M.J. Rose

Mummy buffs, rejoice!

First, The Siberian Beauty. Second, the dinosaur mummy. Wait, did we just type the words “dinosaur mummy?” Yes, yes we did….

From The Siberian Times,
Meet the mummified Polar beauty, her long eyelashes and hair still intact after 900 years
By Anna Liesowska

Unearthed on the edge of the Arctic, she is the only woman so far found in an otherwise all-male necropolis, buried in a cocoon of copper and fur.

“This haunting 12th century woman is a member of an unknown hunting and fishing civilisation that held sway in the far north of Siberia – with surprising links to Persia.

Accidentally mummified and probably aged around 35, her delicate features are visible, the green tinge on her face being the traces of the pieces of a copper kettle that helped preserve her in her permafrost grave.

She has long eyelashes, a full head of hair – and impressive teeth.

Bronze temple rings were found close to her skull, wrapped inside animal skin – possibly reindeer  – and birch bark that cocooned her.

Like other human remains, the medieval mummy’s feet were turned towards  nearby  Gorny Poluy River, a fact seen as having religious significance. She was around 155 centimetres tall – 5ft 1 inch…”

For the rest, and so many interesting photos, click here.

NOW, THE DINOSAUR MUMMY. Yes…

From ATI,

Dinosaur ‘Mummy’ Unveiled With Skin And Guts Intact
By John Kuroski

This isn’t merely a fossil, but an actual dinosaur itself, frozen in time.

You can’t even see its bones, yet scientists are hailing it as perhaps the best-preserved dinosaur specimen ever unearthed. That’s because, 110 million years later, those bones remain covered by the creature’s intact skin and armor.

Indeed, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada recently unveiled a dinosaur so well-preserved that many have taken to calling it not a fossil, but an honest-to-goodness “dinosaur mummy.”

With the creature’s skin, armor, and even some of its guts intact, researchers are astounded at its nearly unprecedented level of preservation.

“We don’t just have a skeleton,” Caleb Brown, a researcher at the Royal Tyrrell Museum, told National Geographic. “We have a dinosaur as it would have been.”

When this dinosaur — a member of a new species named nodosaur — was alive, it was an enormous four-legged herbivore protected by a spiky, plated armor and weighing in at approximately 3,000 pounds.

Today, the mummified nodosaur is so intact that it still weighs 2,500 pounds.

How the creature could remain so intact is still something of a mystery…”

For the rest, click here.

Hapless youngster or power-hungry murderess? Who was this Queen Ankhesenamun?

Let’s find out…

From Ancient Origins,

The Hunt for Ankhesenamun: How Did a Young Woman Stop an Ancient Dynasty from Imploding? Part I

“The names of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun—prominent players from the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom period in ancient Egypt—have been in the spotlight for well over a century. Extensive research, documentaries, and publications have served to keep the mystique of the Amarna royals alive in our collective consciousness. However, a key figure from this family, Queen Ankhesenamun, is either ignored or given little prominence in most narratives.

Flower Child of Akhetaten

Ankhesenamun is portrayed in myriad ways; as a terrified and hapless youngster; a power-hungry murderess; or a loathsome vixen who will stop at nothing to achieve her devious ends. Very few characterizations concentrate on the real person, sans the hype. But then, with irrefutable facts hard to come by, any exotic soap opera can be built around an ancient individual! This once-powerful queen surely deserves a far better study of her personage; for she seems to have managed to prevent a dynasty from imploding—and that is her lasting legacy…”

For the rest, click here.

Her name was Mary Katharine Goddard and she was one of America’s first female publishers. Why don’t we all know more about this woman?

The Declaration of Independence printed with the names of the signers. Mary Katharine Goddard’s name is at the bottom. (Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Continental Congress & Constitutional Convention Broadsides Collection)

From The Washington Post,

This woman’s name appears on the Declaration of Independence. So why don’t we know her story?

by Petula Dvorak

“…look closely at one of those printed copies of the Declaration of Independence.

See it? The woman’s name at the bottom?

It’s right there. Mary Katharine Goddard.

If you’ve never noticed it or heard of her, you aren’t alone. She’s a Founding Mother, of sorts, yet few folks know about her. And some of America’s earliest bureaucrats did their best to shut her down. Same old, same old.

Goddard was fearless her entire career as one of America’s first female publishers, printing scoops from Revolutionary War battles from Concord to Bunker Hill and continuing to publish after her offices were twice raided and her life was repeatedly threatened by haters.

Yup, she faced down the Twitter trolls of 1776.

In her boldest move, Goddard put her full name at the bottom of all the copies of the Declaration that her printing presses churned out and distributed to the colonies…”

For the rest, click here.