"Four ancient tombs containing well-preserved mummies, ornate painted coffins, and mummified dogs have been unearthed in El Faiyum, an oasis about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Cairo. One female mummy was found wearing a gilded mask, a rare treasure at the site known as the necropolis of Deir el-Banat. The burial complex is a frequent target for modern-day grave robbers and was thought to have been looted of its riches.... In a separate tomb, the excavators discovered the first completely intact mummy ever found at the necropolis. The team of U.S. and Russian archaeologists stumbled upon the burials during routine work in a section of the cemetery, which was used from the early fourth century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. Some 150 other tombs from various periods and dozens of poorly preserved mummies were also unearthed, though most of the graves had been plundered during a rash of robberies in the 20th century...."

"The British Museum has confirmed that Lindow Man, the mid-1st century AD bog body seen by millions of visitors to the British Museum every year, will travel on long-term loan to the Manchester Museum in 2008. A special exhibition, Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery will see the remarkably preserved remains of the body go on display from April 19 2008 until April 19 2009. It will be the third time Lindow Man has made the journey north. He was previously on loan to the Manchester Museum from April – December 1987 and then again between March 25 and September 21 1991.... Discovered at Lindow Moss in Cheshire in 1984, Lindow Man is the best preserved bog body ever found in Britain. The preservation of his remains by British Museum scientists has allowed experts from across the UK to study who he was and why he died. Current thinking seems to agree that he was knocked unconscious by two blows to the head and then garrotted as part of an Iron Age ritual sacrifice. However, he continues to be the subject of new research and study. Lindow Man: A Bog Body Mystery will explore the different stories relating to Lindow Man, and look at what he means to us today. Through a series of public consultations the views of archaeologists, curators and Pagan groups have been sought - all of whom have very different views on Lindow Man...."

Some of the issues facing Manchester Museum as it prepares to display the remains of Lindow Man for the third time (24hourmuseum.org.uk)

More on Lindow Man's discovery

Lindow Man's display at the British Museum

"To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the death of Padre Pio, Italy's favorite saint, his body will be exhumed, given a "check-up" and put on display for a few months, church leaders have decided. Renowned for his stigmata and miracle work, St Pius - still known as Padre Pio by his followers - was canonized in 2002 to popular acclaim and about 7 million pilgrims visit his tomb annually at the friary in Puglia, southern Italy, where he died in 1968. To mark the anniversary of his death, the local archbishop, Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio, said the Capuchin friar's body would be exhumed from its tomb "to check on the state of it and to carry out all the necessary work to guarantee the best conditions for its conservation." When the work is completed, the body will go on display in April for "a few months", he said. Antonio Belpiede, spokesman for Padre Pio's Franciscan chapter, denied reports that the procedure would also be a chance to remove relics from the saint's remains. "This is not on the agenda," he said. The exhumation of the saint, who was credited with more than 1,000 miracle cures, has been approved by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints...."

"Together with researchers from the University of Zurich Siemens tried to answer the question: Can a new software for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems provide insight into the anatomy and disease characteristics of the human being, even for those parts of the human body which, even more so for a mummy (right picture), contain almost no water? Siemens is currently developing specific software for picking up the signal from dry tissue and converting it into sharp images. The ultra-short-echo-time-application (UTE) may allow visualization of even fine bone structures without X-rays in the future. Up to now, visualization of body tissue through an MR system was only possible based on the tissue’s different water contents. Hence, it was primarily soft tissue that physicians saw on MR images, and not, for example, details of the bone structure (left picture), as will be possible with the new software. “Not only orthopedic surgeons will be pleased – our software will also support neurologists when examining, for example, patients with Alzheimer’s disease with the aid of such MR images, or monitoring the body metabolism,” explained Walter Märzendorfer, the Head of the Magnetic Resonance Business Unit at Siemens Healthcare. ..."

"In the January 2008 issue of Harper's, journalist Gregory Jaynes chronicles the strange tale of KV 63, an archaeological dig in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.  In 2005, veteran archaeologist Otto Schaden discovered a shaft, which, in early 2006, was found to lead to a new, previously undiscovered tomb. This is where things get dicey, as  Schaden, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and Schaden's employer, the University of Memphis, fight over control of the tomb. It's a captivating read...."

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"The Normandy city of Rouen pledged yesterday to find a way to return the mummified, tattooed head of a Maori man to New Zealand despite a court ruling that it must stay in France. The head was given to Rouen’s natural-history museum in 1875. At the request of New Zealand, and to the annoyance of French officials, the city has been trying for months to send it home. The culture minister said that Rouen should not make such a decision unilaterally, adding that the matter should have gone before a scientific committee “to verify that there is no unjustified damage to national heritage....”"

 

 

More on the return of the Maori head:

French court asks: If Rouen museum's mummified Maori head is returned to New Zealand, will other treasures have to follow? (bbc.co.uk)

"A French court has blocked a museum's efforts to return the mummified head of a Maori warrior to New Zealand. The tattooed relic was acquired by a museum in the city of Rouen in 1875. The museum offered to return the head to New Zealand, citing the need to bring closure to the "hateful trafficking of another era". However, France's culture ministry appealed against the move, citing fears it could set a precedent leading to the return of other treasures from abroad. "Today it's a Maori head, but tomorrow it could be a mummy in the Louvre," Olivier Henrard, legal adviser to the culture ministry, told the AP news agency. French museums house thousands of valuable artefacts taken from civilisations in Africa, Asia and South America. A statement by culture minister Christine Albanel said Rouen's natural history museum had not followed procedure in arranging the relic's return."

More background on the possible repatriation: Is a Maori head part of France's cultural heritage? (guardian.co.uk)

"When a small museum in Normandy arranged to hand back a mummified Maori head to New Zealand, the local mayor called it a "symbolic act" of atonement for European colonialists' grotesque trade in human remains. But a row has erupted after the French government intervened to block the return, saying the Maori head was part of France's national heritage. The minister of culture warned that the decision to return the head could set a precedent for France's vast collections of tribal artefacts and mummified remains from around the world - particularly in the Louvre and Paris's new Quai Branly Museum of Tribal Art, which has six Maori heads. European settlers in New Zealand were fascinated by the Maori tradition of preserving the tattooed heads of warriors killed in combat. A macabre trade flourished, which the British outlawed in 1831. Over the past few decades New Zealand has requested museums return the heads, which it views as human remains, not artefacts. Since 1992, a dozen countries have done so, including Britain, Australia and Germany. The Rouen museum's initiative would be the first time a Maori warrior's remains were returned from France. But the culture minister, Christine Albanel, said the museum must consult a panel to "guarantee the integrity of our national heritage". She warned of "heavy repercussions" for France's collections from Egypt and Peru. But she ordered a study of the "special ethical problems" of human remains in public collections...."

"Fossilized skin, organs, bones and all — Malta's famed mummy dinosaur, Leonardo, is heading to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences for more than a year of study and display. Paleontologists have been studying the approximately 77 million-year-old duckbill's secrets since it was uncovered in the badlands north of Malta in the summer of 2000. The amazing discovery, considered the world's best-preserved dinosaur, has even graced the cover of Newsweek. Though Malta dinosaur fans were reluctant to let Leonardo leave — especially considering the Brachylophosaurus will be the star of their new museum opening in June — the Houston museum has access to a NASA CT scan machine large enough to look at the dino's insides. "We were very cautious," Judith River Foundation President Carolyn Schmoeckel said Thursday. "We've heard horror stories of specimens leaving the town and never getting back because of the paperwork." Schmoeckel leaves for Houston on Monday to work out final contract details. The fundraising board wants to ensure that Leonardo returns by September 2009 and that the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum will have a replica to display for its grand opening celebration June 6...."

More information about Leonardo

"Ancient Egyptians thought that by carefully and ritualistically mummifying their nobility, they would preserve the pharaohs and their families for the paradise of the next life. Egyptologist Bob Brier has made mummies his life's work. Known as Mr. Mummy, Brier is the author of "The Encyclopedia of Mummies" and a Senior Research Fellow at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville, N.Y. He has searched the Egyptian desert for mummies more than 100 times. He's coming to the Louisville Science Center tonight to talk about his and colleague Ronald Wade's 1994 project to mummify a corpse using traditional Egyptian methods. Brier has edified our city's citizens before as a visiting professor at University of Louisville. In 1994, he taught a course on ancient Egyptian architecture for a semester. Brier also stars in the Science Center's current IMAX production, "Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs." The Bronx-based scholar spoke by phone about Egyptian beliefs, middle-class mummies and lookin' good in the afterlife...."

"Scientists claim a baby mammoth, unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia this May, could be the best preserved specimen of its type. The six-month-old female calf, which is 130cm tall and weighs 50kg, was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago. An international delegation of experts convened in the town of Salekhard to carry out a preliminary examination of found animal. "The mammoth has no defects except that its tail was bit off," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Institute of Zoology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "In terms of its state of preservation, this is the world's most valuable discovery," he said. Some scientists hold out hope that well preserved sperm or other cells containing viable DNA could be used to resurrect the mammoth lineage...."