Mummies
Mummies provide a window into the traditions and rituals practiced by ancient cultures. Modern analyses on their bones, teeth, hair and preserved soft tissues can also provide information on the health conditions these ancient people experienced, as well as what type of food they ate. Here's the latest news on mummies and what analyses have revealed about their lives.
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2,500-year-old 'primitive prosthetic' found on jaw of mummified Scythian woman who survived complex jaw surgeryResearchers used CT scans to peer inside a partially mummified skull and discovered the woman survived jaw surgery 2,500 years ago.
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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CT scans reveal the last moments of Inca children sacrificed as 'messengers to the gods'New CT scans reveal the last moments of the Inca children who were sacrificed and mummified about 500 years ago.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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1,100-year-old mummy found in Chile died of extensive injuries when a turquoise mine caved in, CT scans revealThe mummified remains of a man buried close to a turquoise mine in Chile's Atacama Desert suggest he was a miner who died in a tragic occupational accident.
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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1,400 years ago, Nubians tattooed their toddlers. Archaeologists are trying to figure out why.More than a dozen mummies of kids with facial tattoos were found at an archaeological site in Christian-era Nubia.
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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Scientists have digitally removed the 'death masks' from four Colombian mummies, revealing their faces for the first timeThe reconstructions are based on the skulls of four mummified individuals who had masks tightly fitted on their faces.
By Sophie Berdugo Published
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Ötzi quiz: What do you know about the Iceman mummy who was murdered 5,300 years ago in the Alps?Think you know a lot about Ötzi the Iceman? Don't get left in the cold — take our quiz!
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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World's oldest mummies were smoke-dried 10,000 years ago in China and Southeast Asia, researchers findThe world's oldest evidence for purposeful human mummification comes from Southeast Asia, where people smoke-dried their ancestors' corpses 10,000 years ago.
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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350-year-old mummified head from Bolivia isn't what it seemsA mummified skull from Bolivia was long thought to be of an Inca man, but a new study finds it had a different history.
By Tom Metcalfe Published
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2,300-year-old arm tats on mummified woman reveal new insights about tattooing technique in ancient SiberiaA new analysis used near-infrared photography to shed light on the methods and tools for creating tattoos in the Early Iron Age Pazyryk culture.
By Kristina Killgrove Published
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