mummies

Throughout the early 1800s, the question of whether animals could turn into new species was hotly debated in scientific circles.In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte brought a slew of savants — geologists, engineers, and other scientists – on his unsuccessful attempt to take over Egypt. A collection of mummified animals that the scholars brought back from Egypt seemed to hold the key to the question of species transformation.Naturalists Georges Cuvier and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, colleagues at the French Museum of Natural History,…

More than 200 man-made burial caves have been identified, 15 of which contain preserved human mummies. Credit: Sarah Soltis Tucked away in rock shelters in the secluded northern mountains of Luzon in the Philippines, the Kabayan "fire" mummies lie at rest. These mummies are what's left of a tradition that was carried out for hundreds of years up until…

A view from the summit of Volcán Salín, one of three Andean volcanoes where researchers uncovered the mummified cadavers of mice. Analyses of the mummies, combined with the capture of live specimens, suggest that the rodents scaled the Mars-like peaks on their own — and are somehow managing to live on them. Credit: Jay Storz, University of Nebraska–LincolnThe study dismisses any connection to Incan rituals, suggesting that mice ascended independently.In the midst of the driest desert on Earth, atop 20,000-foot volcanoes,…

December 9, 20232 min readBurials holding mummies with false heads have been discovered from the Wari Empire in PeruBy Owen Jarus & LiveScienceThe ruins of Pachacamac, an ancient archaeological site on the Pacific coast just south of Lima, Peru. Archaeologists in Peru have unearthed the burials of at least 73 people dating to around 1,000 years ago, a few hundred years before the Inca took over parts of western South America. Each of the 73 individuals was bundled in fabric — some of it colorful — and rope. Some of…

A study uncovered mummified mice on high-elevation Andean volcanoes, revealing that mammals can survive in extreme, Mars-like conditions. This finding challenges our understanding of vertebrate life’s physiological limits and prompts further research into these mice’s survival mechanisms. The barren, wind-blasted peaks of volcanoes in the Puna de Atacama, straddling Chile and Argentina, bear a striking resemblance to the Martian surface, characterized by a sparse atmosphere and frigid conditions. Situated at staggering…

Overview of some skulls available for study. Credit: Bea De Cupere, CC-BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Baboons were raised in captivity before being mummified in Ancient Egyptian sites, according to a study published December 6, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Wim Van Neer of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium and colleagues. …

Anemia was common in mummified ancient Egyptian children, according to a new study that analyzed child mummies in European museums.Researchers used computed tomography (CT) scans to peer non-invasively through the mummies' dressings and discovered that one-third of them had signs of anemia; they found evidence of thalassemia in one case, too."Our study appears to be the first to illustrate radiological findings not only of the cranial vault but also of the facial bones and postcranial skeleton that indicate thalassemia…

In a thrilling discovery for Egyptologists and ancient history buffs, the contents of six ancient animal sarcophagi have been examined, all without a single scientists opening a coffin lid, thanks to groundbreaking neutron tomography.The method was used by scientists from the British Museum and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) not to avoid any fabled curses linked with disturbing mummified remains, but to preserve the artifacts in their natural, whole state while being able to sneak a peek at their…

Credit: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Swiss scientists are reconstructing the climate of the ancient world using small wooden artifacts hung on mummified remains. Throughout history, the Earth's climate has undergone natural fluctuations. Although insignificant compared with the current crisis, these fluctuations would…

You may find yourself, as Talking Heads might have said, watching this animated feature about dead yet ambulatory mummified ancient Egyptians capering about some weird version of London. And you may ask yourself, not only how did you get here when the oracle warned you not to go, but what did you do in a past life to deserve this?You may also ask yourself all sorts of questions about the simple logic of this very poorly written and ill-considered film. Such as: why do the mummy characters look like regular humans most of…