Large mummy exhibit of 2010 announces Its U.S. tour beginning 2010 (prnewswire.com)

"American Exhibitions, Inc., in association with the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum of Mannheim, Germany, announced that the blockbuster exhibit Mummies of the World: The Dream of Eternal Life, the largest traveling exhibition of mummies and artifacts, will tour science centers and museums in the United States for a limited three year tour commencing July 2010. "Never in history has there been such an important collection of mummies and artifacts," said Marcus W. Corwin, President and CEO of American Exhibitions, Inc. "This blockbuster exhibit is poised to bring record-breaking attendance to museums in its limited United States tour." Dignified, reverent and scholarly, this unique collection brilliantly enhances our educational, scientific and cultural landscape, as mummification provides a window into the lives, history and cultures of every major region of the world. "The largest mummy exhibition worldwide will include 70 human, animal and reptilian mummies gathered from the four corners of the world," said Dr. Wilfried Rosendahl, Curator of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum, Mannheim, Germany. "Visitors will embark on an exciting and historical journey around the globe, with mummies representing several continents and spanning thousands of years." Unlike exhibits which feature only Egyptian mummies, this remarkable and compelling exhibition demonstrates the different processes of mummification and serves to educate visitors as to their respective cultures. The collection includes ancient mummies and important artifacts from Asia, Oceania, South America and Europe, as well as ancient Egypt, and demonstrates how mummification can be a natural process; one which occurs in hot, dry desert sands, in eternal ice, in moors and bogs and even, amazingly, in dry cellars...."

'Mummified' unwraps the mysteries of ancient Egypt (jhunewsletter.com)

"Mummified, a new exhibit at the Walters Art Museum running through November, features ancient Egyptian artifacts depicting the process and result of mummification. Ancient Egyptians performed an elaborate ceremony to prepare the dead for their journey into the afterlife. While some modern perspectives view their ideas about death as an obsession, the Egyptians considered it the beginning of a spiritual journey. Mummification was only one aspect of Egyptian religious life, and the exhibit does well in displaying lesser known rituals like animal sacrifices. This exhibit will not magically transport you to an ancient, mystical land that helped birth civilization. For that, you'll have to pay upwards of $1,500 for a flight to Cairo. But the exhibit does reveal a great deal of knowledge about the ancient Egyptians' views of death. A healthy appetite for Egyptian history would be needed to read through the entire exhibit. However, there are more than enough neat items to pique interest for the average museum-goer. The computer terminals near the entrance to the exhibit that summarize the history of mummification proved very helpful. In short, mummification originated in the desert around Egypt when people noticed the preservative properties of the sand on the dead. The first process may have been developed as early as 4000 B.C., and the first mummies were simply wrapped in cloth and buried in the sand. Highly advanced methods were developed over the centuries. Visceral organs were removed and placed in ceremonial containers called canopic jars for use in the afterlife (the brain was discarded). The linen became coated with plant resins and natural salts were used to dehydrate the body before embalming...."

Honolulu Editorial: Enact restrictions on cadavers shown in public exhibits (starbulletin.co)

"A Barnum & Bailey-style exhibition of skinless, mummified human bodies from China completed a seven-month stretch last weekend at Ala Moana Center, but any return appearance should undergo scrutiny. Enactment of legislation sponsored by Rep. Marcus Oshiro and approved this week by a House committee is needed to assure respect for the dead. The legislation will not interfere with the display of bodies at funerals or the exhibit of cultural artifacts that include human hair or teeth. More than 10 million people across Europe and the United States have seen "Bodies ... The Exhibition," an assortment of cadavers configured in lifelike poses. The exhibition, sponsored by Atlanta- based Premier Exhibitions, closed at Ala Moana and opened last week in Dublin, prompting calls for examination by the Irish Human Rights Commission. The corpse preservation involves removing fluids and replacing them with chemical polymers, or plastic. It was developed by Gunther von Hagens, a German scientist and competitor of Premier whose company has taken in more than $200 million by displaying corpses over the past decade. Premier agreed three years ago to pay $25 million for a reliable supply of bodies from China. But whose bodies were they? Premier has maintained that it uses unclaimed and unidentified bodies given by police in China to the Dalian Medical University in northeastern China. A university spokesman says it has no knowledge of the bodies' origins...."

Ötzi attacked twice during last days of his life (sciencedaily.com)

"Another chapter in a murder case over 5000 years old. New investigations by an LMU [Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich)] research team working together with a Bolzano colleague reconstructed the chronology of the injuries that Ötzi, the glacier man preserved as a frozen mummy, received in his last days. It turns out, for example, that he did in fact only survive the arrow wound in his back for a very short time – a few minutes to a number of hours, but no more – and also definitely received a blow to the back with a blunt object only shortly before his death. In contrast, the cut wound on his hand is some days older. “We are now able to make the first assertions as to the age and chronology of the injuries,” reports Professor Andreas Nerlich, who led the study. “It is now clear that Ötzi endured at least two injuring events in his last days, which may imply two separate attacks. Although the ice mummy has already been studied at great length, there are still new results to be gleaned. The crime surrounding Ötzi is as thrilling as ever!" It is the oldest ice mummy ever found. Ötzi, the man from the Neolithic Age, is giving science critical information about life more than 5000 years ago, not least from his equipment. His copper axe, for example, reveals that metalworking was already much more advanced in that era than was previously assumed. Yet Ötzi’s body, too, gives us many details as to his diet, state of health – and not least to his murder. “Some time ago, we detected a deep cut wound on Ötzi’s hand that he must have survived for at least a couple of days,” says Nerlich, head of the Institute of Pathology at Municipal Hospital Munich-Bogenhausen and member of the Medical Faculty of LMU.... Now, Nerlich has reconstructed the missing chronology while working together with LMU forensic scientist Dr. Oliver Peschel and Dr. Eduard Egarter-Vigl, head of the Institute for Pathology in Bolzano. According to the new information, Ötzi did in fact only survive the arrow wound for a very short period of time, of no more than a few hours. A few centimeters below the entry wound they detected an additional small discoloration of the skin, which was probably caused by a blow from a blunt object. In both cases, the researchers, using new immunohistochemical detection methods, managed to detect very briefly survived, yet unequivocally fatal bleeding...."

Link to article published in Intensive Care Medicine

More news about Ötzi

FOUND!: Mummy formula for Rosalia Lombardo, the famous 'Sleeping Beauty' of Palermo (nationalgeographic.com)

"She's one of the world's best-preserved bodies: Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old Sicilian girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. "Sleeping Beauty," as she's known, appears to be merely dozing beneath the glass front of her coffin in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Italy. Now an Italian biological anthropologist, Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, has discovered the secret formula that preserved Rosalia's body so well.... Piombino-Mascali tracked down living relatives of Alfredo Salafia, a Sicilian taxidermist and embalmer who died in 1933. A search of Salafia's papers revealed a handwritten memoir in which he recorded the chemicals he injected into Rosalia's body: formalin, zinc salts, alcohol, salicylic acid, and glycerin. Formalin, now widely used by embalmers, is a mixture of formaldehyde and water that kills bacteria. Salafia was one of the first to use this for embalming bodies. Alcohol, along with the arid conditions in the catacombs, would have dried Rosalia's body and allowed it to mummify. Glycerin would have kept her body from drying out too much, and salicylic acid would have prevented the growth of fungi. But it was the zinc salts, according to Melissa Johnson Williams, executive director of the American Society of Embalmers, that were most responsible for Rosalia's amazing state of preservation. Zinc, which is no longer used by embalmers in the United States, petrified Rosalia's body. "[Zinc] gave her rigidity," Williams said. "You could take her out of the casket prop her up, and she would stand by herself."... " 

More about Rosalia Lombardo

More about the Palermo Catacombs

Protestors dressed as mummies call for burial of Lenin's preserved body on 85th anniversary of his death (rian.ru)

The 85th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's death Image Gallery  (rian.ru)

"Riot police on Wednesday detained some 30 people dressed as mummies, who attempted to gather on Moscow's Red Square calling for the burial of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a police spokesman said. On Wednesday Russia celebrates the 85th anniversary of Lenin's death. His embalmed body has been on public display in a glass case in a mausoleum in Red Square since his death following a series of strokes in 1924. His continuing presence in the heart of Moscow has been an ongoing source of controversy since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Another police source earlier said 25 people were detained. "A group of 25 young people, carrying a cardboard coffin, were detained by police officers," a police source said, adding that the detainees were taken to a police station for questioning. Some 50 young people wrapped from head to toe in white bandages and carrying coffins with Lenin's name were due to join a procession of thousands of communists who will lay wreaths at the mausoleum on Red Square.... The spokesman said the protestors had been detained on the grounds that the rally had not been sanctioned by Moscow authorities. "Mummy costumes are not banned from being worn in public places, and anyone who does not disrupt public order can join the rally of communists," a spokesman for the group said. The organization previously held a demonstration in support of Lenin's burial near the graves of his mother and sisters at the Volkovskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg, where the group erected a headstone with the name of the communist leader. An opinion poll has shown that two thirds of Russians believe that the embalmed body of the architect of the 1917 Russian Revolution should be removed from its mausoleum on Red Square and buried...."

Is Galileo's body well-preserved? If so, scientists hope to study his DNA to discover the cause of his blindness (abc.net.au)

"Italian scientists are hoping to extract Galileo's DNA to determine how the astronomer forged groundbreaking theories on the universe while gradually becoming blind. Scientists at Florence's Institute and Museum of the History of Science want to exhume the body of 17th Century astronomer Galileo Galilei to find out exactly what he could see through his telescope. The Italian astronomer championed the heliocentric view of the universe - that earth orbited the sun - first proposed by his Polish predecessor Nicolaus Copernicus.... Galileo was also known to have a degenerative eye disease that eventually left him blind before his death in 1642. Institute director, Paolo Galluzzi, hopes the Galileo's DNA will reveal what caused him to become blind.... They now want DNA proof of what ophthalmologists have said was a genetic eye disease and thereby more fully understand the conditions under which he made observations that revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos...."

Preserved animal DNA may help scientists date medieval manuscripts (sciam.com)

"Long before musty old paper volumes and Google Book Search, most tomes in medieval Europe were written on animal skins—a practice which might now hold the key to tracing their origins. Timothy Stinson, an associate English professor at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has started using DNA testing to track the history and age of medieval manuscripts. His goal: to create a DNA database from the books with known publication dates and places (such as calendars and histories) in an effort to use the genetic information gleaned from them as a baseline to date those manuscripts whose backgrounds are unknown. "There are these tantalizing hints that this would work for parchment," he says of the DNA testing, "but no one was really using it." He says that in addition to tracing the roots of written documents, genetic clues may help piece together manuscripts that were separated over time. Thousands of fragile manuscripts still survive from the Middle Ages (roughly 400 to 1500 CE), a time when most of Europe's population was illiterate, and monks transcribed nearly all of the books that circulated around the continent. Until recently, scholars relied on visual analysis (such as handwriting samples) to trace the origin of most ancient texts. But Stinson says that more precise genetic analyses are possible because the preferred "paper" of the day was thin parchment made from the skin of local cattle, sheep or goats. "DNA offers much more specific information, but no one's mapped it yet," he says...."

Otago Museum's female Egyptian mummy is no Cleopatra (odt.co.nz)

"However the Otago Museum's bandage-swathed mummy may have looked 2300 years ago, it certainly wasn't like film star Elizabeth Taylor. But Taylor's memorable portrayal of Cleopatra in the movie of the same name has left its mark, Dave Wright, the museum's collections, assets and research director, said yesterday - so much so that many people think any female Egyptian mummy would look like her. The museum will reveal more of its mummy's secrets at its "Egypt Unwrapped" day on January 28. A non-intrusive CT scan of the mummy at Dunedin Hospital in 2000, which was used to create a three- dimensional computer model, showed the mummified woman was not exactly a raven-haired beauty when she died. She had only six teeth and was likely to have been racked with pain from severe gum disease, including abscesses. She was aged about 35 - at a time when many people did not live much beyond 40 - and is believed to have been middle-class. Carbon-dating of linen from the mummy's wrappings and other analysis shows she lived during the Ptolemaic period (323BC to 30BC)...."

Mummy of 6th Dynasty queen uncovered in Egypt (abc.net.au)

"Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered what are thought to be the mummified remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled for 11 years in around 2,300 BC. The remains were found in the sarcophagus of a pyramid south of the capital Cairo, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Thursday. The mummy was found wrapped in cloth in the 22-metre long and four-metre wide chamber, he said. Mr Hawass said the sarcophagus appeared to have been looted. "It is believed that these remains belong to Queen Sesheshet, especially because the pyramid was not built for worship but it was a burial pyramid," he said.... Queen Sesheshet was the mother of King Titi, the first pharaoh in the 6th Dynasty who ruled from 2,300 to 2,311 BC...."

New Scientist: Preserved, extinct beasts ripe for cloning (irishexaminer.com)

"A list of...“extinct beasts” that might, together with the woolly mammoth, rise again with the help of future technology was compiled by New Scientist magazine. They included the ice-age Neanderthal, which for a time lived alongside our Homo sapiens ancestors before vanishing around 25,000 years ago. In addition the gorilla was cited as a not-yet extinct candidate. Although the great ape still lives in the forests of west Africa, it was expected to be gone by the time scientists develop the ability to bring extinct animals back from the dead. In November, geneticists published a near-complete DNA blueprint for the woolly mammoth, increasing speculation about the possibility of reviving the creature 10,000 years after it disappeared from the Earth. This would involve cloning or tinkering with an elephant genome to remove the genetic differences. In both situations, a surrogate mother in the form of a closely related species would be needed. Such an ambitious goal is not possible with today’s technology, but some experts believe it is only a matter of time before extinct mammals are brought back to life. DNA less than around 100,000 years old can be preserved more or less intact in special circumstances, for instance when an animal is frozen in permafrost or dies in a dark cave or somewhere extremely dry.... The most likely candidates for resurrection are: The Neanderthal, Sabre-toothed cat, Short-faced bear, Glyptodon, Tasmanian tiger, Woolly rhinoceros, Dodo, Giant ground sloth, Irish elk...."

Link to the New Scientist article

Chinese construction workers uncover six 400-year-old ponytailed mummies in Turfan (dailymail.co.uk)

"This perfectly preserved corpse is one six that were unearthed during construction work in Turfan, farwest China ’s Xinjiang region. The bodies are believed to be officials from the Qing Dynasty – the final imperial reign from 1644, which lasted until the founding of the Republic of China in 1911. The male corpses have long hair – measuring up to 1.7metres in length – worn in a style known as a queue. The hairstyle was introduced to China in the early 17^th century by the emperor Nurhaci. Nurhaci achieved the creation of a Manchu state in Manchuria , later becoming the Qing Dynasty of China. Men shaved the hair off their temples and braided the rest of their hair in a long ponytail, or queue. Anyone who cut their ponytail could face execution or treason. The hairstyle was introduced to distinguish between the Manchus and the indigenous Chinese and was a symbol of submission to their rule...."

Info about other mummies from Xinjiang 

Mummified remains of Civil War Buffalo Soldier, looted from Fort Craig cemetery, to be reburied (military.com)

"Toward the end of the Civil War, former slave Thomas Smith joined the 125th United States Colored Troops unit in Butler County, Kentucky. Within two years of his 1864 enlistment, he was dead at age 23. The surgeon listed the cause as inflammation of the bowels from cholera. He was a private at Fort Craig, N.M., an Army post along the Rio Grande south of Socorro [New Mexico]. Well over a century later, a brown paper grocery bag containing the Buffalo Soldier's skull was handed over to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation archaeologists at a meeting in Peralta, with a Bureau of Land Management agent, a historian and a member of the medical examiner's office. "We're standing looking into this bag on the back of a truck. It appears to us to be of archaeological interest ... It had been identified by the looter as Thomas Smith, and this guy was a very good researcher," said Mark Hungerford, one of the archaeologists involved in a remarkable tale of looting, intrigue and ultimately deliverance for Smith and others buried at the cemetery.... With that delivery in 2005, Hungerford and Jeffery Hanson, a fellow Bureau of Reclamation archaeologist in Albuquerque, were fully launched on a quest that has involved extensive archival searches, two archaeological excavations and laboratory analyses by federal agencies from Honolulu to Washington, DC.... And come July 28, the remains of more than 60 people who died at Fort Craig will be reburied -- this time with pomp and ceremony -- at the Santa Fe National Cemetery...."

Using teeth, scientists partially solve the mystery of the Nazca trophy heads (eurekalert.org)

"The mystery of why ancient South American peoples who created the mysterious Nazca Lines also collected human heads as trophies has long puzzled scholars who theorize the heads may have been used in fertility rites, taken from enemies in battle or associated with ancestor veneration. A recent study using specimens from Chicago's Field Museum throws new light on the matter by establishing that trophy heads came from people who lived in the same place and were part of the same culture as those who collected them. These people lived 2,000 to 1,500 years ago. Archaeologists determined that the severed heads were trophies because holes were made in the skulls allowing the heads to be suspended from woven cords. A debate has been raging for the past 100 years over their meaning. Trophy heads in the Field collection were gathered from the Nazca Drainage of the arid southern Peruvian coast 80 years ago by noted American anthropologist Alfred Louis Kroeber (1876-1960). He also collected remains of some people buried normally. In some cases, the trophy heads were buried with their collectors. Because Nazca is among the driest places on Earth, said Ryan Williams, a Field Museum curator, the specimens Kroeber collected were very well preserved. The dead bodies were naturally mummified and some trophy heads still had their hair as well as the display cords attached to the skull. The museum also has several examples of Nazca pottery illustrated with trophy heads; some of the pots are on display in the museum's Ancient Americas exhibition.... Researchers speculated that if trophy heads were spoils of war, they likely would have come from people who lived somewhere beyond the Nazca area. To test this notion, scientists took samples of tooth enamel from 16 trophy heads in the Field collection and 13 mummified bodies buried in the Nazca region. The results clearly show that donors of the trophy heads were from the same place as the people who kept the trophies, Williams said. This conclusion was based on research using modern technology to look for subtle differences in three elements found in the samples. Those elements – strontium, oxygen and carbon – each display a slightly different atomic structure that varies by geographic location.... Scientists from Arizona State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Indiana University collaborated with Williams to do the study, which appears in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology...."

Link to article abstract

Walker finds mummified head in bag on Edinburgh footpath (scotsman.com)

"A partially mummified human head has been found in a bag on a footpath. Police have launched an investigation after the grisly discovery yesterday by a woman walking along the path. The head, thought to have been removed from the body of someone who died several years ago, was discovered at about 10:30am and the footpath was quickly cordoned off by police. Officers were yesterday carrying out forensic examinations at the scene in Edinburgh, while curious residents gathered to try to find out what had happened. The footpath, that runs alongside Hawthornvale in Leith, is surrounded by undergrowth and is generally quiet, but attracts the occasional dog-walker and cyclist. A police source said the head did not seem to be an ancient relic, but had been preserved in some way. He added that it was not yet clear whether the head came from the victim of a crime or another source...."

Human bone also discovered in bag along with mummified head (edinburghnews.scotsman.com)

"Detectives investigating the discovery of a head found dumped in a plastic bag are believed to have found a human bone sitting alongside it, it emerged today. The discovery adds to the intrigue surrounding the grisly discovery of the "mummified" human head on Christmas Eve. Police are still baffled by the case and are trying to establish whether the dumping of the remains may have been the result of some kind of medical students' prank or something more sinister. The human bone was reportedly found inside the same bag as the head which police believe belonged to a woman who died between ten and 15 years ago. Police would neither confirm nor deny reports that a bone was found with the head. Police search dogs, which are used to sniff out human remains, were at the scene yesterday. The head was found by a woman out walking her dog in Newhaven early on Wednesday morning. Officers quickly established the head was human, describing it as "mummified," but remain uncertain over whether the head is that of a child or an adult. It is thought the bag may have been left in the past week. Police are treating the find as a suspicious death. However, they are also investigating the possibility the head may have been stolen from a cemetery or a medical lab...."

More human remains found in bags (bbc.co.uk)

"Police investigating the discovery of a human skull on a public footpath in Edinburgh said they have found more remains. Other pieces of bone were found in a blue Ikea bag containing the head and in other bags recovered from the same location in Hawthornvale, Newhaven. Officers believe the remains, discovered on Wednesday, belonged to a female - probably over the age of 14...."

Woman may have died only 'six months ago' (theherald.co.uk)

"A human head found dumped on a footpath is that of a woman who may have died last year, police revealed yesterday. Specialist testing has confirmed early indications that the remains are female, with examination of several teeth in the head suggesting that it is that of an adult. Further analysis has also shown that while the macabre remains could be of someone whose death took place up to 15 years ago, as was previously thought, it is also possible that the person died as recently as six months ago. Officers investigating the unusual case announced yesterday that several human bones thought to be from the same corpse have also been found in and near to the blue Ikea carrier bag in which the head was first discovered in the Leith area of Edinburgh on New Year's Eve. In a further development, it emerged that although the head looked as though it had been mummified, tests have now proved that it has not been preserved in any way and is severely decomposed. Officers announced that the DNA profile of the head does not match any for people on the UK missing persons register...."

Woman identified, man arrested (scotsman.com)

"Police have identified the woman whose head was discovered in a shopping bag in Newhaven as 44-year-old Heather Stacey from Edinburgh. DNA tests confirmed her identity and police said she is believed to have died within the last two years.  Tests are continuing to establish the exact circumstances of her death. The head and other remains were found on a footpath at Hawthornvale by a dog walker on Hogmanay. Officers searching the scene later found a number of other bones in bags, along with "various materials" at the same time.  A 54-year-old man today appeared in court in connection with the discovery of the remains. Alan Cameron, from Edinburgh, appeared in private before Sheriff John Horsburgh QC at Edinburgh Sheriff Court this afternoon charged with attempting to defeat the ends of justice and breach of the peace. It is understood the alleged offences took place over the course of the last year...." 

What killed Dr Granville's mummy? (newscientist.com)

"Augustus Granville unpacked his props: he had bandages, bottles of chemicals, a bundle of candles and various bits of an Egyptian mummy. Mummy-mania was in full swing and public unrolling all the rage. But this wasn't going to be a shilling-a-ticket spectacle: Granville was giving a scientific lecture. He had spent weeks unwrapping and dissecting a mummy, meticulously measuring, recording and experimenting as he sought to unravel the mysteries of the embalmer's art. Yet even he couldn't resist one small theatrical flourish. To transport his audience back to the time when his mummy was so perfectly prepared for life after death, he lit the room with candles made from the very wax he believed had preserved her. When Egyptologist John Taylor joined the British Museum in the late 1980s, he found storerooms piled high with boxes. During the second world war, the museum's collections had been moved out for safety. Although returned soon afterwards, some had not been touched since. Exploring one such storeroom, Taylor came across a large wooden chest. "I had no idea what was in it and no one seemed to know anything about it." He opened the chest. Inside were two trays, each divided into compartments, and each compartment contained a piece of an Egyptian mummy. Taylor had rediscovered what was left of Augustus Granville's once-famous mummy.... Granville took six weeks to unwrap and investigate the mummy. "The operation was the most thorough performed on an Egyptian mummy up to that time," says Taylor. After opening the coffin, Granville laid the body on a long table. A search of the bandages revealed only a few blue glass beads and some grains of wheat. The bandages, though, "had been applied with a neatness and precision that would baffle the imitative power of the most adroit surgeon". With the wrappings off, Granville turned his attention to the corpse...."