Auction featuring mummified human hand and two-headed calf scheduled for Bristol (telegraph.co.uk)

"An auction featuring rare 19th century items of taxidermy, including a mummified human hand and a two-headed calf is set to go ahead. Highlights include the 16cm long mummified hand valued at £50 to £100, a complete tiger skin from circa 1900 valued at £100 to £200, and an adult male albino song thrush, valued at £40 to £60. The auction also features a mounted set of conjoined twin calves heads on an oak shield wall mount. The piece is valued at £300 to £400 pounds, and carries the inscription: ''Born 1911 Lymington Terr., Esh Winning, Durham, Mr A Haig, Farmer.'' The sale, titled "A Collection of Curiosities", takes place on Thursday at Dreweatts auction house in Bristol."

View the lots to be auctioned

545-year-old mummy of Buddhist monk stolen by villagers in Tibetan border region (northindiatimes.com)

"Villagers of  Giu village in Lahaul and Spiti district...have reportedly stolen 545 year old mummy of a monk. "I was informed by an ITBP [Indo-Tibetan Border Police] personnel that some unidentified villagers have forcibly lifted the mummy from its possession. We are investigating the incident ," Ashwani Ramesh, SDM, Kaza said. According to late reports reaching here , the mummy was lifted by unidentified villagers after attacking an ITBP camp on Tuesday. "Some people attacked the camp and stole the mummy.ITBP people tried their level best to stop the attackers but failed. We have informed the district administration about the incident," Jawahar Singh, ITBP check post commander , Sumdoh said.... The 545 year old Mummy (of a monk) was discovered by ITBP during an excavation work in 2004. Identified as that of monk Sangha Tenzin, was found inside a tomb about 6000 metres above sea level. Giu villagers have known about the mummy since 1975, when an earthquake struck the region and brought down a part of the tomb. ITBP had placed the mummy inside a glass box and a makeshift temple like strudture was also constructed. The theft of the mummy has worried historians and budhist scholars . They fear the precious mummy could be smuggled to the neighbouring country. It was also a big tourist attraction here...."

More information about the mummy (freerepublic.com)

"The mummy is remarkably well preserved for its age. Its skin is unbroken. There is hair on the head as well. Mair says it is partly to do with the extreme cold and dry air of the region and partly to do with the meditation rituals that ancient high monks practiced to get rid of a public menace. "Slow starvation in the last few months of his life reduced the body fat and shrunk parts of the body that would have been liable to putrefaction." The mummy also did not collapse and disintegrate because of a jute restrainer, which runs around the mummy's neck and passes between the thighs. There is a greater significance of the restrainer. It points to a rare and esoteric practice. Mair says, "It kept the monk in an upright position and enabled him to focus on his meditation. If he relaxed, the restrainer knot would have tightened around his neck, cutting off oxygen supply and suffocating him... It was essentially to keep him in a good posture." Very little is available in Buddhist texts in India that describe this practice. Only one manuscript in the library of Tabo monastery has reference to it. From his understanding of Buddhist rituals and practices, Mair also says this kind of a practice is rare. "It is only known among certain sects in Japan and Tibet. They tended to be highly esoteric and lived in the mountains. The practice itself is part of the Dzogchen tradition within Nyingma (sect)...." Local legends say, about 600 years ago when Ghuen was troubled by scorpions, the monk, Sangha Tenzin, squatted down to mediate in the prescribed manner, after asking his disciples to entomb him. It is believed when his soul left the body, a rainbow appeared across the sky and scorpions mysteriously vanished from the village."

More information about Buddhist mummies

Mummified remains of extinct ice age horse on display in Whitehorse (montrealgazette.com)

"The long-frozen remains of an extinct ice age horse, dug up in 1993 by gold miners in the Klondike, have finally been put on public display at a Yukon museum after giving scientists a new picture of what the long-gone species looked like when it roamed the Canadian North with woolly mammoths 26,000 years ago. Exquisitely preserved in ancient permafrost, the horse's partial carcass - including a foreleg, hide, mane and tail - is being described by Yukon officials as a national treasure and the finest intact specimen of "a mummified, extinct large mammal ever found in Canada." At an unveiling last month in Whitehorse - the aptly named new home of the light-colored, pony-sized equus lambei - Yukon Culture Minister Elaine Taylor hailed the specimen as a unique centerpiece for the city's Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. The museum is dedicated to exploring the prehistoric grassland ecosystem that existed until about 10,000 years ago in a glacier-free zone covering present-day Siberia, Alaska and Yukon. "The Yukon Horse exhibit adds an important piece of Beringia history to an already impressive list of recent scientific discoveries in the Yukon," Taylor said. "We are proud of the work done to date to learn from this wonderful artifact and the collaboration among industry, governments and the scientific world, which is helping to ensure special discoveries like the Yukon horse are preserved and shared for today and future generations." When the horse was discovered 16 years ago near Last Chance Creek by miners Sam and Lee Olynyk and Ron Toews, the powerful stench led experts to suspect a dead pack mule from the days of the Klondike gold rush had melted out from a century-long deep-freeze...."

Putnam Museum's Egyptian mummy reveals her true identity (qctimes.com)

"So, she isn't the woman everyone thought she was - and no one will ever know her true identity. Sound familiar? Well, it happens, even among ancient Egyptian mummies. New research being unveiled today at the Putnam Museum shows its iconic female mummy - known as Isis Neferit, a chantress in the Temple of Isis about 3,000 years ago - isn't Isis after all. The sarcophagus, or coffin, on display at the Davenport museum belongs to Isis. It has her name written all over it in hieroglyphics. But the mummified woman inside the coffin is now believed to have died more than 600 years after the coffin was created. And that woman didn't die when she was 20-25 years old like the old plaques in the Putnam's downstairs Egyptian gallery used to state. Instead, she was 40-45 years old - and slightly taller and heftier than museum staff always thought, Putnam curator Christina Kastell said Friday. How does she know? The new information - debuting today in the totally overhauled "Unearthing Ancient Egypt" gallery at the museum - was discovered after CT scans were done on the mummies two years ago at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport...."

3,000-year-old preserved butter in barrel found in Gilltown bog (leinsterleader.ie)

"An oak barrel, full of butter, estimated to be roughly 3,000 years old has been found in Gilltown bog, between Timahoe and Staplestown. The amazing discovery of the barrel, which is being described by archaeology experts in the National Museum as a "really fine example" was found by two Bord na Mona workers. The pair, John Fitzharris and Martin Lane, were harrowing the bog one day in late May when they noticed a distinctive white streak in the peat. "We got down to have a look. We knelt down and felt something hard and started to dig it out with out bare hands," John explained. "We could smell it. And it was attracting crows," he added. What they found was an oak barrel, cut out of a trunk, full of butter. It was largely intact, except for a gash towards the bottom of it caused by the harrow. It was head down, and had a lid; something that has excited the archaeologists.... The barrel is also split along the middle, which is common with utensils filled with butter found in the bogs. A conservator at the National Museum, Carol Smith, told the Leinster Leader that the butter expands over time, causing the split. The barrel is about three feet long and almost a foot wide, and weighs almost 35kgs, (77lbs). The butter has changed to white and is now adipocere, which is essentially animal fat, the same sort of substance that is found on well-preserved bodies of people or animals found in the bog...." 

More related articles:

More than 270 packages of butter have been discovered in Scottish and Irish bogs (newscientist.com)

The Strangest Things Pulled Out of Peat Bogs (wired.com)

Stanford Medical Center scanner reveals secrets of 2,500-year-old mummy (sfgate.com)

"A minor priest from ancient Egypt gave his body to a high-tech scanner at Stanford Medical Center on Thursday. The priest is a mummy, dead for some 2,500 years, and getting him under a scanner may shed new light on the religion, the art and the history of a time before the Persians conquered the land of King Tut, researchers say. His name was Iret-net Hor-irw, meaning "The Eye of Horus is Upon You." He was probably about 20 when he died in the major Egyptian cult city of Akhmim, where thousands of other mummies have been a major source of respectful research by archaeologists and anthropologists for decades. Now his body is being readied for a new exhibition on the long-gone culture surrounding ancient medical care and death in Egypt. Intriguingly named "Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine," the exhibition is set to open in October at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Stanford houses one of the most advanced whole-body CT scanners around. It is a kind of 3-D X-ray machine, a gleaming white device with a clutch of computers that on Thursday recorded up to 3,200 images at once - one microscopic cross-section at a time - as a swinging arm ran up and down the mummy's body, which was wrapped in thick linen and a resin of cedar and juniper sap. The mummy was brought to the medical center this week in a climate-controlled truck from the Haggin Museum in Stockton, where it has been a major attraction ever since 1944, on loan from San Francisco's M.H. de Young Memorial Museum…." 

Next Stop For X-Rayed Mummy: Legion Of Honor (sfappeal.com)

"When he died over 2,000 years ago, Iret-net-Hor-irw could hardly have dreamed his mummified remains would one day become the center of a scientific investigation with profound implications for understanding the past. But then again resurrection never happens quite the way you imagine. His name means "The Eye of Horus is Upon You," but lately it has not been Horus' eye probing his mummified remains. Researchers at Stanford University have begun using sophisticated CT scanners to map a 3-D picture of Iret's body. The large device, which resembles an X-Ray machine, has taken over 3,000 tiny pictures on Iret's linen-wrapped remains. The scans will help scientists understand how he died, how he was buried, and what he looked like, without ever having to actually partake in the messy business of undressing him. Iret is important because he comes from a period in Egyptian history about which we know little. Scientists date his remains to 500 B.C, a time just before the Persian conquest of Egypt. Dr. Jonathon Elias, director of the Pennsylvania-based Akhmim Mummy Studies Consortium, believes that with the findings they will "be able to begin to write a history that has never been written. What comes next for the archeologically vital corpse of a former cult priest? His remains will be shipped out and put on display at the Legion of Honor for an exhibit beginning October 31st and running into the summer of 2010...." 

King Tut's tomb may be closed permanently to visitors (usatoday.com)

"If you're interested in visiting the tombs of pharaohs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, better schedule your trip soon. Egypt's head of antiquities warns that the tombs are doomed to disappear in 150 to 500 years without drastic action. To avoid that, Zahi Hawass said, authorities have decided "to close some tombs definitively to tourists and replace them by identical replicas," the wire service AFP reports. Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs, which draw thousands of tourists daily. Poor ventilation and the breath of the hordes of visitors are damaging the carvings and painted decorations, he said. The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, where pharaohs were mummified, are home to the tombs some of Egypt's most famous pharaohs, including King Tutankhamun and Queen Nefertiti. King Tut, the boy king and among its most famous leaders, reigned  from 1333 B.C. and 1324 B.C. before dying at age 19. Nefertiti may have been his mother. Both tombs are on Hawass' replica list...."

Three Xinjiang mummies on display in Beijing's Capital Museum (people.com.cn)

"Archaeological finds gathered over several decades are being shown in an exhibition at the Capital Museum in Beijing. "Exploration of the Ancient Mystery" has assembled over two-hundred cultural relics in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China. The collective showing includes 260 items excavated over the years and on loan from 25 museums around the country. When seen together, the exhibits weave a connective thread through the illustrious five-thousand-year-old history of China. The exhibits are said to represent the numerous archaeological sites scattered across the vast Chinese geography.... Despite their varied background, a considerable number of exhibits trace their origin to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, where the Xiaohe Burial Ground has stunned the world with over thirty mummies excavated successively since 2004. On display are a trio of mummies, including a male, a female, and a baby mummy. The oldest one dates back three-thousand -eight-hundred years.... "

More information about the Xinjiang Mummies

"The only mummy discovered in Beijing was on show on August 20; its hair and finger-nails are still well-preserved. On that day, the only domestic historical exhibition hall for eunuchs opened in Shijingshan district and in some parts of the Ming and Qing tombs that were excavated during the construction of Olympic shooting hall. The black mummy named Huang Zhuowu, an officer in the Kangxi period more than 300 years ago, is the only one of its kind in the Beijing region. However, the weirdest thing is the ultramarine imperial robe within his usual court dress, which is clearly incompatible with his status. In addition, his hairstyle does not conform to the traditional Qing Dynasty pigtail; it is instead in a bun. These enigmas still can not be explained. It is understood the bronze-colored skin of the mummy was still flexible when it was first excavated, since then the water was evaporated. However, the hair and finger-nails are still well-preserved. The staff stated the mummy was disinfected with alcohol before exhibition and preserved in a vacuum glass coffin. The temperature of the room is kept at 16 degrees Centigrade to enable the mummy's long term preservation...."

Swiss mummy researcher attempts to recreate Egyptian mummification process on human body part (turkishweekly.net)

"A leading Swiss anatomy expert has managed to mummify a body part using the same salt drying process the ancient Egyptians employed. Frank Rühli, who has also examined the King Tutankhamun CT (computed tomography) scans and the Ötzi iceman mummy, is looking at how human tissue reacts during mummification, in what is a unique project. Rühli's laboratory is set in the depths of Zurich University's Irchel campus. In one corner stands a wooden box, filled with salt, behind a protective screen. Just visible in the box is an outline of a shape. The researcher has used a salt mixture based on a mid-1990s United States study, which tried to determine the "magic formula" used by ancient Egyptians to dry out bodies before burial. "It's amazing how much you actually need, so far we have used around 60 kilograms," said Rühli, who leads the research at the university's Institute of Anatomy, as part of the internationally acclaimed Swiss Mummy Project...."

Delay in moving Iran's salt mummies to high-tech display cases causes further decomposition (presstv.ir)

"Iran's six saltmen, unique among the world's salt mummies, are endangered after delay in getting to their technologically advanced resting place. A vacuum chamber in Zanjan was built to preserve the mummies in Iran. It precisely controls humidity and airflow and is provided with a nitrogen-rich mixture deadly to known bacteria and mold. Iranian, British, German and Austrian researchers had declared that air and humidity are the main enemies of salt mummies. Despite the positive measures taken for the preservation of the ancient mummies, the timing was askew. The mummies have not been transferred to their new resting place until now. The tardiness of the measures led to some decomposition of the salt mummies in their nonstandard display cases. The saltmen were accidentally uncovered by miners in 1993 in Chehrabad Salt Mine, located in the Hamzehlou region of Zanjan province in northwestern Iran...."

More information about the Salt Mummies