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ScienceBiologyScientists Find Mammoth Seemingly Butchered by Humans on Arctic Island
Kotelny Island sits high up in the Arctic, off the coast of Northern Siberia. It’s cold and barren now, mostly absent of humans. But over 20,000 years ago, this island was home to huge megafauna. Melting permafrost is exposing evidence of this past life, including three large woolly mammoth skeletons discovered there in 2019. One … Continued
Jeanne Timmons -
io9Ancient Mummies Exhumed, Forced to Chaperone School Field Trip
Mummies aren’t scary. In fact, they’re some of the least scary monsters around, thanks to becoming generic CG action flick villains in movies like The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy (2017). But the decline of the creatures in pop culture began earlier than that, thanks to a TV series titled Mummies Alive, one of the … Continued
By Rob Bricken -
ScienceHuman HistoryMummified Kitten, Snake, and Bird Are ‘Unwrapped’ in New X-Ray Study
Using high-resolution, 3D X-ray scans, a team of researchers has digitally unwrapped and analyzed three mummified animals from ancient Egypt. A kitten with a broken neck, a bird of prey, and a dehydrated snake with a fractured spine are now teaching us a bit more about ancient Egyptian customs. These fascinating observations were made possible … Continued
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ScienceHuman History‘Screaming Mummy’ Heart Attack Study Questioned by Scientists
Her unsettling, seemingly agonized facial expression gave this ancient Egyptian mummy the nickname “screaming woman.” A new analysis claims that this shocking pose is actually related to the woman’s cause of death, an apparent heart attack. But other scientists are skeptical, saying the open-mouthed scream likely only appeared well after the woman’s demise. With her … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryScientists Just Made a 3,000-Year-Old Mummy ‘Speak’
Have you ever wondered what an ancient Egyptian mummy would sound like if it could talk? A wild new scientific experiment has finally answered this burning question, but the result is perhaps less impressive (and certainly less ominous) than you might think. The sound of a vocal tract from a 3,000-year-old mummy has been recreated … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryAncient Cat Mummies and More Discovered in Egyptian Tombs
Archaeologists working at a pyramid complex south of Cairo have discovered dozens of cat mummies, along with troves of wooden statues and a rare collection of mummified scarab beetles. The secretary general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, shared details of the remarkable finding at a press conference held this past Saturday, the … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Scientists Can Now Peek Inside Mummies in a Whole New Way
A revved-up version of traditional CT scanning shows it’s possible to acquire microscopic-scale images of ancient Egyptian mummies, revealing previously unseen features such as blood vessels and nerves. Non-destructive x-ray and CT scans are a boon to medical scientists and healthcare practitioners, but they’re also an indispensable tool for archaeologists who try not to disturb … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Ancient Egyptians Mastered Mummification Long Before the Time of Pharaohs
The earliest mummies are typically associated with the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, but as an intensive examination of a 5,600-year-old mummy confirms, the methods used for this iconic funeral practice date back to well before the age of pharaohs. The practice of mummification and the techniques used for embalming (such as the use of … Continued
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ScienceHuman History
Experts Say Recent ‘Alien’ Mummy Study Was Deeply Flawed and Unethical
Earlier this year, scientists from Stanford University concluded that a strange skeleton known as the Atacama Mummy belonged to a human girl whose physical malformations were the result of several severe genetic mutations. A team of international experts is now questioning these findings, and accusing the scientists of breaching standard research ethics. The Atacama Mummy, … Continued
