"The litigation over the Iceman mummy, the Neolithic wanderer found frozen in the Italian Alps 15 years ago, may finally be settled. A newspaper in northern Italy, Dolomiten, reported Tuesday the provincial council in Bolzano is ready to settle by giving as much as 100,000 euros (almost $150,000) to Erika Simon, a German who discovered the Iceman with her husband, Helmut. Helmut Simon was killed in the mountains in an accident during the long legal battle. The Iceman, preserved in a glacier high in the Alps, was one of the most stunning archaeological finds of the late 20th century. Scientists were able to examine his clothes and learn a lot about his diseases, including arthritis, and parasites, such as whipworm. But the remains also have been the subject of endless legal battles. First, ownership was disputed by Italy and Austria with Italy winning, and then several people claimed to have spotted the remains before the Simons. The Simons argued that Bolzano has gained millions of dollars in tourist business from the Iceman, now in a museum there, and he has brought in more from TV specials and books. The city resisted for years, offering only a token payment...."

More mummies found at Huana Pullana (tmcnet.com) 

"Archeologists working at Peru's Huaca Pucllana ruins pulled a mummy from a tomb on Tuesday, thought to be from the ancient Wari culture that flourished before the Incas. Besides the female mummy, the tomb contained the remains of two other adults and a child. It is the first intact Wari burial site discovered at Huaca Pucllana in the capital Lima, and researchers believe it dates from about 700 AD. "We'd discovered other tombs before," said Isabel Flores, director of the ruins. "But they always had holes, or were damaged. Never had we found a whole tomb like this one -- intact," she said, standing on the ancient plaza, a huge partially excavated mound of rocks, bricks and dirt. Workers wrapped the female mummy in tissue paper before lifting it onto a flat wood board. They exposed her face, revealing two big, bright blue orbs in her eye sockets. They extracted the other adult mummies, which were also whole, earlier in the week. "Her face startled me at first," said Miguel Angel, 19, a worker at Huaca Pucllana who helped unearth the tomb...."

"Melting alpine glaciers are revealing fascinating clues to Neolithic life in the high mountains. And, as a conference of archaeologists and climatologists meeting in the Swiss capital Berne has been discussing, the finds are also providing key indicators to climate change. Everyone knows the story of Oetzi the Ice Man, found in an Austrian glacier in 1991. Oetzi was discovered at an altitude of over 3,000m. He lived in about 3,300 BC, leading to speculation that the Alps may have had more human habitation than previously suspected. Now, more dramatic findings from the 2,756m Schnidejoch glacier in Switzerland have confirmed the theory. It all started at the end of the long hot summer of 2003, when a Swiss couple, hiking across a melting Schnidejoch, came across a piece of wood that aroused their curiosity. They took it down with them, and gave it to canton Berne's archaeological department, where careful examination and carbon dating revealed the piece of wood to be an arrow quiver made of birch bark, dating from about 3000 BC...."

More on Ötzi's occupation

"A mummy murder mystery got Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery bosses scratching their heads. The 1,708-year-old mummified body of a man, believed to be in his mid-30s, is set to go back on show at the Chamberlain Square museum this month after extensive tests failed to shed light on a mysterious metal object lodged in the back of its neck. The Greco Roman mummy underwent X-rays and conservation work, but museum bosses are now thinking of sending it for a CAT scan to find out more. Deborah Cane, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s collections care officer, said: “We believed it had an arrow in the back of the neck and it does have something metallic there, but we’re not sure what it is. The scans also revealed he was very healthy, so no indication as to why he died. We’re hoping to do a CAT scan of the head to get a 3D image of the metallic object that could reveal its shape, and if an arrow head, then potentially the cause of death.” The elaborately-bandaged specimen, with gilt terracotta studs, was donated to the museum in the 1920s by Albert Phillips, a bedstead maker from Birmingham who travelled to the Middle East. It is one of four human mummies in the museum’s Egyptian Gallery exhibition, the oldest of which is more than 3,000 years old. The other three mummies are accompanied with their intricately-painted coffins...." 

More information about glacier mummies

"Bones are to be removed from the body of Cardinal John Henry Newman so that they can be venerated as holy relics. The Government has granted a license permitting undertakers to dig up the body of Cardinal Newman more than a century after his death. Officials from the Ministry of Justice have also given the go-ahead for Catholic experts in holy objects to fly in from Italy and retrieve "major relics" from the corpse after the coffin is opened for the first time. These will most likely be bones from his hands which will be shared out between key churches in Britain - as well as one being sent to the Vatican. They will be placed in shrines so Catholic pilgrims can venerate Cardinal Newman and pray for his intercession when he is made a saint. A selection of minor relics - small fragments of bone and cloth - will also be collected.... Peter Jennings, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Birmingham, said the condition of the cardinal's body was a mystery but said it could be well-preserved. "For about 10 minutes or so you will see Cardinal Newman's face as he was when he was buried, if no air has got in," he said...."

"French archaeologists have found one of the best preserved Egyptian mummies in Europe, in the basement of a provincial French museum...." Video

More on the testing of DNA in Egyptian mummies

"A sixth floating foot to wash up on West Coast shores in the last year likely belongs to a new victim, RCMP say. Sgt. Tim Shields said Tuesday that based on the description of the shoe found on a Washington state beach last week, it doesn't match any of the five other feet found on British Columbia shores. "Obviously, because they're describing a black shoe ... this does not match with any of the running shoes that we have found so far," said Shields. "This would presumably indicate that the foot belongs to a new missing person." The RCMP are working with investigators in Washington to try to identify the foot. Det. Sgt. Lyman Moores, of the Clallam County sheriff's department in Port Angeles, Wash., said despite the difference in the sneaker, he believes this foot may be related to the B.C. incidents.... The latest sneaker-shod foot was discovered Friday on a beach on Juan de Fuca Strait, about 50 kilometers west of Port Angeles. U.S. authorities said Tuesday that the black, size-11 shoe was an Everest brand. The sock found inside the shoe was described as a Levi's brand tube sock. Moores said the brand and style of the shoe will help investigators pinpoint where it was made and sold.... "

"The technology that scientists used to try to identify Mozart's skull could be used in repatriating toi moko - mummified heads - to their home regions if Waikato University research succeeds. Chemist Dr Merilyn Manley-Harris will work with art historian Dr Ngahuia Te Awekotuku on a project this summer which will see teeth investigated using laser ablation technology. Both Waikato academics worked on Dr Te Awekotuku's book Mau Moko: The World of Maori Tattoo for which Dr Manley-Harris did charcoal analysis. It was when they were picking up historical samples from a museum that Dr Te Awekotuku explained part of the problem of repatriation, Dr Manley-Harris said. "She told me that after the preserved heads had been repatriated [from overseas museums] finding out where in the country they came from was a problem. "I had read an article about this [technology] being used in Salzburg to see if they could identify Mozart's skull. I thought we might be able to use the same skills." Laser ablation identifies what inorganic ions - such as magnesium, calcium and strontium - are present in substances...."

More information about the mummies of the Franklin Expedition

"If whale bones don't fit inside the hot tub, build a bigger tank. A UBC-led team is in Victoria cleaning, drilling and assembling a 26-metre blue whale skeleton -- one of the largest exhumations ever undertaken. As part of the year-long project, crews have constructed two four- and eight-metre-long "hot tubs" to soak the bones in a cleaning enzyme and bacteria solution. "Every day brings new challenges for us," said Andrew Trites, University of British Columbia biologist and team leader. "This is a creature bigger than any dinosaur." Blue whales are the largest animals on Earth, with hearts roughly the size of a Volkswagen. The female whale first washed ashore near Tignish, P.E.I., in November 1987. For health reasons, authorities decided to bury the animal in a 13-metre-deep hole. They needed four bulldozers and a farm tractor to drag the carcass to the hastily dug pit above the tide line. It lay untouched until Trites began searching for a blue whale to display in Vancouver's new Beaty Biodiversity Museum in Vancouver.... In May, a 10-person team, along with help from local equipment crews, veterinarians and college students, unearthed the buried whale, expecting to find a bare skeleton. Instead, the blue flesh had largely mummified, leaving the carcass almost completely intact.... "