officials have said the cadavers of "Bodies, The Exhibition" belonged to people from China who died unidentified and unclaimed by family members. Their remains went to China's Dalian Medical University of Plastination Laboratories, which charges a fee to use the bodies for education...."

Well-preserved teenager from Civil War era discovered in iron casket (kansascity.com) 

"The rusty iron coffin stubbornly resisted hammer and chisel as researchers in a warm Smithsonian laboratory sought a glimpse of an American who lived more than a century and a half ago. An electric drill, its orange cord snaking around the pre-Civil War artifact, finally freed the lid.,,, The scientists hope to identify the remains so they can have a properly marked grave. In the process, they have a chance to learn about mortuary practices of the period, what disease and trauma people may have suffered, their diet, past environments, clothing and perhaps even social customs. Based on the small size, they had expected the coffin to contain a female body. On examination, it turned out to be a boy, about age 13...." 

Photo (msnbc.com)

4 Photos (npr.org; click on gallery)

New image of CT-scan published (sciencedaily.com) with photo

"Frame by frame, layer by layer, the images of a mummified Egyptian child who died two millenia ago spring to life on a 25-foot computer screen, revealing every remarkable detail of the skeletal remains, down to the last vertebrae. The three-dimensional images, the result of high-resolution scans done at Stanford, reveal a girl of 4 to 5 years old with short, resin-coated black curls, a receding chin and an angular face reminiscent of her famous counterpart, King Tut.... The girl, who has been dubbed, Sherit, ancient Egyptian for “little one,” has been a resident of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose for the last 75 years—her story a complete mystery until now, said museum curator Lisa Schwappach-Shirriff.... "

CT-scan of child mummy reveals details of mummification (mercurynews.com)

"The youngest, smallest and most mysterious of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum's mummies has been opened wide to public scrutiny.... In a spectacular display of how futuristic technology can illuminate the past, the museum sent the little mummy to Stanford Medical Center three months ago to be minutely scanned. The results were on display Wednesday at Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, and they were spectacular: brilliantly detailed inner and outer views of a healthy child dead some 2,000 years, using technology that will enable physicians to perform virtual surgeries -- non-invasive practice sessions -- on modern humans in the near future...."

Additional story (with photo)

Additional story (with photo)

Facial reconstruction to be done on fourth salt man mummy (heritage.chn.ir) with photo

"The face of the fourth salt man discovered in the central province of Zanjan, who is the most intact and complete one of all, is to be reconstructed by means of developed 3D devices and cooperation of a scholar from Copenhagen University. Although called salt man, the sexuality of the discovered body is not yet distinguished. However, experts believe that its physical features are more sign of its being a woman rather than a man...." 

Fourth salt man is young adult

"The fourth salt man found at a ancient salt mine in Chehr-abad, Zanjan last year, has been identified as a young adult. According to the latest researches, the man’s face lacks any beard and his height is 165-70 cm. This last found salt man is the most intact of all four found so far...."

Fake ancient mummy finally buried in Pakistan (dailytimes.com.pk)

"Five years after its ‘discovery,’ the preservers of a mummy have finally decided to give it what it really deserves – a 6x3 ft grave! It was a fine cloudy day in September 2000 when the city’s newspapers had splashed headlines about the recovery of a ‘mummy’ from a gang in Quetta. The police later brought it to Karachi. Initially, it was assumed to be the mummy of a princess of the Sasani dynasty of Iran that was smuggled into Pakistan by history thieves. And that spawned many controversies...."