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It's possible the "mud wrap" was used to stabilize the mummy after it was damaged, but the mud may have also been meant to emulate practices used by society's elite, who were sometimes mummified with imported resin-based materials during a nearly 350-year period, from the late New Kingdom to the 21st Dynasty (about 1294 BCE to 945 BCE), the researchers said... The mud sheath isn't the mummy's only oddity. The mummy, dated to about 1207 BCE, was damaged after death, and was even interred in the wrong coffin actually meant for a woman who died more recently, the researchers found......

The severely elongated head of a preserved skeleton found in Peru's Atacama Desert in 2003 is so unusual that it initially prompted people to suggest that the diminutive body was that of an extraterrestrial. Since then, DNA testing confirmed that the remains — which measure about 6 inches (15 centimeters) long — belonged to a human fetus that researchers named Ata. But the scientists who conducted that investigation and published their findings in March have recently come under fire for their methods. ...Their investigation, which did not include any Chilean researchers, may have sidestepped protocols that typically monitor the ethics...

A scientist has finally confirmed with 3D models that legendary ice man Otzi was indeed killed 5,300 years ago by an arrow. Otzi, a 5,300-year-old mummified man, was found in 1991 in a glacier in the Alps between what is now Austria and Italy. Since the discovery, Otzi has been examined by multiple teams of scientists, with new discoveries coming to light each time. Now an expert claims it was the arrow that delivered the fatal blow, severing the nerve to his shoulder and hitting his major vessels. Since his discovery on 19 December 1991 by German hikers, Ó¦tzi has...

A 17th dynasty anthropoid coffin containing a mummy, along with a mud-brick offering chapel and a pile of mixed materials from funerary equipment, have been unearthed by a Spanish-Egyptian archaeological mission in Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor's West Bank. The director of the mission, José Galán, explained that these objects were unearthed during excavation work carried out in the area located in front of the open courtyard of Djehuty's tomb (TT 11). The coffin was carefully placed on the ground horizontally. It measures 1.75 by 0.33m, and was carved in wood cut from a single sycamore tree trunk, then...

The latest finds were made during preliminary studies of the area, before 18 months of full archaeological excavations are expected to begin later this year, Leivers said. Foremost among the latest finds are several graves, unearthed just to the southwest of the Stonehenge circle, that are thought to be from the Beaker culture, which is named after their practice of burying the dead with bell-shaped pottery drinking vessels. The Beaker people lived in Western Europe between 4,800 and 3,800 years ago, beginning in the Chalcolithic period when the first copper tools came into use. In one of the graves., the...

Ancient embalmers likely placed the tongue-shaped, gold foil amulet in the deceased’s mouth to ensure they could speak in the afterlifeArchaeologists conducting excavations at the temple of Taposiris Magna in western Alexandria, Egypt, have unearthed a 2,000-year-old mummy with a gold tongue. As Nihal Samir reports for Daily News Egypt, researchers from a dual Egyptian-Dominican mission discovered the golden-tongued mummy while surveying 16 poorly preserved burials encased in rock-cut crypts—a popular form of interment during Egypt’s Greco-Roman period. Crafted out of gold foil, the tongue-shaped amulet was likely placed in the deceased’s mouth to ensure they’d be able to speak...

In Rome lies the Santi Apostoli church, cared for by Franciscan brothers for more than 500 years. For more than 1500 years, this site has held the believed remains of two of the earliest Christians and Jesu apostles: St. Philip and St. James the Younger - relics of the Holy Catholic Church. In the first few centuries of Christianity, life was difficult for the Christian minority, but gradually towards sixth century Christianity became the dominant religion and after Emperor Constantine on his deathbed declared Christianity the state religion, churches were erected all over the Roman Empire. Shortly after the churches...

The archaeologists, led by Kathleen Martinez, from the Dominican Republic, discovered the mummy in one of 16 burials at Taposiris Magna, which has temples dedicated to Osiris and Isis, a goddess who was both the wife and sister of Osiris. Previously, archaeologists found a hoard of coins decorated with the face of Cleopatra VII, suggesting the temples were in use during the queen’s reign. The other 15 burials also date back around 2,000 years and contain remarkable treasure. In one, a female mummy is wearing a death mask that covers much of her body and depicts her with a headdress...

The Arzhan-2 burial of the Scythian ‘King’ and the ‘Queen’, found in 1997 and studied between 2001-2003 by Russian-German expedition is one the most extraordinary discoveries ever made by archeologists. Now for the first time the features of the powerful couple buried in their gold-encrusted, awe-inspiring clothing can be seen in life-like sculptures thanks to work of Moscow Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, and Novosibirsk Institute of Archeology and Ethnography. Two teams of anthropologists spent months meticulously building 3d models of the skulls, using laser scanning and photogrammetry to then re-create the faces of the people that ruled vast...

Archaeologists have unearthed new sections of an Aztec tower of human skulls dating back to the 1400s beneath the center of Mexico City. The team has uncovered the facade and eastern side of the tower, as well as 119 human skulls of men, women and children, adding to hundreds previously found, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (Inah) announced on Friday. The tower, approximately five meters (16.4ft) in diameter, was first discovered in 2017, and the latest discoveries were made in ...

Officials at the archeological park in Italy said Saturday that archeologists have unearthed skeletal remains of two men attempting to escape death the eruption. Researchers found parts of the skulls and bones while excavating the ruins of what was once a large villa with views on the Mediterranean Sea, located on the outskirts of Pompeii. The bones were found at at Civita Giuliana, the same area where archaeologists excavating a stable dug up the remains of three harnessed horses in 2017, officials said. The first victim was determined to be a young man, between the ages of 18 and 25,...

To determine at what age the babies died, the researchers looked at each baby's top second incisor. The team paid special attention to the so-called "newborn line," a dark line in the tooth enamel that separates the enamel formed prenatally from that formed after birth, Teschler-Nicola said.Those newborn lines, as well the infants' skeletal development, suggested the twins were either full, or nearly full-term, babies. It appears that the infants' hunter-gatherer group buried the first twin, then reopened the grave when they buried his brother.This finding confirms the cultural-historical practice of reopening a grave for the purpose of reburial, which...

Lady of Bietikow lived during the Neolithic period. All that is left of the woman who died more than 5,000 years ago are bones and some clothing fragments, but researchers have still managed to piece together some details about her life. By learning more about the life of Lady of Bietikow, as she has been named, we gain information about what life was like in those days. Her remains were found near a village of the same name in northeastern Germany's Uckermark region during excavation works for wind turbines. Who Was The The Mysterious Lady Of Bietikow And What Had...

Fresh analysis of Europe's earliest known battle has thrown up the possibility the 1,400 people who died at the site, in Germany's Tollense Valley, were not warriors engaged in a brutal melee, but ambushed merchants who were ruthlessly slain. The identity of the assailants remains unknown but it is thought they surprised the entourage and killed their guards before looting and murdering them. Human remains at the site in North East Germany, near today's border with Poland and 80 miles north of Berlin, were first found in 1996.

Neandertal babies had chests shaped like short, deep barrels and spines that curved inward more than those of humans, a build that until now was known only for Neandertal adults, researchers say. Neandertals must have inherited those skeletal features rather than developing them as their bodies grew, says a team led by paleobiologist Daniel Garcia Martinez of the National Research Center on Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain. Stocky, big-brained hominids such as Neandertals needed chest cavities arranged in this way from birth to accommodate lungs large enough to meet their energy needs, the scientists contend October 7 in Science Advances....

The work by the team involved studying skeletal remains found at a dig site of a settlement once known as La Hoya, in what is now Spain. The dig site was discovered in 1935, but only recently have the remains unearthed there been studied. In all, the researchers examined the skeletal remains of 13 people -- nine adults, two adolescent girls, a child and an infant girl, all of whom had died sometime between 365 and 195 BC. What was most striking was the means by which the people met their death. One of the adults had been decapitated --...

Archaeologists have discovered 37 ancient coffins in Egypt that are believed to have remained unopened since they were buried around 2,500 years ago, numerous sources reported. The coffins, also called sarcophagi, were buried near the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, which is located 20 miles south of Cairo and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site. A spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said 12 coffins were found earlier in September in a newly discovered well, and were followed by the unearthing of 14 more in another well, the Associated Press reported. Although the sarcophagi have been...

A "nationally significant" Anglo-Saxon cemetery with 200 graves dating back to the 7th Century has been revealed. The graves were uncovered in Oulton, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, ahead of construction of a housing development. The burial ground contained the remains of men, women and children, as well as artefacts including brooches, small iron knives and silver pennies... A spokesman said the site "lies within the Kingdom of the East Angles, made famous by the royal burial ground at nearby Sutton Hoo". Sutton Hoo, discovered in 1939, included two cemeteries from the 6th to 7th centuries and a ship burial full...

A milk-tooth found in the vicinity of "Riparo del Broion" on the Berici Hills in the Veneto region bears evidence of one of the last Neanderthals in Italy. This small canine tooth belonged to a child between 11 and 12 that had lived in that area around 48,000 years ago. This is the most recent Neanderthal finding in Northern Italy... The genetic analysis reveals that the owner of the tooth found in Veneto was a relative, on their mother's side, of Neanderthals that had lived in Belgium. This makes this site in Veneto a key-area for comprehending the gradual extinction...

A research team performed a detailed analysis of the traumas found on the skeletal remains. The researchers were interested in reconstructing the possible scenarios leading to the observed anthropological evidence. In conjunction with this study, the Institute of Forensic Medicine is completing the work on stable isotope ratios and ancient DNA of the bones. This will allow in the next future to reconstruct the diet, mobility, genetic affiliation of these people.Violence, warfare, and ritualsThe study demonstrates that 25% of the individuals died as a consequence of interpersonal violence, mostly related to hand-to-hand combat, often represented by traces of decapitation. Even...