Will mining be resumed at Chehrabad site of salt mummy find? (chnpress.com)

"While the project for continuing excavations in Chehr-Abad salt mine has not been approved by Archeology Research Center in year 1386, Iranian calendar, and Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (ICHTO) is determined to preserve this historic mine, owners of the mine are trying to extend their contract with Iran’s Mines and Industries Ministry to get certificate for exploiting salt from the mine. This is while archeologists have succeeded in discovering 5 mummified salt men belonging to Achaemenid and Sassanid dynastic eras in this ancient mine so far and believe that there must have buried some more salt men in the mine which have not been unearthed yet. Resuming salt exploitation from the mine has become the nightmare of salt men who has rested in peace for thousands of years and archeologists who are worried for losing some invaluable information about this historic mine by continuing the salt exploitation. Owners of Chehr Abad salt mine started their activities since 1992 which posed serious harms to parts of this historic mine. However, following the discovering of the second salt man, their activities were stopped in the parts which were marked off by archeologists. Yet, continuation of salt exploitation would be still destructive. According to Abolfazl Aali, archeologist of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Zanjan province and head of excavation team in Chehr Abad salt mine, the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department of Zanjan province, paid more than 32,000 US Dollars as compensation to the owners of the mine for stopping their activities...."

More about the Salt Mummies from Iran

Skull and preserved brain of Italian anarchist finally laid to rest after 97 years (pittsburghlive.com)

"The anarchist Giovanni Passannante is becoming a cause celebre 97 years after his death. Until this week, Passannante's skull and brain, preserved in formaldehyde, were on display at a criminology museum in Rome in what ranked as one of Italy's more macabre showcases. In this museum-loving society, it was a strange fate for someone who tried to kill the king of Italy 129 years ago. At Passannante's death, his head and brain were removed to be studied by sociologists, in keeping with the scientific eugenicist theory made popular at the time by a criminologist named Cesare Lombroso. He believed that criminality was inherited and could be identified by physical traits. For the past 70 years, the brain and skull have been in a display case, framed by old anarchist manifestos on the second floor of the Criminology Museum...."

CT-Scan of Egyptian mummy raises more questions (pittsburghlive.com)

"It's a boy! Well, maybe. Like expectant parents squinting at an ultrasound, doctors and anthropologists puzzled over CT scans of a 2,300-year-old Egyptian child mummy Wednesday at UPMC Presbyterian hospital.... The mummy -- discovered almost a century ago in a cemetery in the central Egyptian city of Abydos -- was scanned as part of a partnership between Pitt's medical school and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, where the mummy is usually displayed in the Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt. The mummy has perplexed anthropologists since 1986, when it was X-rayed at Forbes Metropolitan Health Center in Wilkinsburg. From the X-rays, doctors estimated the child was about 8 years old at death. They didn't know the gender. Because the X-rays showed a large head and a small body, they suspected the child had a form of macrocephaly, or an enlarged head, which can be caused by dwarfism or brain injury...."

Fossil-mummy of ancient lobster found in Mexico (alertnet.org)

"Mexican scientists said they have identified the world's oldest lobster fossil, a creature that was alive when Africa was only just breaking apart from the Americas some 120 million years ago. The fossil is 4.7 inches (12 cm) long and its shell and legs are immaculately preserved by the mud in the southern state of Chiapas where it was found. It is dated as 120 million years old, some 20 million years older than existing lobster fossils.... South America and Africa are believed to have split into two continents around 120 million years ago. Species sometimes evolved differently on the two continents, explaining why American lobsters today are different from their African cousins...."

After years of refusal, Egypt will now conduct DNA tests on mummies (sis.gov.eg)

"Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawwas has said the government is planning to establish an up-to-date laboratory to conduct DNA tests on mummies. Hawwas said the lab will cost $3 million to be paid by the American National Geographic network. The American TV will further produce a documentary on Queen Hatshepsut, he added. Hawwas noted that the lab will be equipped with state of the art technology and located at the basement of the Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo.... "

Frozen body of Everest climber will be retrieved and buried after nine years (dailymail.co.uk)

"She was alone on a mountain shelf when they found her - a frozen, pathetic figure just 800ft below the summit of Everest. When they eventually reached her she barely had the strength left to speak. But Francys Arsentiev's last words would stay with them for the rest of their lives: "Don't leave me," she begged. "Please don't leave me." In the treacherous terrain of the world's highest mountain, and in temperatures below minus 30C, they had little choice. They stayed with her for as long as they could before abandoning their summit attempt and heading back down for help. In their hearts, however, they knew they were leaving her to die. By the time another climbing party got to her, Fran had already succumbed to the cold. No-one could help her now. It was too dangerous even to contemplate carrying her lifeless body down the North Face from its precarious position on the loose rock shards that formed the steep mountain shelf. And so, for the next nine years, the 40-year-old American would remain a macabre beacon of death at 28,000ft - clearly visible to the many adventurers who would subsequently take the same route to the top. Even today, the bright purple of her climbing jacket still stands out against the snow. The dark-haired young mother still lies in the same, grotesquely distorted position she was in when the other climbers found her, secured by a rope and largely preserved by the sub-zero temperatures. But now - finally - she is about to be afforded some dignity. The British-born climber who had to leave her in May 1998 has gone back to Everest to bury her...."

Mummified dinosaur skin found in Japan (ewindpress.com)

"Researchers at Japan’s Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum have found an ancient rock containing a fossilized dinosaur skin. The fossil is believed to contain traces of skin that fossilized before it fully decayed. Scientists say the unusual find is the first of its kind in Japan.... Palaeontologists originally excavated the rock containing the fossil from a site called the Kitadani Quarry in Katsuyama. The layer was dated to the Early Cretaceous period, around 120 million years ago. Within the rock, scientists noticed the skin traces and impression on a 9-inch-square, 2.7-inch-thick plate of fine-grained sandstone. The skin impression covers about 60 percent of the plate’s surface and shows both polygonal and circular scales, each measuring a fraction of an inch. Researchers believe the dinosaur that left its mark there probably collapsed and died on a wet surface. Sand covered the carcass before it fossilized...."

Brier discusses the case of Unknown Mummy E (zwire.comu)

"A love for mummies is not uncommon, but a love for figuring out the mysteries that surround their deaths is not an easy task. Just ask Bob Brier, a man whose love for mummies has taken him halfway around the world to discover the mystery of a mummy known as Unknown Man E. Brier recently spoke as part of a series held at Camden County College's Dennis Flyer Theater. The lectures dealt entirely with the mysteries and history of Ancient Egypt and brought to the college experts on the subject from all around the world. Not originally scheduled to speak that night, Brier, whose wife was unable to speak due to an illness, filled in and provided a glimpse into the mysteries surrounding an ancient mummy that had been labeled only by the name Unknown Man E...."