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Representative image of mummy in Nazca, Peru. Source: Matthias Kestel/Adobe Stock

Students Find A Mummy In A Temple, Beneath A Peruvian Trash Site

Dump diving in Lima, archaeology students removed 8-tonnes of rubbish to reveal a rare, mummified body from Peru's ancient Manchay culture. Astonishingly, they also identified a colossal U-shaped...
The Ice Maiden, or Ukok Princess. Source: Kobsev / Public Domain.

The 'Curse' of Siberia's 2,500-Year-Old 'Ice Maiden' (Video)

The discovery of the 2,500-year-old mummified remains of the 'Ukok Princess' in Siberia's frozen Ukok Plateau in 1993 was a remarkable archaeological find. While modern scientific techniques have...
This sacrificed Inca child, known as the Llull Maiden #23, was found on a mountain in Argentina. Source: © Johan Reinhard, Ph.D . (used with permission)

Inca Child Sacrifice: Secrets of the Mummified Maiden (Video)

The ancient practice of human sacrifice is one of the most haunting and mysterious aspects of human history. Most of us today find the idea abhorrent , but in many cultures around the world, they...
The Taizhou mummy was discovered accidentally by road workers and was found immersed in a mysterious brown liquid. Source:  GU XIANGZHONG, XINHUA

Accidental Find of Impeccably Preserved Ming Dynasty Taizhou Mummy

Mummies often evoke thoughts of the ancient Egyptians and their sophisticated mummification rituals. These practices aimed to create a seamless transition between life and death and led to remarkable...
Egyptian mummy. Source: esebene / Adobe Stock.

The Accidental Mummy: How Did Mummification Begin? (Video)

Mummification has long been an area of interest in history, and the potential origins of this practice have been a subject of discussion for some time. A possible explanation was discovered in the...
Montage of 7 most amazing discoveries in history images. Source: Credited in article body

Sheer Fluke: 7 of the Most Amazing Accidental Discoveries in Archaeology!

Uncovering the mysteries of our past has always been a fascinating pursuit for humans. From exploring hidden caves and discovering ancient artifacts to deciphering cryptic scripts and unlocking the...
Ancient Egypt hieroglyphics. Source: Andrii Vergeles / Adobe Stock.

15 Incredible Discoveries from Ancient Egypt (Video)

Egypt is a civilization that continues to fascinate, enlighten, and puzzle people to this day. Archaeologists are constantly discovering new artifacts and learning more about this ancient...
Mummy labels under analysis sourced from the Bibliothèque Nationale et Universitaire (BNU) of Strasbourg (France) collection. Source: International Journal of Wood Culture / CC BY 4.0

Mummy Labels Unlock Climate Secrets of Ancient Mediterranean

To reconstruct the climate of ancient Egypt, Swiss scientists have resorted to an unexpected source - mummy labels. These labels, which were affixed to the bodies of mummies during the Roman era, are...
Silver Coffin of Psusennes I, a.k.a. the Silver Pharaoh. Source: Aidan McRae Thomson / CC BY-SA 2.0

Psusennes: The Silver Pharaoh with Treasures to Rival Tutankhamun's

Amidst the chaos of the Second World War in Western Europe, a French archaeologist named Pierre Montet unearthed a stunning treasure in 1940 in Tanis, Egypt. The find was on par with the legendary...
Foot of an Egyptian mummy in the British Museum. Source: Ibex73/CC BY-SA 4.0

5 Discoveries That Changed Our Understanding of Egyptian Mummification

By Jenefer Metcalfe / The Conversation Centuries after the first golden coffins were taken to Europe, ancient Egyptian mummies still vividly capture people’s imaginations. Perhaps we’re awed by the...
The mummy delivery, in the delivery cool bag, confiscated by police.	Source: EFE/Ministry of Culture Peru

Man in Peru Caught Out Drinking With an 800-year-old Mummy!

A pre-Hispanic mummy of between 600 and 800 years old, was found inside the backpack of a delivery man from a delivery company in the Peruvian region of Puno, near Bolivia. The 26-year-old Peruvian...
The mummy of Anna Catharina Bischoff (CC). Inset: Boris Johnson (Open Government License)

Boris Johnson’s Mummified Ancestor Died from Pathogen, Not the STD Syphilis

New research reveals Boris Johnson’s mummified Swiss ancestor did not die of syphilis , as has long been believed, but of an unknown pathogen. In 1787, at 68 years old, a woman called Anna Catharina...
The Enjuin temple mermaid mummy which has now been exposed as a hoax. Source: Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts

Mermaid Mummy at Japan Temple Exposed as Gruesome Man-Made Hoax

Medical tests performed on a mummified mermaid corpse on display at a temple in Japan have been exposed as a hoax, although it isn’t made of quite what was suspected. The so-called “mermaid mummy” is...
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, the director of the Egyptian excavation team, works at the site of the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara where the golden mummy and states were found. Source: Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Mummy Found Covered in Gold May be Oldest Ever Found in Egypt!

A Pharaonic tomb containing a mummy wrapped in a gold-covered leaf may be the oldest and most complete mummy found in Egypt to date. It has been uncovered in Saqqara, near the Step Pyramid. Estimated...
CT images of the mummy revealed amulets were placed on or inside the mummified body of the Golden Boy mummy, including a two-finger amulet discovered next to the boy’s uncircumcised penis. (Saleem, Seddik and el-Halwagy / CC BY 4.0)

Scans Reveal Magic Amulets Inside Egyptian Golden Boy Mummy

CT scans conducted during a recent study of the “Golden Boy” mummy, which was discovered in 1916 in southern Egypt, has revealed a hidden collection of 49 magical amulets, including many forged in...
The tomb of the Vizier Amenhotep-Huy in Luxor, Egypt. Source: Teresa Bedman / Institute of Ancient Egyptian Studies

Egyptian Tombs Reveal 60 High-Ranking Burials from the 18th Dynasty

Right at the turn of the year, a Spanish archaeological mission made a tremendous discovery in the modern city of Luxor in Egypt, which includes the site of the ancient city of Thebes. Sixty mummies...

Six Amazing Ancient Tattoo Discoveries

Getting inked has been around longer than you’d think. While the idea of tattooing certainly seems like it would’ve been a more recent development, archaeologists have discovered quite the opposite...
Composite image of the rare mummy portraits unearthed in Egypt. Source: Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities

Huge Egyptian Tomb Discovered with Extraordinarily Rare Mummy Portraits

A huge funerary building has been excavated by researchers at the Gerza archaeological site in Fayum, Egypt. Rare artifacts were discovered, but a collection of mummy portraits represent the first...
The upper body of Ötzi, protruding from the ice in the Tisenjoch pass on September 19, 1991. Photo: Helmut Simon. Used with kind permission from Erika Simon. Source: Erika Simon/SAGE Journals

Ötzi the Iceman Took a Posthumous Ride on River of Ice Water

A new proposal by researchers of the oldest known naturally mummified corpse, better known as Ötzi the Iceman, questions both the time and place of his death. New analysis points towards the time of...
The Mysterious Lady of Thebes, as reconstructed in 2D by Hew Morrison. Source: Hew Morrison / Warsaw Mummy Project

Is this the Face of the First Mummy of a Pregnant Woman?

In 2016, archaeologists finally accepted that a 2,000-year-old mummy was not a male priest when CT scans revealed the embalmed corpse seemed to be carrying a baby! It was declared the ‘only known...
Tattoo on the left femur of a mummified Egyptian woman buried at Deir el-Medina. Source: Anne Austin/University of Missouri-St. Louis

Not A Tramp Stamp: Thigh and Hip Tattoos Found on Female Egyptian Mummies

Ancient burial sites in Egypt have yielded tattooed mummies, that are predominantly female rather than male. Over time, various debates have arisen about who these mummies were, in terms of their...
Trophy heads from Nazca, with the child found to have consumed psychoactive drugs.           Source: D. Socha / Journal of Archaeological Science

Trophy Head Shows Child Victim Consumed Psychedelic San Pedro in Peru

Psychoactive substances and child sacrifice seem to come together more often than not when it comes to examining the Mesoamerican cultures and their history. Earlier this month, 76 child sacrifice...
Detail of the Austrian child mummy's face and left hand on the abdomen. Source: Frontiers in Medicine

Loved to Death? Autopsy Reveals Shocking Cause of Death for Mummified Child

As reported in the journal Frontiers of Medicine , a team of German scientists from the Academic Clinic Munich-Bogenhausen used medical procedures and historical research to identify a 17th century...
A stone relief fragment in the Brooklyn Museum that could only be of Nefertiti, and now DNA testing will tell us if Nefertiti's mummy has finally been found.      Source: Brooklyn Museum / CC BY 2.5

Famed Egyptologist Proclaims Discovery of Queen Nefertiti’s Mummy

Has Queen Nefertiti’s mummy, one of ancient Egypt’s most celebrated New Kingdom rulers, finally been found? According to the world’s most famous Egyptologist, the answer to this question is “ yes ,”...

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