Juanita's museum to be expanded with three new rooms (livinginperu.com)

"The facilities of the Santuarios Andinos Museum, which houses the Mummy Juanita, will be expanded aiming to show visitors unedited pieces found in pre-Inca tombs, reported Jose Antonio Chavez, head of the cultural complex. There will be three new rooms to be installed in the complex, located one block away from the main square of Arequipa, he explained. The new atmospheres will house the mummies and their offerings found in their tombs that were located in the volcanoes Sara Sara, Misti and Pichu Pichu. Where the investigation center of the Universidad Catolica de Santa Maria (UCSM) did works since 1979. The director of the Santuarios Andinos Museum said that one of the rooms will house the only mummy found in the Sara Sara next to its offerings. The second room will house 6 mummies that were found in two different tombs in the Misti volcano, the same that will be exhibit with their ceremonial pieces. The third one the tourist will be able to appreciate 2 mummies found in the Pichu Pichu volcano...." 

Egyptian animal graves found near Hierakonopolis (nationalgeographic.com)

"At the edge of a cemetery in Hierakonpolis, Egypt's first city, lies a baboon, buried 3,500 years ago in a tomb near others containing nine dogs and six cats. It was these animals' job to protect the elite necropolis. Hierakonpolis, south of Cairo, has more animal burials than any early Nile Valley urban center. But their purpose has long puzzled archaeologists. This summer, site director Renee Friedman found evidence the animals belonged in a menagerie kept by the city's ruler--the earliest evidence of a practice that later spread through Egypt...."

Slideshow of the graves

Two mummies taken from Cochapata returned to government institute (livinginperu.com)

"A local citizen gave back to Peru's National Culture Institute (INC) a two mummies, corresponding to an adult woman (her estimated age is 35-40) and an infant, as well as several objects that were buried with them. According to local TV news channel Canal N, the female mummy was found carrying the infant mummy in her arms, both in fetal position, buried in a spot near Cochapata, in the western esplanade of Sacsayhuamán Archaeological Park. The objects found include weaving tools, woven and braided straw and camelid leather sandals, wood conopas (figures), bird feathers, a small ceramic kero, a small jar, parts of fabrics with design, among others...."

Utah professor studies blood sacrifice of 33 Peruvian mummies (byu.edu)

"A UVU anthropology professor was recently featured on National Geographic for his research findings on 33 mummies at a site northeast of Chichlayo, Peru. Research done by Haagen Klaus discovered that the 33 mummies ­— most of them girls — were sacrificed as a bid for agricultural fertility. Bioarchealogical studies done by Klaus and five UVU students have also uncovered several other facts about the Peruvian mummies such as age, diet, illnesses and cause of death. “The blood sacrifice of a large group of women is something that is very, very unusual,” Klaus Said. “It’s the first time that we’ve ever seen this.” Ranging from 9-15 years old, just three of the mummies found were males. The bodies were well preserved, several of them still with skin, muscle and internal organs preserved. Klaus was able to examine the skeletal remains of the sacrifice victims and observe the skeletal biological phenomena that are reflective of life history, diet, genetic patterns, physical activity and trauma that are all ultimately shaped by culture and behavior. “We’re really looking at the socially constructed patterns of human biology that tells us how people live, and in the case of the sacrifice victims, how they died,” Klaus said. The examination of the mummified chest of a 9-11 year old child proved that the sacrifice victims were not just used for the blood, but also for their heart, Klaus said...."

Exhibition of Gunnister Man, Shetland bog body from 1700, runs until October 5th (shetlandtimes.co.uk)

"An exhibition of the artifacts which belonged to the Gunnister Man, whose remains were discovered in a peat hill in Gunnister, Northmavine, in May 1951, opens on Saturday at Shetland Museum and Archives. This is the first time the artifacts, which are normally housed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, have been displayed in Shetland since their discovery. The Gunnister Man is believed to have died around 1700. The loan is down to an agreement between Shetland Amenity Trust and National Museums Scotland. George Dalgliesh, principal curator of Scottish history within the Scotland and Europe department of the National Museum of Scotland, who has been installing the exhibition at the museum, said of the display: “It’s brilliant; I’m delighted to have the exhibition in Shetland. It’s a good example of the partnership between Shetland Amenity Trust and the National Museum. Last year we had St Ninian’s Isle treasure and now we have the Gunnister Man exhibition.” He said the findings, which include clothing, a knitted purse and coins, were of “national and international importance” and praised the work of the Shetland museum in its efforts to host the exhibition...." 

Video of the exhibit

Japanese archaeologists help uncover remains of 'Lady of Pacopampa' (AFP @google.com)

"A joint Japanese-Peruvian archeological mission has uncovered the remains of a pre-Incan woman sacrificed more than 2,000 years ago in the Andean nation, experts told local media Wednesday. "The bones were discovered in a fetal position, with the legs bound by a cord that has been preserved despite the passage of the centuries," Japanese researcher Yuji Seki told the El Comercio daily. The remains were uncovered at an archeological complex in northern Peru's Cajamarca department, where several previous discoveries of ancient remains have been made. zed the "Lady of Pacopampa" after the site in the northern highlands where she was found, she was 1.55 meters (five feet one inch) tall, and was surrounded in her tomb with several gold artifacts including pendants, necklaces and plates, according to the researchers. Seki said the woman was between 30 and 40 years old and lived 800 to 900 years before Christ, which would make the Lady of Pacopampa considerably older than most excavated or mummified bodies found in Peru. The remains of the woman were discovered one week ago in Pacopampa, in Chota province of Cajamarca, some 850 kilometers (530 miles) northeast of the capital Lima...." 

Mystery of four disfigured skulls solved (sciencemag.org)

"In the early 1970s, archaeologists unearthed an unusual find in an ancient Chilean cemetery: the skulls of four women whose faces had seemingly been eaten away. None of the other 500-to-1000-year-old bones in the cemetery displayed the same disfigurement. Now, thanks to the region's arid climate, which helped mummify some of the women's facial tissue and brains, scientists think they have figured out what happened. The cemetery--known as Coyo Oriente--lies near the city of San Pedro de Atacama, in the driest desert on Earth, the Atacama. Archaeologists say the land belonged to the ancient Atacameños, farmers and llama breeders, who wrapped their dead in finely woven cloth before placing them in their sandy graves. A total of 255 skulls, including the four disfigured ones, were unearthed from the cemetery, and all contained bits of mummified brains and tissue. Maria Antonietta Costa, a physical anthropologist at the Catholic University of the North, San Pedro de Atacama, has painstakingly removed these small pieces over the past 30 years in an effort to figure out what happened to all of the people, including the four women. At the 1998 Third World Congress on Mummy Studies in Arica, Chile, Costa asked paleoneurobiologist Otto Appenzeller of the New Mexico Health Enhancement and Marathon Clinics Research Foundation in Albuquerque his opinion of the four skulls. "It could have been leprosy, cancer, even tuberculosis," Appenzeller recalls telling her. In hopes of solving the mystery, the duo sent samples to Carney Matheson at the Paleo-DNA Research Laboratory at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He retrieved and amplified sufficient DNA to discover genes belonging to the parasitic protozoan Leishmania, which causes leishmaniasis. There are more than 30 species of this parasite, which is transmitted by various species of sand flies and attacks visceral organs, mucous membranes, or the skin. The scientists suspect that the women suffered from the mucocutaneous form, which causes chronic ulcers and lesions around the nose, eyes, and mouth if untreated. Although leishmaniasis is endemic throughout much of South America, this is the first time it has been found in a South American mummy, the team reports online today in PLoS ONE. A previous x-ray study of skeletal remains from the cemetery had revealed lesions reminiscent of leishmaniasis in 2% of the bones...." 

'The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC' exhibit set to open at Boston's MFA in October (artdaily.org)

"They survived two fires, the onslaught of robbers, and the effects of four thousand years underground. Now, these masterworks from an Egyptian tomb of the Middle Kingdom (2040–1640 BC) will be on view in a special exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), from October 18, 2009, through May 16, 2010. The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC showcases funerary objects discovered in Deir el-Bersha, a necropolis in central Egypt, by the joint Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in 1915. It includes the famous painted "Bersha coffin," the mummified head of one of the tomb’s two occupants, and hundreds of items deemed necessary for a comfortable afterlife in ancient Egypt. This find represents the largest Middle Kingdom burial assemblage ever discovered and sheds light on the grand lifestyle enjoyed by local governor and priest Djehutynakht and his wife, Lady Djehutynakht. The conservation and reconstruction of many of the items—damaged by grave robbers in antiquity—have taken almost a century to complete. For the first time since they were placed in the tomb, the assemblage will be displayed in its entirety...."

'The Mummies of Guanajuato' exhibit opens in Mexico City before US tour (huffingtonpost.com)

"Fans of the macabre rejoice: the Mummies of Guanajuato, an amazing collection of mummified bodies of people who died during a cholera outbreak Mexico in 1833, have gone on display in Mexico City before embarking on a three-year tour that will bring them to the States in an exhibition titled "The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato." The remains were exhumed in 1865...."

For more information about the exhibit