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Miscellaneous Mummies (Compendium Thread)

Study: Even ancient mummies had clogged arteries

LONDON (AP) -- Even without modern-day temptations like fast food or cigarettes, people had clogged arteries some 4,000 years ago, according to the biggest-ever study of mummies searching for the condition.

Researchers say that suggests heart disease may be more a natural part of human aging rather than being directly tied to contemporary risk factors like smoking, eating fatty foods and not exercising.

CT scans of 137 mummies showed evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries, in one third of those examined, including those from ancient people believed to have healthy lifestyles. Atherosclerosis causes heart attacks and strokes. More than half of the mummies were from Egypt while the rest were from Peru, southwest America and the Aleutian islands in Alaska. The mummies were from about 3800 B.C. to 1900 A.D.
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More at the link: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/ ... 0-20-16-55
 
The mummies from 1900AD-or CE for the picky-were probably from Alaska, things were pretty wild there, even then. For that matter, even now.

For a look at an Alaska that might have been, read "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" by Michael Chabon.

This examens what might have happened had a scheme to settle Jews displaced from Europe in Sitka,AK. come to pass. Great book!The Japanese invasion during WWII and the Cold War did wonders for Alaska, just imagine what a city full of educated and industrious people, suddenly appearing there might have done?
 
krakenten said:
...

This examens what might have happened had a scheme to settle Jews displaced from Europe in Sitka,AK. come to pass. Great book!The Japanese invasion during WWII and the Cold War did wonders for Alaska, just imagine what a city full of educated and industrious people, suddenly appearing there might have done?
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Excellent book, but no mummies involved.
 
Just an aside, there.

The Aleutians have yielded 'cold' mummies, freeze dried cadavers, in some numbers. Mummies from the Andes and our old pal, Otzi the Ice Man are of this sort.

I wonder what scientists of the future will think when they begin to dig up our cemeteries? If you ever read "The Motel of the Mysteries" you might get an idea!
 
Ancient Egyptians may have used balms to add flavor to mummified meat
November 19th, 2013 in Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

Ancient Egyptians may have used balms to add flavor to mummified meat
Beef rib meat mummy from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu (1386-1349 BC). Credit: PNAS.


(Phys.org) —The ancient Egyptians' elaborate preparations for the afterlife are well known. To ensure continued comfort and happiness after death, high status Egyptians had themselves interred with furniture, jewelry and even mummified pets. Many tombs contain pieces of mummified meat, wrapped in bandages and covered in balm. Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol and his team chemically analyzed the balms on some of these mummified meats. They believe the Egyptians used the balms for preservation and flavor enhancement. Their research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Archeologists have discovered hundreds of meat mummies in ancient Egyptian tombs. Most of them are joints of meat or poultry, prepared as if for eating, then wrapped. Dark residue that covers the bandages looks like the organic balms applied to human and animal mummies. Until now, however, researchers have not known whether those who prepared the mummies intentionally added the balms to the meat.

To find out more, Evershed and his colleagues used gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to examine four pieces of mummified meat stored at the Cairo Museum and the British Museum. They found that the composition of the balms varied over time and think the ancient Egyptians added then deliberately.

External bandages from a victual calf mummy, dated from 1064 to 948 BC, in the tomb of Isetemkheb, the wife of a high priest, contained compounds made from animal fat. Because these compounds had no contact with the meat, the researchers think they were not grease from the meat, but a balm applied deliberately as a preservative.

Mummified goat tissue from around 1290 BC, taken from the tomb of the priestess Henutmehyt, also contained substances derived from animal fat. However, the researchers could not tell whether this came from the animal itself or whether the meat mummy's preparers added the substance as a balm. Mummified duck tissue found in the same food box did not contain any added fatty substance.

The most luxurious coating was on bandages covering mummified beef ribs, dated between 1386 and 1349 BC, found in the tomb of Yuya and Tjuiu, the parents of Queen Tiye, the wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. These bandages contained a mixture a fat or oil, beeswax and Pistacia resin, imported from the Mediterranean. Associated with royalty, Pistacia resin was used as incense, varnish and flavoring. The earliest known use of Pistacia resin in human mummification did not occur for another six centuries.

More information: Organic chemistry of balms used in the preparation of pharaonic meat mummies, PNAS, Published online before print November 18, 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1315160110

Abstract
The funeral preparations for ancient Egyptian dead were extensive. Tomb walls were often elaborately painted and inscribed with scenes and objects deemed desirable for the afterlife. Votive objects, furniture, clothing, jewelry, and importantly, food including bread, cereals, fruit, jars of wine, beer, oil, meat, and poultry were included in the burial goods. An intriguing feature of the meat and poultry produced for the deceased from the highest levels of Egyptian society was that they were mummified to ensure their preservation. However, little is known about the way they were prepared, such as whether balms were used, and if they were used, how they compared with those applied to human and animal mummies? We present herein the results of lipid biomarker and stable carbon isotope investigations of tissues, bandaging, and organic balms associated with a variety of meat mummies that reveal that treatments ranged from simple desiccation and wrapping in bandages to, in the case of the tomb of Yuya and Tjuia (18th Dynasty, 1386–1349 BC), a balm associated with a beef rib mummy containing a high abundance of Pistacia resin and, thus, more sophisticated than the balms found on many contemporaneous human mummies.

© 2013 Phys.org
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"Ancient Egyptians may have used balms to add flavor to mummified meat."
November 19th, 2013.
http://phys.org/news/2013-11-ancient-eg ... ified.html
 
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I went to see the mummy exhibit at the Maryland Science Center, here in Baltimore.

A good show, if it comes to a place near you, it's worth catching.

One of the items on display was a mummified rat. Now, not to cast asparagus...mice and rats mummify naturally, no help needed.

When the 'pyramid power' hoax was all the rage, mouse carcasses were put into cardboard pyramids, there, they mummified, no mystic power needed. Rats, bats, mice, shrews and voles will turn into pretty good lil' mummikins.

A few tana leaves, they're rarin' to go !

One of my favorite mummies is the Soap Man. Sylvester the Desert Mummy is all time champ,

Or, so sez I.
 
I'm in Rome and have visited here today - the Capuchin Crypt.

Mostly skeletons, artfully arranged both complete and it bits around the walls and ceilings. Some are naturally well enough preserved to still have facial skin and even beards.

We enjoyed our very gruesome visit. Immediately after us was a party of schoolkids. They were mainly horrified and I bet there'll be some wet beds tonight! :lol:
 
escargot1 said:
I'm in Rome and have visited here today - the Capuchin Crypt...
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That reminds me of the Chapel of Bones on Malta.

My grandfather was stationed on the island in the late 1920's and early 1930's and there are some photographs or postcards of the place in one of his old albums - used to give me the proper shivers as a kid.

I've only just found out that the site was destroyed during WW2.

I'll try and dig up the photo's when I see my parents at the weekend.
 
I'll try and dig up the photo's when I see my parents at the weekend.
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Do or do not. There is no try. :evil:

:lol:

Seriously, get'em up on'ere! :shock:
 
escargot1 said:
I'm in Rome and have visited here today - the Capuchin Crypt.

Mostly skeletons, artfully arranged both complete and it bits around the walls and ceilings. Some are naturally well enough preserved to still have facial skin and even beards.

We enjoyed our very gruesome visit. Immediately after us was a party of schoolkids. They were mainly horrified and I bet there'll be some wet beds tonight! :lol:
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Yeah that's a great little really proper creepy place innit? Did you do the museum on the way in?
 
There's a book, "Looking at Death" by Barbra Norfleet that contains photos from several crypts. The book also has a long chapter on post mortem portraits of children.

These were for families who had no photos of the children alive-sad sights indeed.

I recently went to see the mummy exhibition that's touring now, the mummified(accidently preserved) bodies of a miller and his family, carried off by TB, were touching.

In the Walters Art Museum, here in Baltimore, there is a carving of a skeleton, in boxwood, a 'memento mori', intended to remind one of the coming of death.

It bears the words, "I am what you are, I am what you will be. It scared me half to death as a child, and I often joke that I visit the thing whenever possible, to make sure it hasn't escaped.

Since I had been away from Baltimore for some years, I asked a guard where it was now(the Walters has ceased being the Art Gallery and become a museum, many exhibits have been moved.)

He knew just what I was asking about, and where it was. He said, "Yes, that damn thing scares me, too!".

A wonderful work, and it does just what it was intended to do.

Those crypts served the same purpose.
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
escargot1 said:
I'm in Rome and have visited here today - the Capuchin Crypt.

Mostly skeletons, artfully arranged both complete and it bits around the walls and ceilings. Some are naturally well enough preserved to still have facial skin and even beards.

We enjoyed our very gruesome visit. Immediately after us was a party of schoolkids. They were mainly horrified and I bet there'll be some wet beds tonight! :lol:
Click to expand...

Yeah that's a great little really proper creepy place innit? Did you do the museum on the way in?
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We certainly did. Stood for a good while in front of their very own Caravaggio. 8)

It knocks all their other portraits into a cocked'at. :D
 
I'm partway through a very interesting video of a mummified Chinese female aristocrat who lived a century before the time of Christ. The corpse was autopsied in 1972. Remarkably, the brain and other organs were still intact, the flesh was supple and there was still red blood in the veins. The inner organs were still wet when the surgeons removed them. It is quite gruesome to watch the autopsy. How the hell did those ancient undertakers achieve such longevity in the preservation of the flesh? The answers still evade modern scholars, apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAWJ4PhxTys
 
So - true to the title - 'sticky mummies'?
 
This one's remarkable. I'd seen pictures of her before, now her secret embalming method has been uncovered as well as why her eyes appear to open and close. There's also video of her in this link

sfglobe.com/2015/01/27/2-year-old-girl-is-one-of-the-best-preserved-mummies-ever/?src=sidexpromo&pid=19447&tg=do_296
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015013...es-ever/?src=bottomxpromo&pid=12572&tg=do_296
 
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There has been a forensic reconstruction of the face of the "Siberian Princess"
Via Archaeology News
Siberia_02.jpg
 
There's a bit about her in the latest FT, and a photo of how she looks now (not so good). Really eerie to think we're seeing a face that existed so long ago. You can almost imagine her speaking.
 
They've missed off most of her tattoos - look for pictures and you'll see that she has a lot.
 
Mummified new-born baby protected in leather shroud for 1,500 years ago found in Altai Mountains
By The Siberian Times reporter
26 August 2015
The tragic infant's remains were unearthed in excavations near Kurai village in Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic in southern Siberia. The baby's remains were sealed in a tightly closed stone coffin, creating an isolated air chamber for over 1,500 years.
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http://siberiantimes.com/science/ca...-for-1500-years-ago-found-in-altai-mountains/
 
Seven days? I just can't believe that a body can change that much in a week.
 
'Buried In Ice' : A documentary about the Franklin expedition mummies ..

 
The oldest mummies in the world are turning into black slime
BEC CREW
1 NOV 2016

A collection of mummified human remains found in northern Chile has been turning into black slime due to rising humidity levels, and Chilean researchers are at a loss for how to stop it.

More than 100 of these mummies - which are at least 7,000 years old - have started to turn gelatinous, and local officials have applied to the United Nations' cultural agency, UNESCO, to have them recognised as a world heritage site.
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http://www.sciencealert.com/the-oldest-mummies-in-the-world-are-turning-into-black-slime
 
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