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.

This is a few days old, but it’s the first chance we’ve had to show you — and we know you’re going to be as excited as we were about this…

from ahram.org,

New discovery: Intact tomb uncovered in Aswan

The intact tomb of the brother of a 12th Dynasty Elephantine governor has been uncovered, containing a range of funerary goods

“The Spanish Archaeological Mission in Qubbet El-Hawa, west Aswan, has discovered an intact structure where the brother of one of the most important governors of the 12th Dynasty, Sarenput II, was buried.

Mahmoud Afifi, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department, described the discovery as “important” not only for the richness of the burial chamber, but also in shedding light on individuals close to those in power.

Nasr Salama, director general of Aswan Antiquities, said that the find is unique with funerary goods that consist of pottery, two cedar coffins (outer and inner) and a set of wooden models, which represent funerary boats and scenes of daily life.

Alejandro Jiménez-Serrano, head of the Spanish mission from the University of Jaen, said that a mummy was also discovered but is still under study. It is covered with a polychrome cartonnage with a beautiful mask and collars.

Inscriptions on the coffins bear the name of the deceased, Shemai. followed respectively by his mother and father, Satethotep and Khema. The latter was governor of Elephantine under the reign of Amenemhat II.

He explained that Sarenput II, the eldest brother of Shemai, was one of the most powerful governors of Egypt under the reigns of Senwosret II and Senwosret III. Apart from his duties as governor of Elephantine, he was general of the Egyptian troops and was responsible for the cult of different gods.

With this discovery, Serrano asserted, the University of Jaen mission in Qubbet El-Hawa adds more data to previous discoveries of 14 members of the ruling family of Elephantine during the 12th Dynasty. Such high numbers of individuals provide a unique opportunity to study the living conditions of the upper class in Egypt more than 3,800 years ago…”

For the rest, click here.

The poor were so hungry they were willing to trade their souls for some sin-soaked bread.

The Worst Paid Freelance Gig in History Was Being the Village Sin Eater
Sin eaters risked their souls to soak up the sins of the dead.
by Natalie Zarrelli November

“When a loved one died in parts of England, Scotland, or Wales in the 18th and 19th centuries, the family would grieve, place bread on the chest of the deceased, and call for a man to sit in front of the body. The family of the deceased watched on as this man, the local professional sin eater, absorbed the sins of the departed’s soul.

The family who hired the sin eater believed that the bread literally soaked up their loved one’s sins; once it was eaten, all the misdeeds were passed on to the hired hand. Once the process was complete, the sin eater’s own soul was heavy with the ill deeds of countless men and women from his village or town.

The sin eater paid a high price to help others drift smoothly into the afterlife: the coin he was given was worth a mere four English pence, the equivalent of a few U.S. dollars today. Usually, the only people who would dare risk their immortal being during such a religious era were the very poor, whose desire for a little bread and drink carried them along….”

For the rest, click here.