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May
2009
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MUMMY
SCIENCE:
CHILE
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Arsenic-laced
water may have spurred first mummies made by Chinchorro people
(sciencemag.org)
"Archaeologists
have long puzzled over the nearly 200 mummies created by the
Chinchorro people that have been found in the Camarones River valley
of northern Chile. At the Society for American Archaeology meetings
last month, researchers presented new evidence for a provocative
hypothesis about why the Chinchorro began the practice and why their
morticians initially focused on young children. They showed that the
Chinchorro were being poisoned by arsenic in their water, likely
leading to a high rate of miscarriage and child mortality. Such
deaths may have helped to spawn the practice of mummification...."
Entire article is
available by subscription in Science 29 May 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5931, p. 1130
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Two
previously unseen collections on display in Trento's Buonconsiglio
Castle (ansamed.info)
"A world
preview of two collections that have never been seen before is being
inaugurated in Trento. The exhibition entitled 'Egitto mai visto'
(Unseen Egypt) will be open to the public from Saturday May 30 until
November 8 at the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trento. The collections
include mummies of a man, a woman, a gat, two fish and a small
crocodile. The bulk of the collection comes from items kept in
storage at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, the most important such
museum outside Cairo. The two human mummies from the First
Intermediate Period (2100-1900 BC) in fact come from Turin. They
were discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century during
excavations by the archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in Assiut and
Gebelein. Both mummies are in a good condition and underwent
analyses and cleaning for the exhibition. The male mummy is enclosed
in a tree trunk with a staff, a symbol of prestige, in the
sarcophagus. The female mummy is that of Neb-em-Khis, the wife of
one of the heads of the province. The latter were important military
figures when central Pharaonic power was struck by crisis. A mirror,
a headrest and a small box of make-up, which were found in the
sarcophagus, will also be exhibited. Excavation diaries, letters and
photographic documentation by Schiaparelli, who was famous for
finding the tomb of Kha, Pharaoh Amenophis III's royal architect,
will enable visitors to relive the emotions of his research carried
out between 1908 and 1920. For the first time ever, the public will
be able to view about 40 walls of sarcophagi, with carved and
painted hieroglyphics, and ten recently restored steles which will
reveal the secrets of this writing and will also allow religious
creeds and divinities to be recognized. From a scientific point of
view, the exhibition is significant because it deals, for the first
time, with the complete study of material found by the Italian
archaeological mission, allowing a philological reconstruction of
funerary aspects which were unknown to people outside the field
until now. The curious Egyptian collection of the Buonconsiglio
Castle is the other previously unseen collection which is on
display. It is made up of objects purchased in the first half of the
19th century by Taddeo Tonelli of Trento, an official of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, which have been kept in storage by the
museum until now...."
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Woman
kept mother's body in freezer for 20 years
(guardian.co.uk)
"An
elderly woman has been questioned by police after allegedly keeping
her mother's body in a freezer for up to two decades, it emerged
today. Police found the body wrapped in a black bin liner in a chest
freezer at a semi-detached house in Sidcup, south-east London.
Officers interviewed Daulat Irani, 83, under caution after the body
was discovered and identified as that of her mother Gulbai Freedoon
Murzan, who was born in 1901. Police believe she may have been dead
for up to 20 years. Metropolitan police said the death was being
treated as unexplained, rather than suspicious. Postmortem results
are expected later this week. It is understood that officers were
called to the property in Park Mead on 10 May after being alerted by
a neighbor, and forensic officers removed the corpse. It is unclear
why the body was kept in the freezer, but neighbors of the elderly
woman suggested she may have been worried that immigration
authorities would discover her mother had been living illegally in
the UK. A neighbor, who did not wish to be named, said Irani was a
"very private person" who kept her garden in pristine
condition. "Obviously it was shocking when the police came and
told me what happened. They said they believed she had been in the
freezer for more than 20 years," the neighbor told the Daily
Mirror...."
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May
2009
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FINDER'S
FEE:
RUSSIA
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Russian
man receives fee for finding Yakutia baby mammoth
(mosnews.com)
 "A
Russian man who found the corpse of a baby mammoth will receive 1
million rubles ($31,000) for reporting the find to the
Republican
Mammoth
Museum
. The corpse was found in Yakutia, a republic in
Russia
’s north-eastern
Siberia
, by the side of Khroma river, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports
Wednesday. Igor Lebedev, employee of the local Pension Fund, noticed
the mammoth, partially washed out of the ground by river water,
while walking. Specialists of the
Republican
Mammoth
Museum
studied the find and alleged it to be a young mammoth corpse some
15,000-30,000 years old. The animal, who died at about two years of
age, had its head, legs and some intestines well-preserved in the
cold climate of Yakutia. According to the republic’s legislation,
Lebedev will now receive a reward of 1 million rubles. Authorities
of the diamond-rich region announced the reward to avert the mammoth
corpses being sold on the black market rather than being given for
research. In the past few years, mammoths have regularly been found
in
Russia
. In
2004, the corpse of a one-year-old mammoth was found in Yakutia; in
2007, an extremely well-preserved six-month-old female was found in
the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area...."
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Iranian
salt mummies get special preservation chamber
(presstv.ir)
"Iran's four
saltmen, unique salt mummies, have found a new resting place is one
of the most advanced display cases in the world. The vacuum chamber
in Zanjan can precisely control humidity and airflow and is provided
with a nitrogen-rich mixture deadly to known bacteria and mold.
Iranian, British, German and Austrian researchers declared air and
humidity the main enemies of salt mummies at the 2nd International
Seminar on the Archeology and Pathology of Saltmen in October, 2007.
The experts examined the saltmen's condition to make the final
decision on carrying out further studies on the Chehrabad salt mine,
where the saltmen were found. The Chehrabad Salt Mine is located in
the Hamzehlou region of Zanjan province in northwestern Iran. The
saltmen, also known as the Iranian salt mummies, were accidentally
discovered by miners in 1993. Three of the saltmen date to the
Parthian (247 BCE - 224 CE) and the Sassanid (224 - 651 CE) eras,
while all other human remains discovered at the site go back to the
Achaemenid Dynasty (550 - 330 BCE). Artifacts have been discovered
alongside the skeletons, including leather shoes, a leather bag, a
terracotta lamp and two cow horns, most of which remain intact. Salt
at the mine worked to preserve the artifacts, as well as the
internal organs of the salt men themselves. Fingernails and hair
have also been found undamaged, which will enable scientific testing
to be carried out that could reveal further clues about these
ancient people...."
More
information about the salt mummies
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May
2009
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EXHIBIT?:
BELARUS
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Lenin's
mummy may get a new home--in Minsk
(newsfromrussia.com)
"Lenin’s
mummy may be transported from the Mausoleum on the Red Square to
Minsk, the capital of Belarus, in the near future. The government of
Belarus supposes that Lenin still remains a symbol of their nation.
Officials say that they would be ready to accept his body in Minsk
honorably if Moscow begins to implement the plan to finally bury the
deceased leader of the world’s working class. A special monument
resembling Lenin’s Tomb is likely to be built for him in the
Belarusian capital. Sources from the team of Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko maintain that this issue has been repeatedly
discussed at the highest level. Lukashenko believes that burying
Lenin is a crime. The head of state is sure that Lenin’s presence
in Minsk will unite the Belarusian nation before outside enemies.
All sociological surveys confirm that there is strong nostalgia for
the Soviet past in Belarus. The debate about burying Lenin’s body
flared up again on the eve of his birth anniversary this year.
Several political parties and movements including the Orthodox
Church and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia with its head
Vladimir Zhirinovsky demanded Lenin be carried away from the Red
Square and transported to Ulyanovsk - his home town...."
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May
2009
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DISCOVERY:
SOUTH AFRICA
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Scientists
find 200,000-year-old human hair in hyena dung from Gladysvale Cave
(telegraph.co.uk)
"Paleontologists
found 40 strands of fossilized hair inside samples of coprolite, or fossilized
dung, from a cave in South Africa that was used by brown hyenas.
Until now the oldest samples of human hair were from a 9,000 year
old mummy found in northern Chile. It is extremely rare for soft
tissue such as hair, skin and muscle to survive more than a few
hundred years and only hard tissue like bone is fossilized normally.
But scientists believe the new samples of hair are the remains of an
early species of human that was scavenged by hyenas after death,
allowing the delicate hairs to be preserved inside the dung as it fossilized.
They now hope that future analysis of the hairs could help to shed
light on exactly which species it came from, the color of their hair
and even the state of health of the person it came from. Dr Lucinda
Backwell, a paleontologist at the University of Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg, South Africa, who led the group that found the hairs,
said: "This find is so unusual as the human fossil record at
this time is exceedingly poor, and of course hair is relatively
fragile and degrades easily. It is the first non-bony material in
the early hominid fossil record. "As analytical techniques
become more advanced they could shed light on what the person looked
like, their state of health, and other aspects that cannot be
investigated with current technologies." The researchers, who
include archaeologists from York University and University of
Bradford, used tweezers to remove 40 hairs from a single piece of
dung found in a fossilized hyena latrine near Sterkfontein caves,
where other early human remains have been found. They compared the fossilized
hairs to samples from modern humans, primates and other animals in
an attempt to identify them...."
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Mummified
cat put up for auction on eBay
(thetelegraphandargus.co.uk)
 "A
mummified cat which fell on a builder’s head as he pulled down the
ceiling of a Victorian city centre building is being auctioned on
eBay. The ancient specimen is available to a good home via the
online marketplace website, with the auction due to end next Friday
[15 May, 2009]. Graham Hall, a partner of Bradford-based property
auctioneers Harry Hall and Company, decided to cash in on the
gruesome find at Dale Chambers in Dale Street and donate the takings
to the RSPCA. The building, a former warehouse, was being converted
into flats when a Polish builder got a surprise when it fell on his
head – and reportedly said: “Big mice you have in England!” Mr
Hall said: “I was quite sure people would bid for it. It isn’t
decomposed at all, it’s just dried out – it’s horrific when
you look at it. It looks like a gargoyle.” On the auction site, Mr
Hall states: “It is certainly a gruesome beast, and a real talking
point. Even if you haven’t got a morbid fascination, you cannot
fail to be intrigued by it. On the auction site, Mr Hall states:
“It is certainly a gruesome beast, and a real talking point. Even
if you haven’t got a morbid fascination, you cannot fail to be
intrigued by it. Mr Hall said he is at a loss as to how long the cat
had been lodged between the ceiling and floorboards on the third
floor but thought it could have been trapped when the building was
constructed in the 1840s...."
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May
2009
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EXHIBIT:
NEW YORK
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Cazenovia
Public Library unveils new, improved mummy exhibit
(syracuse.com)
"A new exhibit
at the Cazenovia Public Library is helping better tell the story of
how a 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummy made its way to Madison County.
Robert James Hubbard toured Egypt, Europe and the Near East with his
son in 1894 and sent his souvenirs home to Cazenovia, where he had
recently donated a building for a library. His "Museum of
Curiosities," including dozens of artifacts purchased at
bazaars and open-air markets in Cairo, have delighted generations of
local residents and thousands of schoolchildren who tour the
collection every year to learn about ancient civilizations. The
library will rededicate the museum today after a winter of
renovations designed to make the artifacts more comprehensive and
educational. Museum educators Pat Hill and Julia Smith Schotzberger
- both scientists by trade - and researcher Jon Holstein spent the
winter putting together the display with the technical assistance of
Hamilton's Exhibition Alliance and a $24,500 grant from the Central
New York Community Foundation. The team combed through Hubbard's
diaries, kept on file at Lorenzo State Historic Site, and
supplemented their findings with other historical sources...."
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May
2009
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DISCOVERY:
EGYPT
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2,300-year-old
mummified puppy found in Egyptian tomb
(msnbc.com)
"A small
bundle found at the feet of an ancient Egyptian mummy whose tomb was
inscribed with the phrase "Hapi-Men" contained the remains
of a young dog, according to University of Pennsylvania Museum of
Archaeology and Anthropology staff who have named the canine "Hapi-Puppy."
The approximately 2,300-year-old puppy, revealed during a recent CT
scan, is thought to be one of the world's rarest mummified animals.
Early Egyptians often preserved cats, birds and even crocodiles, but
not often dogs. Jennifer Wegner, a senior research scientist in the
museum's Egyptian section, explained to Discovery News that unlike
some of the other more commonly mummified animals, the ancient
Egyptians "had no dog gods, per se, although certain gods, like
Anubis, could take the form of a jackal." "In this case,
we think Hapi-Men simply wanted to be buried with his beloved
pet," she said, explaining that "Hapi-Men" translates
roughly to, "The Apis bull endures," referring to the bull
god Apis. Patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
must have been surprised when, just over a week ago, Hapi-Men, Hapi-Puppy
were hauled into the hospital's CT scanning room. Computed
tomography creates detailed three-dimensional images of objects by
compiling multiple photographed "slices." The researchers
had no trouble sliding the mummies into the machine, but the
mummies' length required two partial body scans with
overlaps...."
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