Rexburg man pleads guilty to involuntary manslaughter; kept mummified bodies of his wife and daughter in his home for years (ktvb.com)

"An eastern Idaho man who kept the decomposing bodies of his wife and daughter in his mobile home for years has pleaded guilty to two counts of involuntary manslaughter. 68-year-old Kenichi David Kaneko entered an Alford plea yesterday in Seventh District Court. He faces up to ten years in prison and a $10,000 fine on each count.... Officials say the women died sometime between 2001 and June 19, 2004, when deputies conducting a welfare check found the bodies. According to court records, the women died after following a plan they believed was a divine revelation that restricted their diet and required complete isolation. Autopsy reports show they died from a combination of starvation and sickness. They were found side by side on a bed surrounded by hundreds of air fresheners and fans in Kaneko's mobile home...."

Mummified woman kept in Okazaki apartment for four months (upi.com)

"A family in Okazaki, Japan, lived with the mummified body of a woman for about four months, it was reported Friday.  The body of Megumi Omae, 42, body was found when a man visited a 36-year-old work colleague at the apartment building, Mainichi Shimbun reported. Police were called and immediately launched an investigation into the cause of the woman's death and why her family just left her there to mummify. The body was on a futon in the apartment, in plain sight, authorities said. The woman reportedly moved in with her son and her mother after suffering a broken leg in January...."

The mummies of Ferentillo (about.com)

"The tiny town of Ferentillo in southern Umbria holds an interesting surprise below the Church of Santo Stefano. Bodies buried there were preserved by a rare microfungus that attacked the corpses and turned them into mummies. Some of the best preserved mummies are on display in what is now the mummy museum in the bottom part of the church. The Church of Santo Stefano is a 15th century church built above what was originally a 12th century church. The lower church was used as a burial ground from about 1500 to 1871, when the mummies were discovered. Some of the bodies still have hair, beards, or teeth intact and a few even have clothes. In the display cases are several of the more interesting people. There's a lawyer who was murdered and in another case, his murderer. A mother and her baby lie next to each other. Mummies include several elderly people, a couple of children, and priests. The most unusual people to be found in this area are Chinese pilgrims who died on the pilgrimage route. Also on display are two birds that were mummified. They were used as an experiment by a doctor to find out more about the preservation process. A year after they were buried, they were dug up and had become preserved. There are partial frescoes from the original church still visible, too...."

The story of Hatshepsut, first and most powerful female pharaoh of Egypt (thisislondon.co.uk) with many excellent photos

"The mummified remains of Egypt's first and most powerful female pharaoh have been identified by archaeologists. They said the discovery was the most important since Howard Carter unearthed Tutankhamun's grave nearly a century ago. The much more modest resting place of Hatshepsut was also dug up by Carter - but no one suspected her mummy was one of a pair found inside. The breakthrough came when a tooth known to belong to the queen but found elsewhere was matched to the much larger of the two bodies. Other evidence confirmed the mummy as that of the ruthless ruler who was famously "both king and queen". Detailed examination showed she was obese with rotten teeth and pendulous breasts. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said: "This is the most important discovery in the Valley of the Kings since the discovery of King Tutankhamun and one of the greatest adventures of my life...." Born into the most advanced civilisation in the ancient world, Hatshepsut commandeered the throne of Egypt from her young stepson, Thutmosis III, and, in an unprecedented move, declared herself pharaoh. To cement her position as the first female ruler, she donned the traditional clothes, head-dress and even the false beard traditionally worn by the male ruler of Egypt...."

Mummy of Queen Hatshepsut identified a century after its discovery (msnbc.msn.com)

"Egyptian authorities said Wednesday that a mummy found a century ago has been identified as the remains of pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled over Egypt during the 15^th century B.C. Hatshepsut was known for dressing like a man and wearing a false beard. But when her rule ended, all traces of her mysteriously disappeared, including her mummy. Discovered in 1903 in the Valley of the Kings, the mummy was left on site until two months ago when it was brought to the Cairo Museum for testing, Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said. DNA bone samples taken from the mummy’s pelvic bone and femur are being compared to the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut’s grandmother, Amos Nefreteri, said Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad, who was part of Hawass’ team. While scientists are still matching those mitochondrial DNA sequences, Gad said Wednesday that preliminary results were 'very encouraging.' Hawass also said that a molar tooth found in a jar with some of the queen’s embalmed organs perfectly matched the mummy...."

Mummy's tooth provided key to identification (nytimes.com; free registration required)

"A single tooth and some DNA clues appear to have solved the mystery of the lost mummy of Hatshepsut, one of the great queens of ancient Egypt, who reigned in the 15th century B.C. Archaeologists who conducted the research, to be announced formally today in Cairo, said this was the first mummy of an Egyptian ruler to be found and “positively identified” since King Tutankhamen’s tomb was opened in 1922. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, said Monday in a telephone interview that the mummy was found in 1903 in an obscure, undecorated tomb in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from modern Luxor, and had been largely overlooked for more than a century. Dr. Hawass said the identification of the well-preserved mummy as Hatshepsut (pronounced hat-SHEP-soot) was made a few weeks ago when a CT scan of a wooden box associated with the queen revealed a tooth. The tooth, he said, “fits exactly” into the jaw socket and broken root of the mummy of an obese woman originally found in Tomb 60 at the Valley of the Kings, the necropolis for royalty in the New Kingdom before and after Hatshepsut’s reign...."

Mummy of high priest found in Luxor (worldnewsaustralia.com.au)

"Archaeologists have discovered the 3,000-year-old mummy of a high priest to the god Amun in the southern city of Luxor, an antiques dealer claims. The 18th Dynasty mummy of Sennefer was unearthed in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings — one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world — by a team from Britain's Cambridge University.... A high priest was considered to be the most important man after the king, performing duties, religious rituals and offerings on his behalf. Other mummies were found during the excavation, including one with a brain tumour, a foetus, a female mummy wrapped in plaster and others which appeared to have suffered from arthritis, Mr Hawass says...."

18th Century natural mummies studied in Budapest (nationalgeographic.com)

"Microbiologist Karoly Nagy takes tissue samples from an 18th-century mummy in the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. Nagy claims that there is a scientific connection between an 18th-century tuberculosis (TB) epidemic in the country and genetic changes in 11 percent of Hungary's population in response to the disease. Those changes could be providing partial immunity to HIV/AIDS. The naturally mummified bodies were discovered in 1994 in a forgotten vaulted crypt in a church in Vác, north of Budapest. The museum stores 265 mummies and offered tissue samples from each of them for Nagy's research. Scientists found that most of the deceased had been infected by TB...."

A visit to the mummy museum in Guanajuato (vueweekly.com)

"...like all the other tourists, we came for the mummies, which reside in a museum high up in the city, itself, again, a labyrinthine edifice, resting over the cemetery from which the first mummies were unearthed in 1965. It’s not the most well-organized museum you’ll find in Mexico, but what it houses proves to offer far more than morbid novelty. Before entering the museum proper there’s a temporary exhibit of photographs dating from the period in which it was customary to make portraits of the dead before interment, mostly images of parents or siblings with dead infants, standing before a stranger’s camera in their finest clothing during a moment of unspeakable grief. These are some of the most painful photographs I’ve ever seen, all the more so for their formality. The series seems an ideal entry into the museum, functioning as an antidote to the sense of abstraction you struggle against while gazing upon the 100-plus corpses laying in the adjacent rooms. Many of the mummies are said to have perished in a cholera outbreak here in 1833, though, due to rigorous taxes placed on keeping bodies in the limited local cemetery space, bodies are continually being dug up and appropriated by the museum, though only a fraction are ever on display. If one desired to become a mummy, your best bet would probably be to die in Guanajuato and simply wait a while. Sooner or later, you’d have a good chance of winding up in here...."

More on the Guanajuato Mummies

New museum displaying Peruvian mummies and King George III's hair opens in London (nytimes.com)

"Self-made millionaires (or billionaires today) often acquire respectability by investing in great art. Then, at the appropriate time, they donate or bequeath it to museums willing to give their names to a gallery or wing. Henry Wellcome took a less trodden path. An American who made his fortune in pharmaceuticals in Britain a century ago, Wellcome collected anything associated with human or animal health with the idea of eventually creating his own Museum of Mankind. When he died in 1936 at the age of 83, he had gathered some one million objects, but it has taken until now for his collection to find a proper home. This week, in a building constructed by Wellcome in 1932 and renovated for $60 million, a small part of this collection finally went on display. And strange it is. The Wellcome Collection, as the new museum is called, includes early anatomical models, surgical instruments, prosthetic limbs and other examples of medical progress, as well as eye-catching objects ranging from Peruvian mummies and Chinese torture chairs.... It also presents what can only be called celebrity curiosities, like Napoleon’s toothbrush, Charles Darwin’s walking stick, Benjamin Disraeli’s death mask, Horatio Nelson’s razor, Florence Nightingale’s moccasins (worn during the Crimean War) and some locks of George III’s hair...."

Incan skulls provide evidence of earliest gunshot wounds in New World during 1536 Siege of Lima (latimes.com)

"Peruvian archeologists have identified the earliest documented gunshot victim in the Americas, an Inca warrior who was shot by Spanish conquistadors in 1536 in the aftermath of a battle now known as the siege of Lima. The body, of one of 72 apparent victims of the uprising, was found in a cemetery in the Lima suburb of Puruchuco during excavation for a new road, researchers reported Tuesday. Many of the victims, including women and children, showed signs of extreme trauma, having been hacked, torn or impaled, said archeologist Guillermo Cock of Peru's National Institute of Culture. Spanish records indicate the battle, which occurred near the area known as Lati Canal, took place Aug. 14, 1536, as a small group of conquistadors tracked down a group of Incas who had fought them the day before. The records maintain that a few hundred conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, used their superior weaponry and their horses to repel an attack by tens of thousands of Incas led by Manco Yupanqui. After breaking the siege, the Spaniards tracked down and killed many of the Incas who had attacked, including the group at Puruchuco. But the evidence casts the conquistadors in a less heroic light, Cock found. The archeological evidence makes it clear that the Spaniards were accompanied by a large group of Indians who were fighting the Incas to escape subjugation. Although as many as three of the Inca warriors were clearly shot and others had injuries apparently made by the Spaniards' metallic weapons, most of the 72 victims apparently were bludgeoned with more primitive stone weapons wielded by other Indians...."

Skulls taken by Scottish missionary in 1898 finally returned to community on Mer Island (scotsman.com)

"...The request to museum officials in Glasgow was simple but heartfelt: Return the skulls of our forefathers. More than a century after the remains were brought back by Scottish missionary Robert Bruce from Mer Island, off the Australian coast, and following two years of negotiations, the island's inhabitants yesterday got their wish. The skulls were handed over in a solemn ceremony to representatives of the remote community of 450 people in the Torres Strait. They had been lodged in Glasgow's museum archive for decades and never displayed...."

Three mummified dogs found under Milton Keynes garden shed (miltonkeynes.co.uk)

"A city man made a grisly discovery in the garden of his new home - the mummified remains of three dogs. Mike Farnell found the bodies of the three whippet-type dogs under the pigeon shed of his new property in Stoke Road, Bletchley. He was dismantling the shed at the time. It is estimated the dogs had been dead for around two years. Small granules of toxic substance were found nearby when they were found on Saturday June 8...."

Twelve people charged with smuggling antiquities--including two mummies (scotsman.com)

"Sudanese authorities have arrested 12 people accused of smuggling ancient antiquities including two entire mummies, a state news agency said on Saturday. 'The police authorities in Nile state have thwarted an attempt to smuggle ancient artifacts,' the state Sudanese Media Centre said. It gave no details of the age of the mummies. Sudan, home of the ancient Nubian civilization, has more pyramids than neighboring Egypt, but little excavation is done on its archaeological sites. Sometimes known as the 'Black Pharaohs,' Nubian kings ruled Egypt from roughly 760 B.C. to 660 B.C. Sudan's most viewed pyramids in Merowe in northern Sudan date from about 300 B.C...."

Trying to solve the cold case of three mummified baby boys in a suitcase--61 years later (wcco.com)

"The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension will search its storage warehouse Tuesday to see if it contains any evidence or files that could solve the murders of three baby boys whose mummified bodies were found 61 years ago, stuffed in a suitcase floating in the Minnesota River. The suitcase was found by two anglers on April 3, 1946, on the river between Carver and Chaska. The three boys were never identified -- one had been strangled with a cloth, while the other two were suffocated with newspapers. Officials have little hope that the case will be solved in the near future: The original case files and the evidence are lost, including the suitcase that contained the bodies, and the cloth and newspapers apparently used to kill them, and the bodies themselves.... Interest in the case was renewed last year when John von Walter, an amateur historian from Carver, wrote about it. Von Walter stumbled upon the case in 2005 while researching a book on the 150th anniversary of the Carver County Sheriff's Office. He said no one knows where the babies are buried. The bodies were turned over to the University of Minnesota for autopsies in 1946, he said, then donated to the school for medical research. So far, authorities know the following: The newborns were tightly wrapped in Minneapolis newspapers and were about a year apart in age, sequentially. One was born two months premature and the others were full-term. They were killed over a three-year period, based on the dates on the newspapers in the suitcase. All three were mummified, indicating that they had been stored in a cool, dry place...." 

Exact cause of Iceman's death is finally proved (abcnews.com)

"A prehistoric hunter known as Ötzi whose well-preserved body was found on a snow-covered mountain in the Alps died more than 5,000 years ago after being struck in the back by an arrow, scientists said in an article published Wednesday. Researchers from Switzerland and Italy used newly developed medical scanners to examine the hunter's frozen corpse to determine that the arrow had torn a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to a massive loss of blood. That, in turn, caused Ötzi to go into shock and suffer a heart attack, according to the article published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Even today, the chances of surviving such an injury long enough to receive hospital treatment are only 40 percent, according to the article...."

More information about Ötzi

Soil is 'best environment' for preserving sixth salt mummy (presstv.ir)

"The head of Iran's Archeological Research Center says the sixth "salt man" discovered in western province of Zanjan should be left buried. 'Soil is the best environment to preserve ancient remains,' Hassan Fazeli Nashli was quoted by the CHN news agency as saying.He argued that there is no guarantee that the body would be preserved after it is unearthed. 'It's a wrong belief to think that we have to unearth everything which has been discovered. There have been five other salt men already found in Chehr-Abad salt mine and they are enough to provide researchers with valuable information,' he added. According to Fazeli Nashli, it would be better to deposit some discovered historical items under soil, which has been proven to be the best safe keeper for historical relics. The remains were partially uncovered by a rivulet created by rainfall in early June. The archeologists blocked the rivulet and covered the body as well as the trench then. It seems that the sixth salt man, like the first and second ones, dates back to either the Parthian (247 BC-224 AD) or the Sassanid (224-651 AD) eras. The other salt men date back to Achaemenid Dynasty (550-330 BC)...."

Sixth salt mummy will not be excavated until preservation techniques are improved (chnpress.com)

"Hassan Fazeli Nashli, head of Iran’s Archeology Research Center has strongly expressed his opposition with unearthing the sixth mummified salt man, which has been discovered accidentally in Chehr-Abad salt mine in Iranian Zanjan province. This opposition has been made in an attempt to protect the salt man against possible damages until the appropriate condition for well preserving of these salt men is provided completely. Pointing out that in addition to salvation activities, what is important in trend of archeological excavations is how to preserve the unearthed historical discoveries, Fazeli Nashli said that while there is no guarantee for best preservation of discovered historical evidence, it would be better to let them remain under soil until the suitable condition is provided for keeping them. 'This is a wrong conception to think that the parts of the sixth discovered salt man should be unearthed for further studies, while we have still a lot of problems for preserving the other 5 ones which have already been discovered in Chehr-Abad salt mine. They are enough for conducting further archeological studies,' added Fazeli Nashli.... Recent heavy rains in Zanjan resulted in appearing the sixth salt man in 20 centimeters depth of the earth which was buried in the corner of one of the trenches. Currently the rescuing operations for preserving the salt man have been started and the canal through which water was running has been closed and the mummy and the trench have been covered. Fazeli believes that the best way for preserving the sixth salt man would be to rebury it under a pile of soil and salt.... "

Sixth salt mummy found in Chehrabad mine (cais-soas.com)

"The sixth salt man was discovered in Chehr-Ābād Mine in Zanjan City. It is likely that a large number of salt men were buried in Chehr-Ābād Salt Mine, said Farhang Farokhi head of Zanjan Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ZCHTO). Five previous discovered salt men are being kept in Washhouse Museum , he added. Based on previous reports, Chehr-Ābād Mine had been used from the Achaemenid dynastic era (550-330 BCE) up to the early of the Sassanid dynasty (224-651 CE). The first salt man was discovered in Zanjān’s Chehr-Ābād salt mine by accident by the miners in 1993. More than a decade later in November 2004, the body of the second salt man was discovered in the same salt mine. The year 2005 was the year of salt men discoveries and bodies of the third, fourth, and fifth salt mummies were unearthed in January, March, and December 2005...."

More about the Salt Mummies from Iran