Mummified mice discovered atop sky-high Andean volcanoes

They were the summits of 20,000-foot volcanoes. Amid the driest desert on Earth. Where temperatures never breached freezing, where less than half of sea-level oxygen quenched lungs, where gale-force winds scoured the hardscrabble rocks littering the peaks.

So when archaeologists first reported stumbling across a few mouse cadavers during expeditions to several Andean peaks in the 1970s and '80s, they figured, naturally, that the rodents must have hitched a ride with the Incas who once pilgrimaged a thousand-plus miles to what they considered sacred sites.

Those apexes served as altars for Capacocha, the ritual sacrifice of children to several Incan gods. Maybe, the thinking went, the mice had scurried into firewood or other supplies hauled up the slopes by the Incas. Or they were among the animal sacrifices that sometimes accompanied the human.

"You can't fault the archaeologists for thinking this way, because what other explanation is there?" said Jay Storz, a Willa Cather Professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Nothing could be living up there, so they had to have been brought there."

But Storz would inadvertently cast doubt on the hypothesis in early 2020. Alongside friend and fellow mountaineer Mario Pérez Mamani, he captured a live specimen of leaf-eared mouse atop the 22,000-foot peak of Llullaillaco (zhoo-zhuh-ZHEYE'-koh), a volcano straddling the Chile-Argentina border. No mammal had ever been found living at such extreme altitude.

Alongside the capture of more live specimens, Storz and his colleagues have now reported the discovery of 13 leaf-eared mouse cadavers across the summits of three neighboring volcanoes -- Salín, Púlar and Copiapó -- that each stretch nearly 4 miles above sea level.

"These are basically freeze-dried, mummified mice," Storz said.

Analyzing the baker's dozen of mummies has only reinforced the team's conviction that the seemingly modest mice ascended the volcanoes without Incan assistance. By measuring concentrations of carbon-14, an atom that decays at a known rate, the team determined that the eight mummies atop Salín and one on Copiapó died no more than a few decades ago, likely after 1955. The four mummies on Púlar perished, at most, 350 years ago -- a full century after the last of the Incan empire fell to Spanish invaders.

"It now seems more and more clear," Storz said, "that the mice got there of their own accord."

The mummified state of the mice also helped preserve their DNA, allowing Storz's collaborators from the University of Montana to compare genetic variation among leaf-eared mice collected in the lowlands, midlands and highlands of Atacama Desert. Analyzing that variation across members of a species can help trace the evolutionary history of populations separated by distance, barriers or, in this case, altitude.

Storz and his colleagues wondered whether the genomes of the skyscraping, mummified mice might represent a distinct subpopulation of the leaf-eared rodent -- one with a colonization history different from that of their lower-dwelling peers.

"Our genomic data indicate no: that the mice from the summits, and those from the flanks or the base of the volcanoes in the surrounding desert terrain, are all one big happy family," Storz said, citing it as more evidence that the mummies were not hitchhikers but mountaineers.

In fact, the team found that two pairs of the leaf-eared mummies on Salín were closely related, possibly siblings or parents and offspring. And it noted another telltale: the equal ratio of males to females among the mummies. Combined with the recent discovery of other live specimens and mouse burrows in the heights of the Puna de Atacama, or Atacama Plateau, Storz said it seems that the leaf-eared mouse is not just touring the volcanic summits, but somehow living on them.

"It's exactly what you'd expect," he said, "if you were to capture a set of mice from some localized area in an environment that's habitable."

Which is bewildering, Storz said, given that the Puna de Atacama ranks among the most inhospitable locales on the planet -- one so arid, cold and oxygen-poor that NASA has visited the Atacama to practice searching for life on Mars.

"Even at the base of the volcanoes, the mice are living in an extreme, Martian environment," he said. "And then, on the summits of the volcanoes, it's even more so. It feels like outer space.

"It just boggles the mind that any kind of animal, let alone a warm-blooded mammal, could be surviving and functioning in that environment. When you experience it all firsthand, it even further impresses upon you: How in God's name is anything living up there?"

It's one of a few questions that the researchers are continuing to pursue. Members of Storz's lab and colleagues in Santiago, Chile, have since established colonies of leaf-eared mice collected from various altitudes. By acclimating each group to conditions that simulate the Puna de Atacama at 20,000 feet, the researchers hope to pinpoint whatever physiological adaptations are helping the rodents cope.

Even more fundamental is the question of what would drive the mice to such heights in the first place. Like most small rodents, the leaf-eared mouse -- which grows to about 2 ounces -- spends a fair amount of its time, energy and attention avoiding predators. And even in the Puna de Atacama, those predators are numerous: foxes, mountain lions, smaller cats, birds of prey.

Could the dangers imposed by the Atacama summits -- the near-absence of water, the seeming lack of food, the threat of freezing to death -- really be worth the promise of escaping predation all together?

"Certainly, if you're hunkering down on top of a 6,000-meter volcano, you're at least safe from that," Storz said. "You just have other things to worry about.

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Iceman Ötzi: Dark skin, bald head, Anatolian ancestry

A research team has used advanced sequencing technology to analyze Ötzi's genome to obtain a more accurate picture of the Iceman's appearance and genetic origins.

Ötzi's genome was decoded for the first time more than ten years ago. This was also the first time the genome of a mummy had been sequenced. The results provided important insights into the genetic makeup of prehistoric Europeans. Advances in sequencing technology have now enabled a research team from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and Eurac Research to reconstruct Ötzi's genome more accurately. The results of this recent analysis refine the Iceman's genetic picture: compared to other contemporary Europeans, Ötzi's genome has an unusually high proportion of genes in common with those of early farmers from Anatolia. And, contrary to previous findings, at the time of his death, Ötzi had advanced hair loss and may have even been bald. Furthermore, his skin was darker than previously thought. Ötzi's genes also show a predisposition to diabetes and obesity.

The genetic makeup of most present-day Europeans has resulted mainly from the admixture of three ancestral groups: western hunter-gatherers gradually merged with early farmers who migrated from Anatolia about 8,000 years ago and who were later on joined by Steppe Herders from Eastern Europe, approximately 4,900 years ago.

The initial analysis of the Iceman's genome revealed genetic traces of these Steppe Herders. However, the refined new results no longer support this finding. The reason for the inaccuracy: the original sample had been contaminated with modern DNA. Since that first study, not only have sequencing technologies advanced enormously, but many more genomes of other prehistoric Europeans have been fully decoded, often from skeletal finds. This has made it possible to compare Ötzi's genetic code with his contemporaries. The result: among the hundreds of early European people who lived at the same time as Ötzi and whose genomes are now available, Ötzi's genome has more ancestry in common with early Anatolian farmers than any of his European counterparts.

Ötzi's ancestry and appearance

The research team concludes that the Iceman came from a relatively isolated population that had very little contact with other European groups. "We were very surprised to find no traces of Eastern European Steppe Herders in the most recent analysis of the Iceman genome; the proportion of hunter-gatherer genes in Ötzi's genome is also very low. Genetically, his ancestors seem to have arrived directly from Anatolia without mixing with hunter gatherer groups," explains Johannes Krause, head of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and co-author of the study.

The study also yielded new results about Ötzi's appearance. His skin type, already determined in the first genome analysis to be Mediterranean-European, was even darker than previously thought. "It's the darkest skin tone that has been recorded in contemporary European individuals," explains anthropologist Albert Zink, study co-author and head of the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano: "It was previously thought that the mummy's skin had darkened during its preservation in the ice, but presumably what we see now is actually largely Ötzi's original skin color. Knowing this, of course, is also important for the proper conservation of the mummy."

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Dinosaur 'mummies' might not be as unusual as we think

A process of desiccation and deflation explains why dinosaur "mummies" aren't as exceptional as we might expect, according to a study published October 12, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Stephanie Drumheller of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and colleagues.

The term "mummy" is often used to describe dinosaur fossils with fossilized skin, which are relatively rare. It is commonly suggested that such fossils only form under exceptional circumstances and that a carcass must be shielded from scavenging and decomposition by rapid burial and/or desiccation in order for skin to become fossilized. In this study, Drumheller and colleagues combine fossil evidence with observations on modern animal carcasses to propose a new explanation for how such "mummies" might form.

The researchers examined a fossil of a dinosaur called Edmontosaurus from North Dakota which preserves large patches of desiccated and seemingly deflated skin on the limbs and tail. They identified bite marks from carnivores upon the dinosaur's skin. These are the first examples of unhealed carnivore damage on fossil dinosaur skin, and furthermore, this is evidence that the dinosaur carcass was not protected from scavengers, yet it became a mummy nonetheless.

Modern animal carcasses are known to be often emptied out as scavengers and decomposers target internal tissues, leaving behind skin and bone. The authors propose that damage to this dinosaur's skin from this incomplete scavenging would have exposed its insides and allowed a similar process to occur, after which the skin and bones became slowly desiccated and buried.

This process, which the authors call "desiccation and deflation," is common with modern carcasses and explains how dinosaur mummies might form under relatively ordinary circumstances. The authors stress that there are likely numerous pathways by which a dinosaur mummy might develop. Understanding these mechanisms will guide how paleontologists collect and interpret such rare and informative fossils.

Clint Boyd, Senior Paleontologist at the North Dakota Geological Survey, adds: "Not only has Dakota taught us that durable soft tissues like skin can be preserved on partially scavenged carcasses, but these soft tissues can also provide a unique source of information about the other animals that interacted with a carcass after death."

From Science Daily

Mummification in Europe may be older than previously known

Mummification of the dead probably was more common in prehistory than previously known. This discovery is made at the hunter-gatherer burial sites in the Sado Valley in Portugal, dating to 8,000 years ago. A new study, headed by archaeologists at Uppsala University and Linnaeus University in Sweden and University of Lisbon in Portugal, presents new evidence for pre-burial treatments such as desiccation through mummification, which has not been suggested for the European Mesolithic before. The results are now published in European Journal of Archaeology.

Until now, the oldest cases of intentional mummification were known from the Chinchorro hunter-gatherers living in the coastal region of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile with examples of mummified bodies buried in shell middens around 7,000 years ago still preserving soft tissue. However, most surviving mummies worldwide are more recent, dating between a few hundred years and 4,000 years old.

Mummification in prehistory is a challenging topic for researchers because it is difficult to detect if a body was preserved through mummification when soft tissue is no longer visible. An additional difficulty is the lack of written reports for these early periods. Unlike bone, finding soft tissue in archaeological sites is rare due to issues of preservation, and without it, it is difficult to recognize if the remains have been curated soon after death. This is particularly challenging in temperate and wetter climates, such as in most of Europe, where soft tissues and fabrics do not normally survive in archaeological sites.

Using recently discovered photographs of the skeletal remains of thirteen individuals excavated in the 1960s in the Sado Valley Mesolithic shell middens in Portugal, the researchers were able to reconstruct the positions in which the bodies were buried providing a unique opportunity to learn more about mortuary rituals taking place 8,000 years ago.

The study combined the approach of archaeothanatology with human decomposition experiments. Archaeothanatology is an approach used by archaeologists to document and analyse human remains in archaeological sites that combines observations of the spatial distribution of the bones in the grave with knowledge about how the human body decomposes after death. Archaeologists can then reconstruct how the dead body was handled after death and buried, even if several millennia have passed. In this study, the archaeothanatology was also informed by results from human decomposition experiments on mummification and burial at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility at Texas State University.

Based on the results from the experiments, an observable signature for a mummy could be proposed that combines several observations: a hyperflexion of the limbs, an absence of disarticulation in significant parts of the skeleton, and a rapid infilling of sediment around the bones. These were all clearly present in at least one of the burials in this study. The analysis showed that some bodies were buried in extremely flexed positions with the legs flexed at the knees and placed in front of the chest.

During decomposition, the bones usually become disarticulated at weak joints, such as at the feet, but in these cases, the articulations were maintained. The researchers propose that this pattern of hyperflexion and lack of disarticulation could be explained if the body was not placed in the grave as a fresh cadaver, but in a desiccated state as a mummied corpse. Desiccation not only maintains some of these otherwise weak articulations, but also allows for a strong flexion of the body since the range of movement increases when the volume of soft tissue is smaller. Because the bodies were desiccated before burial, there is very little or no sediment present between the bones and the articulations are maintained by the continuous infilling of the surrounding soil supporting the bones and preventing the collapse of the articulations.

The researchers suggest that the observed patterns could be the product of a guided natural mummification process. The manipulation of the body during mummification would have taken place over an extended period of time, during which the body gradually would become desiccated to maintain its bodily integrity, and simultaneously contracted by trussing with rope or bandages to compress it into a desired position. When the process was finished, the body would have been easier to transport (being more contracted and significantly lighter than the fresh cadaver) while ensuring that it was buried while retaining its appearance and anatomical integrity.

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Nits on ancient mummies shed light on South American ancestry

Human DNA can be extracted from the 'cement' head lice used to glue their eggs to hairs thousands of years ago, scientists have found, which could provide an important new window into the past.

In a new study, scientists for the first time recovered DNA from cement on hairs taken from mummified remains that date back 1,500-2,000 years. This is possible because skin cells from the scalp become encased in the cement produced by female lice as they attach eggs, known as nits, to the hair.

Analysis of this newly-recovered ancient DNA -- which was of better quality than that recovered through other methods -- has revealed clues about pre-Columbian human migration patterns within South America. This method could allow many more unique samples to be studied from human remains where bone and tooth samples are unavailable.

The research was led by the University of Reading, working in collaboration with the National University of San Juan, Argentina; Bangor University, Wales; the Oxford University Museum of Natural History; and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It is published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Dr Alejandra Perotti, Associate Professor in Invertebrate Biology at the University of Reading, who led the research, said: "Like the fictional story of mosquitos encased in amber in the film Jurassic Park, carrying the DNA of the dinosaur host, we have shown that our genetic information can be preserved by the sticky substance produced by headlice on our hair. In addition to genetics, lice biology can provide valuable clues about how people lived and died thousands of years ago.

"Demand for DNA samples from ancient human remains has grown in recent years as we seek to understand migration and diversity in ancient human populations. Headlice have accompanied humans throughout their entire existence, so this new method could open the door to a goldmine of information about our ancestors, while preserving unique specimens."

Until now, ancient DNA has preferably been extracted from dense bone from the skull or from inside teeth, as these provide the best quality samples. However, skull and teeth remains are not always available, as it can be unethical or against cultural beliefs to take samples from indigenous early remains, and due to the severe damage destructive sampling causes to the specimens which compromise future scientific analysis.

Recovering DNA from the cement delivered by lice is therefore a solution to the problem, especially as nits are commonly found on the hair and clothes of well preserved and mummified humans.

The research team extracted DNA from nit cement of specimens collected from a number of mummified remains from Argentina. The mummies were of people who 1,500-2,000 years ago reached the Andes mountains of the San Juan province, Central West Argentina. The team also studied ancient nits on human hair used in a textile from Chile and nits from a shrunken head originating from the ancient Jivaroan people of Amazonian Ecuador.

The samples used for DNA studies of nit cement were found to contain the same concentration of DNA as a tooth, double that of bone remains, and four times that recovered from blood inside far more recent lice specimens.

Dr Mikkel Winther Pedersen from the GLOBE institute at the University of Copenhagen, and first author, said: "The high amount of DNA yield from these nit cements really came as a surprise to us and it was striking to me that such small amounts could still give us all this information about who these people were, and how the lice related to other lice species but also giving us hints to possible viral diseases.

"There is a hunt out for alternative sources of ancient human DNA and nit cement might be one of those alternatives. I believe that future studies are needed before we really unravel this potential."

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Science reveals secrets of a mummy's portrait

 How much information can you get from a speck of purple pigment, no bigger than the diameter of a hair, plucked from an Egyptian portrait that's nearly 2,000 years old? Plenty, according to a new study. Analysis of that speck can teach us about how the pigment was made, what it's made of -- and maybe even a little about the people who made it. The study is published in the International Journal of Ceramic Engineering and Science.

"We're very interested in understanding the meaning and origin of the portraits, and finding ways to connect them and come up with a cultural understanding of why they were even painted in the first place," says materials scientist Darryl Butt, co-author of the study and dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences.

Faiyum mummies

The portrait that contained the purple pigment came from an Egyptian mummy, but it doesn't look the same as what you might initially think of as a mummy -- not like the golden sarcophagus of Tutankhamen, nor like the sideways-facing paintings on murals and papyri. Not like Boris Karloff, either.

The portrait, called "Portrait of a Bearded Man," comes from the second century when Egypt was a Roman province, hence the portraits are more lifelike and less hieroglyphic-like than Egyptian art of previous eras. Most of these portraits come from a region called Faiyum, and around 1,100 are known to exist. They're painted on wood and were wrapped into the linens that held the mummified body. The portraits were meant to express the likeness of the person, but also their status -- either actual or aspirational.

That idea of status is actually very important in this case because the man in the portrait we're focusing on is wearing purple marks called clavi on his toga. "Since the purple pigment occurred in the clavi -- the purple mark on the toga that in Ancient Rome indicated senatorial or equestrian rank- it was thought that perhaps we were seeing an augmentation of the sitter's importance in the afterlife," says Glenn Gates of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, where the portrait resides.

The color purple, Butt says, is viewed as a symbol of death in some cultures and a symbol of life in others. It was associated with royalty in ancient times, and still is today. Paraphrasing the author Victoria Finlay, Butt says that purple, located at the end of the visible color spectrum, can suggest the end of the known and the beginning of the unknown.

"So the presence of purple on this particular portrait made us wonder what it was made of and what it meant," Butt says. "The color purple stimulates many questions."

Lake pigments

Through a microscope, Gates saw that the pigment looked like crushed gems, containing particles ten to a hundred times larger than typical paint particles. To answer the question of how it was made, Gates sent a particle of the pigment to Butt and his team for analysis. The particle was only 50 microns in diameter, about the same as a human hair, which made keeping track of it challenging.

"The particle was shipped to me from Baltimore, sandwiched between two glass slides," Butt says, "and because it had moved approximately a millimeter during transit, it took us two days to find it." In order to move the particle to a specimen holder, the team used an eyelash with a tiny quantity of adhesive at its tip to make the transfer. "The process of analyzing something like this is a bit like doing surgery on a flea."

With that particle, as small as it was, the researchers could machine even smaller samples using a focused ion beam and analyze those samples for their elemental composition.

What did they find? To put the results in context, you'll need to know how dyes and pigments are made.

Pigments and dyes are not the same things. Dyes are the pure coloring agents, and pigments are the combination of dyes, minerals, binders and other components that make up what we might recognize as paint.

Initially, purple dyes came from a gland of a genus of sea snails called Murex. Butt and his colleagues hypothesize that the purple used in this mummy painting is something else -- a synthetic purple.

The researchers also hypothesize that the synthetic purple could have originally been discovered by accident when red dye and blue indigo dye mixed together. The final color may also be due to the introduction of chromium into the mix.

From there, the mineralogy of the pigment sample suggests that the dye was mixed with clay or a silica material to form a pigment. According to Butt, an accomplished painter himself, pigments made in this way are called lake pigments (derived from the same root word as lacquer). Further, the pigment was mixed with a beeswax binder before finally being painted on linden wood.

The pigment showed evidence suggesting a crystal structure in the pigment. "Lake pigments were thought to be without crystallinity prior to this work," Gates says. "We now know crystalline domains exist in lake pigments, and these can function to 'trap' evidence of the environment during pigment creation."

Bottom of the barrel, er, vat

One other detail added a bit more depth to the story of how this portrait was made. The researchers found significant amounts of lead in the pigment as well and connected that finding with observations from a late 1800s British explorer who reported that the vats of dye in Egyptian dyers' workshops were made of lead.

"Over time, a story or hypothesis emerged," Butt says, "suggesting that the Egyptian dyers produced red dye in these lead vats." And when they were done dyeing at the end of the day, he says, there may have been a sludge that developed inside the vat that was a purplish color. "Or, they were very smart and they may have found a way to take their red dye, shift the color toward purple by adding a salt with transition metals and a mordant [a substance that fixes a dye] to intentionally synthesize a purple pigment. We don't know."

Broader impacts

This isn't Butt's first time using scientific methods to learn about ancient artwork. He's been involved with previous similar investigations and has drawn on both his research and artistic backgrounds to develop a class called "The Science of Art" that included studies and discussions on topics that involved dating, understanding and reverse engineering a variety of historical artifacts ranging from pioneer newspapers to ancient art.

"Mixing science and art together is just fun," he says. "It's a great way to make learning science more accessible."

And the work has broader impacts as well. Relatively little is known about the mummy portraits, including whether the same artist painted multiple portraits. Analyzing pigments on an atomic level might provide the chemical fingerprint needed to link portraits to each other.

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A 400-year-old chamois will serve as a model for research on ice mummies

 At first glance, the chamois carcass did not seem to Hermann Oberlechner to be an unusual discovery as mountaineers often happen across the remains of wild animals during their high-altitude excursions. However, upon a close inspection of the chamois skin, the Ahrntal alpinist realised that he was faced with a highly unique discovery and informed the relevant ranger.

The chamois had in fact been protected by the glacier for 400 years and only recently released due to the ice having receded. With the help of the Alpine Army Corps, the chamois mummy was brought back to the valley and entrusted to Eurac Research for scientific study by the Department of Cultural Heritage. Due to their age and state of preservation, the remains are in fact a perfect simulant of a human mummy and will allow researchers to improve the conservation techniques of ice mummies all over the world while determining methods for the safeguarding of ancient DNA -- a mine of valuable information for humanity.

In mummified specimens, DNA has often degraded and is present only in minimal amounts. In fact, faced with a new discovery, the first question experts encounter is how to examine the mummy while continuing to preserve it, without damaging its ancient DNA. Every action has irreversible consequences on DNA fragments, which makes experimenting with new techniques on human finds impossible. Contrastingly, an intact animal mummy is a perfect simulant for research -- especially if its conditions are similar to those of the world's other ice mummies, of which Ötzi and the Inca girl Juanita are among the most famous.

"Thanks to our previous studies we know the optimal physical and chemical parameters for preservation from a microbiological point of view. In the laboratory we will bring the chamois to those conditions and focus on their effects on DNA. With repeated in-depth analysis we will verify what alterations the DNA undergoes when external conditions change," explains Marco Samadelli, conservation expert at Eurac Research. "Our goal is to use scientific data to develop a globally valid conservation protocol for ice mummies. This is the first time an animal mummy has been used in this way," adds Albert Zink, Director of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac Research.

Upon encountering the chamois, Hermann Oberlechner soon realised the importance of the find. "Only half of the animal's body was exposed from the snow. The skin looked like leather, completely hairless; I had never seen anything like it. I immediately took a photo and sent it to the park ranger, together we then notified the Department of Cultural Heritage."

The discovery site, at 3200 m MSL, is impassable and can only be reached by a six-hour hike. For this reason, following their initial inspection, the researchers decided to ask for the support of the Alpine Army Corps in the recovery of the animal. "The request from Eurac Research came during a training phase of our military mountain rescue team. We plan regular exercises not only in order to always be ready to intervene and protect our personnel in high-altitude missions, but also if we are requested for civil protection too." commented Mario Bisica, Alpine Army Corps Head of Public Information and Communication.

The helicopter flight was organised in collaboration with the army's specialised aviation corps, who have their own regiment in Bolzano, with pilots specifically trained to operate at high altitude. Thanks to the group effort, Eurac Research experts were able to reach the glacier and, with the help of the troops, carry out the scientific operation needed to recover the mummy. The chamois was then wrapped in an inert material casing made to measure by conservationist Marco Samadelli. The remains are now being kept at the Eurac Research Conservation Laboratory at NOI Techpark in refrigerated cell at -- 5 C°, ready to be studied.

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DNA of world's oldest natural mummy unlocks secrets of Ice Age tribes in the Americas

These are skulls and other human remains from P.W. Lund's Collection from Lagoa Santa, Brazil kept in the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

A legal battle over a 10,600 year old ancient skeleton -- called the 'Spirit Cave Mummy' -- has ended after advanced DNA sequencing found it was related to a Native American tribe.

The revelation has been published in Science today (Thursday, November 8 at 14:00 US Eastern Time) as part of a wide ranging international study that genetically analysed the DNA of a series of famous and controversial ancient remains across North and South America including Spirit Cave, the Lovelock skeletons, the Lagoa Santa remains, an Inca mummy, and the oldest remains in Chilean Patagonia. The study also looked at the second oldest human remains from Trail Creek Cave in Alaska -- a 9,000 year old milk tooth from a young girl.

Scientists sequenced 15 ancient genomes spanning from Alaska to Patagonia and were able to track the movements of the first humans as they spread across the Americas at "astonishing" speed during the Ice Age, and also how they interacted with each other in the following millennia.

The team of academics not only discovered that the Spirit Cave remains -- the world's oldest natural mummy -- was a Native American but they were able to dismiss a longstanding theory that a group called Paleoamericans existed in North America before Native Americans.

The ground-breaking research also discovered clues of a puzzling Australasian genetic signal in the 10,400 year old Lagoa Santa remains from Brazil revealing a previously unknown group of early South Americans -- but the Australasian link left no genetic trace in North America. It was described by one of the scientists as 'extraordinary evidence of an extraordinary chapter in human history'.

Professor Eske Willeslev, who holds positions both at St John's College, University of Cambridge, and the University of Copenhagen, and led the study, said: "Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa were very controversial because they were identified as so-called 'Paleoamericans' based on craniometry -- it was determined that the shape of their skulls was different to current day Native Americans. Our study proves that Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa were actually genetically closer to contemporary Native Americans than to any other ancient or contemporary group sequenced to date."

The Lagoa Santa remains were retrieved by Danish explorer Peter W. Lund in the 19th century and his work led to this 'Paleoamerican hypothesis' based on cranial morphology that theorised the famous group of skeletons could not be Native Americans. But this new study disproves that theory and the findings were published by Professor Willeslev with representatives from the Brazilian National Museum in Rio on Tuesday, November 6 2018.

He added: "Looking at the bumps and shapes of a head does not help you understand the true genetic ancestry of a population -- we have proved that you can have people who look very different but are closely related."

The scientific and cultural significance of the Spirit Cave remains, which were found in 1940 in a small rocky alcove in the Great Basin Desert, was not properly understood for 50 years. The preserved remains of the man in his forties were initially believed to be between 1,500 and 2000 years old, but during the 1990s new textile and hair testing dated the skeleton at 10,600 years old.

The Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, a group of Native Americans based in Nevada near Spirit Cave, claimed cultural affiliation with the skeleton and requested immediate repatriation of the remains under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

The request was refused because the ancestry was disputed, the tribe sued the federal government and the lawsuit pitted tribal leaders against anthropologists, who argued the remains provided invaluable insights into North America's earliest inhabitants and should continue to be displayed in a museum.

The deadlock continued for 20 years until the tribe agreed that Professor Willeslev could carry out genome sequencing on DNA extracted from the Spirit Cave for the first time.

Professor Willeslev said: "I assured the tribe that my group would not do the DNA testing unless they gave permission and it was agreed that if Spirit Cave was genetically a Native American the mummy would be repatriated to the tribe."

The team painstakingly extracted DNA from the petrus bone from the inside of the skull proving that the skeleton was an ancestor of present day Native Americans. Spirit Cave was returned to the tribe in 2016 and there was a private reburial ceremony earlier this year that Professor Willeslev attended and details have just been released.

The geneticist explained: "What became very clear to me was that this was a deeply emotional and deeply cultural event. The tribe have real feelings for Spirit Cave, which as a European it can be hard to understand but for us it would very much be like burying our mother, father, sister or brother.

"We can all imagine what it would be like if our father or mother was put in an exhibition and they had that same feeling for Spirit Cave. It has been a privilege to work with them."

The tribe were kept informed throughout the two year project and two members visited the lab in Copenhagen to meet the scientists and they were present when all of the DNA sampling was taken.

A statement from the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, said: "The Tribe has had a lot of experience with members of the scientific community, mostly negative. However, there are a handful of scientists that seemed to understand the Tribe's perspective and Eske Willerslev was one of them.

"He took the time to acquaint himself with the Tribe, kept us well-informed of the process, and was available to answer our questions. His new study confirms what we have always known from our oral tradition and other evidence -- that the man taken from his final resting place in Spirit Cave is our Native American ancestor."

The genome of the Spirit Cave skeleton has wider significance because it not only settled the legal and cultural dispute between the tribe and the Government, it also helped reveal how ancient humans moved and settled across the Americas. The scientists were able to track the movement of populations from Alaska to as far south as Patagonia. They often separated from each other and took their chances travelling in small pockets of isolated groups.

Dr David Meltzer, from the Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, said: "A striking thing about the analysis of Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa is their close genetic similarity which implies their ancestral population travelled through the continent at astonishing speed. That's something we've suspected due to the archaeological findings, but it's fascinating to have it confirmed by the genetics. These findings imply that the first peoples were highly skilled at moving rapidly across an utterly unfamiliar and empty landscape. They had a whole continent to themselves and they were travelling great distances at breath-taking speed."

The study also revealed surprising traces of Australasian ancestry in ancient South American Native Americans but no Australasian genetic link was found in North American Native Americans.

Dr Victor Moreno-Mayar, from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen and first author of the study, said: "We discovered the Australasian signal was absent in Native Americans prior to the Spirit Cave and Lagoa Santa population split which means groups carrying this genetic signal were either already present in South America when Native Americans reached the region, or Australasian groups arrived later. That this signal has not been previously documented in North America implies that an earlier group possessing it had disappeared or a later arriving group passed through North America without leaving any genetic trace."

Dr Peter de Barros Damgaard, from the Centre for GeoGenetics, University of Copenhagen, explained why scientists remain puzzled but optimistic about the Australasian ancestry signal in South America. He explained: "If we assume that the migratory route that brought this Australasian ancestry to South America went through North America, either the carriers of the genetic signal came in as a structured population and went straight to South America where they later mixed with new incoming groups, or they entered later. At the moment we cannot resolve which of these might be correct, leaving us facing extraordinary evidence of an extraordinary chapter in human history! But we will solve this puzzle."

The population history during the millennia that followed initial settlement was far more complex than previously thought. The peopling of the Americas had been simplified as a series of north to south population splits with little to no interaction between groups after their establishment.

The new genomic analysis presented in the study has shown that around 8,000 years ago, Native Americans were on the move again, but this time from Mesoamerica into both North and South America.

Researchers found traces of this movement in the genomes of all present-day indigenous populations in South America for which genomic data is available to date.

Read more at Science Daily

5,300-year-old Iceman's last meal reveals remarkably high-fat diet

This photograph was taken during the stomach content sampling campaign in November 2010 in Bolzano, Italy.

In 1991, German tourists discovered, in the Eastern Italian Alps, a human body that was later determined to be the oldest naturally preserved ice mummy, known as Otzi or the Iceman. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on July 12 who have conducted the first in-depth analysis of the Iceman's stomach contents offer a rare glimpse of our ancestor's ancient dietary habits. Among other things, their findings show that the Iceman's last meal was heavy on the fat.

The findings offer important insights into the nutritional habits of European individuals, going back more than 5,000 years to the Copper Age. They also offer clues as to how our ancient ancestors handled food preparation.

"By using a complementary multi-omics approach combined with microscopy, we reconstructed the Iceman's last meal, showing that he has had a remarkably high proportion of fat in his diet, supplemented with wild meat from ibex and red deer, cereals from einkorn, and with traces of toxic bracken," says Frank Maixner of the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzano, Italy. Bracken is a genus of large ferns.

Maixner and colleagues, including Albert Zink, explains that the analysis hadn't happened earlier because scientists were initially unable to identify the Iceman's stomach. That's because it had moved up during the mummification process. In 2009, his stomach was spotted during a re-investigation of CT scans, and an effort to analyze its contents was launched.

"The stomach material was, compared to previously analyzed lower intestine samples, extraordinarily well preserved, and it also contained large amounts of unique biomolecules such as lipids, which opened new methodological opportunities to address our questions about Otzi's diet," Maixner says.

The researchers combined classical microscopic and modern molecular approaches to determine the exact composition of the Iceman's diet prior to his death. The broad-spectrum approach allowed them to make inferences based on ancient DNA, proteins, metabolites, and lipids.

The analysis identified ibex adipose tissue as the most likely fat source. In fact, about half of the stomach contents were composed of adipose fat. While the high-fat diet was unexpected, the researchers say it "totally makes sense" given the extreme alpine environment in which the Iceman lived and where he was found.

"The high and cold environment is particularly challenging for the human physiology and requires optimal nutrient supply to avoid rapid starvation and energy loss," says Albert Zink, also at the Eurac Research Institute for Mummy Studies. "The Iceman seemed to have been fully aware that fat represents an excellent energy source."

The analysis indicated that the wild meat was eaten fresh or perhaps dried. While the presence of toxic bracken particles is more difficult to explain, the researchers say it's possible that the Iceman suffered from intestinal problems related to parasites found earlier in his gut and took the bracken as a medicine. On the other hand, he may have used the fern's leaves to wrap food and ingested toxic spores unintentionally.

Read more at Science Daily

Stone tools from ancient mummy reveal how Copper Age mountain people lived

This is a stone tool.

Stone tools found with a 5,300-year-old frozen mummy from Northern Italy reveal how alpine Copper Age communities lived, according to a study published June 20, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ursula Wierer from the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Florence, Italy, and colleagues.

The Tyrolean Iceman is a mummified body of a 45-year-old man originally discovered with his clothes and personal belongings in a glacier of the Alps mountains, in the South Tyrol region, Italy. Previous research showed that the Iceman lived during the Copper Age, between 3370-3100 BC, and was probably killed by an arrow. In this study, the researchers analyzed the Iceman's chert tools to learn more about his life and the events that led to his tragic death.

The team used high-power microscopes and computed tomography to examine the chert tools in microscopic detail, including a dagger, borer, flake, antler retoucher, and arrowheads. The structure of the tools' chert reveals that the stone was collected from several different outcrops in what is now the Trentino region (Italy), about 70km away from where the Iceman was thought to live. Comparing this ancient toolkit with other Copper Age artefacts revealed stylistic influences from distant alpine cultures. By carefully analyzing the wear traces of the Iceman's chert tools, the authors concluded he was right-handed and probably had recently resharpened and reshaped some of his equipment.

These findings shed light into the Iceman's personal history and support previous evidence suggesting that alpine Copper Age communities maintained long-distance cultural contacts and were well provisioned with chert.

From Science Daily

Micro-CT scans show 2,100-year-old 'hawk' mummy a stillborn baby

Micro-CT scans determined a 'hawk mummy' at Maidstone Museum UK is in fact a stillborn male human with severe congenital abnormalities that include a malformed skull and vertebrae. An international team's unprecedented analysis was led by bioarchaeologist and mummy expert Andrew Nelson of Western University, Canada.

A tiny Egyptian mummy long believed to be that of a hawk is actually a rare example of a near-to-term, severely malformed fetus, says an examination led by mummy expert Andrew Nelson of Western University in London, Canada.

Detailed micro-CT scans have virtually unwrapped the mummy to reveal what would have been a family tragedy even two millennia ago: a male, stillborn at 23 to 28 weeks of gestation, and with a rare condition called anencephaly in which the brain and skull fail to develop properly.

Its misidentification in the Maidstone Museum in the UK, as 'EA 493 -- Mummified Hawk Ptolemaic Period', came to light in 2016 when the museum decided to CT-scan its resident female mummy and, incidentally, to scan 'EA 493' and other animal mummies at the same time. That's when the smaller mummy surprised experts, who identified it as a human fetus. But the CT scans lacked detail and Nelson worked with the Museum and Nikon Metrology (UK) to conduct a micro-CT scan: an extremely high-resolution scan that didn't entail damaging the mummy in any way.

Nelson then assembled an interdisciplinary team to examine and interpret the images in what has become the highest-resolution scan ever conducted of a fetal mummy.

The images show well-formed toes and fingers but a skull with severe malformations, says Nelson, a bioarchaeologist and professor of anthropology at Western. "The whole top part of his skull isn't formed. The arches of the vertebrae of his spine haven't closed. His earbones are at the back of his head."

There are no bones to shape the broad roof and sides of the skull, where the brain would ordinarily grow. "In this individual, this part of the vault never formed and there probably was no real brain," Nelson says.

That makes it one of just two anencephalic mummies known to exist (the other was described in 1826), and by far the most-studied fetal mummy in history.

Nelson recently presented the team's findings at the Extraordinary World Congress on Mummy Studies in the Canary Islands.

The research provides important clues to the maternal diet -- anencephaly can result from lack of folic acid, found in green vegetables -- and raises new questions about whether mummification in this case took place because fetuses were believed to have some power as talismans, Nelson says.

"It would have been a tragic moment for the family to lose their infant and to give birth to a very strange-looking fetus, not a normal-looking fetus at all. So this was a very special individual," Nelson says.

Read more at Science Daily

Archaeologists discover a 1,000-year-old mummy in Peru

This is the Pachacamac mummy 2018.

A team from the Université libre de Bruxelles's centre for archaeological research (CReA-Patrimoine) has completed a significant excavation in Pachacamac, Peru, where they have discovered an intact mummy in especially good condition. Pachacamac's status as a Pre-Colombian pilgrimage site under the Inca empire. is confirmed by further evidence.

Peter Eeckhout and his team's latest campaign of archaeological excavations has concluded with an exciting surprise: after nine weeks spent exploring the Pre-Colombian site of Pachacamac, in Peru, the researchers from CReA-Patrimoine (ULB Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences) have unearthed a mummy in especially good condition. 'The deceased is still wrapped in the enormous funeral bundle that served as a coffin,' points out professor Peter Eeckhout. 'Discoveries like this one are exceptionally scarce, and this mummy is incredibly well preserved. Samples were collected for carbon-14 dating, but the area in which it was discovered and the type of tomb suggest this individual was buried between 1000 and 1200 AD.'

The excavation was carried out as a part of the 'Ychsma' project, named after the region's native people, under the supervision of professor Eeckhout. Three monumental structures were explored during the campaign, including a sanctuary dedicated to the local ancestors. Under Inca rule, in the late 15th century, it appears to have been transformed into a water and healing temple. The archaeologists have discovered many offerings left by worshippers, such as Spondylus shells imported from Ecuador; these are associated with the influx of water during El Niño, and they symbolise fertility and abundance.

Before the Inca settled in the area, the sanctuary included large funerary chambers and numerous mummies, most of which were looted during the Spanish conquest. Miraculously, though, one of the chambers was found intact during the latest round of excavations: this is the funeral chamber that held the mummy. Due to how well it was preserved, the researchers will be able to study it without needing to unwrap the bundle. Together with Christophe Moulherat (Musée du Quai Branly, Paris), they will soon examine the mummy using the latest techniques in medical imaging (X-ray scans, axial tomography, 3D reconstruction, etc.). This will enable them to determine the individual's position, any pathologies they might have suffered from, but also what offerings might be inside the bundle.

The other structures that were excavated are also related to worship: the first one, an Inca monument intended to host pilgrims and rituals, was built in several phases, each identified with a series of offerings such as seashells and precious objects. The last structure explored was probably one of the 'chapels' for foreign pilgrims, referred to by Spanish monk Antonio de la Calancha in his 17th-century description of the site. There, the excavations also uncovered many 'foundation' offerings, including vases, dogs, and other animals, as well as a platform with a hole in the centre, where an idol was likely placed. The complex appears to have been designed around this idol, involved in religious activities with pilgrims.

Read more at Science Daily

Ancient DNA results end 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy mystery

The Two Brothers are the Museum's oldest mummies and amongst the best-known human remains in its Egyptology collection. They are the mummies of two elite men -- Khnum-nakht and Nakht-ankh -- dating to around 1800 BC.

Using 'next generation' DNA sequencing scientists have found that the famous 'Two Brothers' mummies of the Manchester Museum have different fathers so are, in fact, half-brothers.

The Two Brothers are the Museum's oldest mummies and amongst the best-known human remains in its Egyptology collection. They are the mummies of two elite men -- Khnum-nakht and Nakht-ankh -- dating to around 1800 BC.

However, ever since their discovery in 1907 there has been some debate amongst Egyptologists whether the two were actually related at all. So, in 2015, 'ancient DNA' was extracted from their teeth to solve the mystery.

But how did the mystery start? The pair's joint burial site, later dubbed The Tomb of The Two Brothers, was discovered at Deir Rifeh, a village 250 miles south of Cairo.

They were found by Egyptian workmen directed by early 20th century Egyptologists, Flinders Petrie and Ernest Mackay. Hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffins indicated that both men were the sons of an unnamed local governor and had mothers with the same name, Khnum-aa. It was then the men became known as the Two Brothers.

When the complete contents of the tomb were shipped to Manchester in 1908 and the mummies of both men were unwrapped by the UK's first professional female Egyptologist, Dr Margaret Murray. Her team concluded that the skeletal morphologies were quite different, suggesting an absence of family relationship. Based on contemporary inscriptional evidence, it was proposed that one of the Brothers was adopted.

Therefore, in 2015, the DNA was extracted from the teeth and, following hybridization capture of the mitochondrial and Y chromosome fractions, sequenced by a next generation method. Analysis showed that both Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht belonged to mitochondrial haplotype M1a1, suggesting a maternal relationship. The Y chromosome sequences were less complete but showed variations between the two mummies, indicating that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht had different fathers, and were thus very likely to have been half-brothers.

Dr Konstantina Drosou, of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester who conducted the DNA sequencing, said: "It was a long and exhausting journey to the results but we are finally here. I am very grateful we were able to add a small but very important piece to the big history puzzle and I am sure the brothers would be very proud of us. These moments are what make us believe in ancient DNA. "

The study, which is being published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, is the first to successfully use the typing of both mitochondrial and Y chromosomal DNA in Egyptian mummies.

Read more at Science Daily

Millennia-Old Mummies Are Under Threat From Yemen's Civil War

Yemen's war has claimed thousands of lives and pushed millions to the brink of famine. Now the conflict threatens to erase a unique part of the country's ancient history.

A collection of millennia-old mummies at Sanaa University Museum in the Yemeni capital could face destruction as a result of the fighting.

With electricity intermittent at best and the country's ports under blockade, experts are fighting to save the 12 mummies in the face of heat, humidity, and a lack of preservative chemicals.

Some of the remains, from pagan kingdoms that ruled the region around 400 BC, still have teeth and strands of hair.

"These mummies are tangible evidence of a nation's history," said Abdulrahman Jarallah, head of the archaeology department at Sanaa University, but "even our mummies are affected by the war."

"Mummies need a suitable, controlled environment and regular care, including sanitization every six months," he told AFP. "Some of them have begun to decay as we cannot secure electricity and the proper preservative chemicals, and we're struggling to control the stench."

"We're concerned both for the conservation of the mummies and for the health of those handling them," Jarallah said.

The mummies are among a host of priceless ancient remains threatened by conflicts across the region.

From Syria's Palmyra to Libya's Leptis Magna, millennia-old historical remains face looting and destruction in various parts of the Middle East.

The Islamic State group systematically demolished pre-Islamic monuments in Syria and Iraq after seizing swathes of both countries in 2014, looting and selling smaller pieces on the black market to fund their rule.

Swiss authorities last year seized cultural relics looted from Yemen, Syria, and Libya that had been stored in Geneva's free ports — highly secured warehouses where valuables can be stashed tax-free with few questions asked.

Supplies, Experts Needed

Old Sanaa, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List since 1986, faces other dangers.

Perched 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) up in Yemen's western mountains, it has been continuously inhabited for over 2,500 years and is home to some of the earliest Islamic architecture.

With more than 100 mosques and 6,000 houses built before the 11th century, the old city is famed for its multi-storied homes of red basalt rock, with arched windows decorated with white latticework.

But months after a Saudi-led coalition intervened against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in March 2015, UNESCO added the ancient city to its List of World Heritage in Danger.

In June that year, a bombing in the old city killed five people and destroyed a section including several houses and an Ottoman fort.

Witnesses blamed an air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on the rebel-held capital.

No party has claimed responsibility for the strike.

The coalition has also imposed an air and naval blockade on Houthi-controlled Red Sea ports that are crucial entry points for food and aid.

The UN estimates 60 percent of Yemen's population is at risk of famine.

Yemeni archaeologists have appealed to both local authorities and international organizations to help preserve Yemen's mummies by easing the flow of supplies and personnel.

"We can already see the mummies suffering the effects of a long period of not having been properly maintained," Sanaa University Museum restoration specialist Fahmi al-Ariqi told AFP.

"We need supplies and experts in this sort of maintenance to work with us to save the 12 mummies here at the university, as well as another dozen at the National Museum in Sanaa."

Read more at Discovery News

Ancient Egyptian's Baboon Obsession Laid Hidden Within Luxor Tomb

For Jiro Kondo and his team from Waseda University, it began as just another day of excavating at Luxor, an Egyptian city famous for its temples and other ancient monuments. The researchers were taking care of mundane tasks at an area to the east of the forecourt of the known tomb of Userhat, who was a royal scribe.

"While cleaning the area above the 'rump' to the forecourt, we found a hole," Kondo told Seeker. After entering the hole, he and his team were stunned by what they found: a previously unknown separate chamber.

"The tomb is beautifully decorated and probably dates to the Ramesside period," he said, referring to the span from 1292 to 1069 B.C. "The owner of the tomb is Khonsu, who has the title of 'the royal scribe.'" The ancient Egyptian's name is clearly written in hieroglyphics in the tomb.

Various scenes in the chamber depict Khonsu, his wife, the gods Osiris and Isis, and the ram-headed deities which are thought to be Khnum or Khnum-Re. One detailed painting, however, is perhaps most telling about Khonsu and his likely muse.

"On the north wall of the entrance doorway, we found a scene showing the solar boat of the god Ra-Atum being worshiped by four baboons showing the pose of adoration," Kondo said.

Image of baboons worshipping the early Egyptian god Ra-Atum. The depictions are in the tomb of the royal scribe Konsu at Luxor, Egypt.

Painting of the royal scribe Khonsu, left, shown with his wife in his tomb at Luxor, Egypt.

Ra-Atum was a central ancient Egyptian deity, a sun god through which everything else was created. As for the baboons, they are also sometimes depicted as gods, but are linked to Ra-Atum and were believed to be the spiritual muses of scribes, directing their writing.

Baboons vocalize loudly when the sun rises. They also like to warm themselves in the morning sun, perhaps explaining their mythical connection to Ra-Atum. One may wonder, though, why baboons were depicted at all, since they are not native to Egypt.

Historians suspect that the primates were brought to Egypt from Nubia, which was a region that then encompassed part of Sudan. Based on this latest tomb find, and other ancient Egyptian depictions of baboons, these animals were popular in Egypt and many other parts of Africa.

The world's first known baboon, discovered at a site called Malapa in South Africa, even hails from a region that's often referred to as the Cradle of Humankind.

Read more at Discovery News

Iceman Ötzi's Last Meal Was 'Stone Age Bacon'

Ötzi the famous "iceman" mummy of the Alps appears to have enjoyed a fine slice or two of Stone Age bacon before he was killed by an arrow some 5,300 years ago.

His last meal was most likely dried goat meat, according to scientists who recently managed to dissect the contents of Ötzi's stomach.

"We've analysed the meat's nanostructure and it looks like he ate very fatty, dried meat, most likely bacon," German mummy expert Albert Zink said at a talk in Vienna late Wednesday.

More specifically, the tasty snack is thought to have come from a wild goat in South Tyrol, the northern Italian region where Ötzi roamed around and where his remains were found in September 1991.

Mummified in ice, he was discovered by two German hikers in the Ötzal Alps, 3,210 meters (10,500 feet) above sea level.

Scientists have used hi-tech, non-invasive diagnostics and genomic sequencing to penetrate his mysterious past.

These efforts have determined Ötzi died around the age of 45, was about 1.60 meters (five foot, three inches) tall and weighed 50 kilos (110 pounds).

He suffered a violent death, with an arrow severing a major blood vessel between the rib cage and the left shoulder blade, as well as a laceration on the hand.

As part of their latest discoveries, Zink's team also found that Ötzi had an ulcer-inducing bacteria and may have suffered from stomach aches.

But for all his parasites, worn ligaments and bad teeth, he was in "pretty good shape," Zink wrote in the journal Science earlier this month.

From Discovery News

Scans Unveil Secrets of the World's Oldest Mummies

More than 7,000 years after they were embalmed by the Chinchorro people, an ancient civilization in modern-day Chile and Peru, 15 mummies were taken to a Santiago clinic last week to undergo DNA analysis and computerized tomography scans.

The Chinchorro were a hunting and fishing people who lived from 10,000 to 3,400 B.C. on the Pacific coast of South America, at the edge of the Atacama desert.

They were among the first people in the world to mummify their dead. Their mummies date back some 7,400 years — at least 2,000 years older than Egypt's.

Now, researchers are hoping to use modern medical technology to reconstruct what they looked like in life, decode their genes and better understand the mysteries of this ancient civilization.

The 15 Chinchorro mummies, mostly children and unborn babies, were put through a CT scanner at the Los Condes clinic in the Chilean capital.

"We collected thousands of images with a precision of less than one millimeter," said chief radiologist Marcelo Galvez.

"The next phase is to try to dissect these bodies virtually, without touching them, which will help us preserve them for another 500,000 years."

Using high-tech computer processing, researchers are busy reconstructing the mummies' muscles and facial features.

"We want to see what they physically looked like, to reconstruct them and bring to life someone who died thousands of years ago," said Galvez.

Researchers are also hoping to learn more about how the Chinchorro mummified their dead.

The Chinchorro, who apparently had a complex understanding of human anatomy, would carefully remove the skin and muscles of the deceased.

Using wood, plants and clay, they reconstructed the body around the remaining skeleton, then sewed the original skin back on, adding a mouth, eyes and hair.

A mask was then placed over the face.

The result looks like something in between a statue and a person — eerily lifelike even after thousands of years.

All in the family

Mummification was an intimate process for the Chinchorro, said Veronica Silva, the head of the anthropology department at Chile's National Museum of Natural History.

"The family itself would make the mummy," she told AFP.

The earliest mummies were unborn fetuses and newborns, she said.

The mummies were all made using the same basic process, but each one shows unique "technological and artistic innovations," she said.

Read more at Discovery News

The Coolest Archaeological Finds of 2016

From creepy burials to sunken ships, Bronze Age ancestors of Rodin's "The Thinker" and "speaking" mummies, this year offered extraordinary insight into the past.

But 2016 has also been a year of disappointments. Egyptian authorities faced embarrassment after supporting the theory that a secret room existed in the tomb of King Tut. Such a room would have concealed "one of the most important finds of the century" — the tomb of Queen Nefertiti.

After much excitement, more detailed scans earlier this year showed that no secret room existed in the tomb of the boy pharaoh.

Still in Egypt, experts raised doubts over a claim that the Great Pyramid at Giza contains two unknown voids or cavities. Investigations using innovative techniques such as infrared thermography, and "cosmic ray" muon detectors are expected further explore that claim in 2017.

Here are some of our favorite archaeology stories of this year.

Despite some disappointments, Egypt remained an archaeological hot spot in 2016. Authorities unveiled 30 papyri which contain the oldest known examples of Egyptian writing, dating back 4,500 years.

Found within caves in the ancient Red Sea port of Wadi al-Jarf, the papyri provide insight into the lives of workers in the port during the reign of fourth dynasty King Khufu, also known as Cheops, for whom the Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb.

The hieroglyphs reveal that workers and employees at Wadi al-Jarf participated in the construction of the pyramid.

Other findings included the remains of a 4,500-year-old funerary boat which was uncovered near the Abusir pyramids, a 3000-year-old mummy resting inside a perfectly preserved brightly colored wooden sarcophagus and a remarkable 3,400-year-old necropolis. Consisting of dozens of rock-cut tombs, it was unearthed at the quarry site of Gebel el Sisila, north of Aswan.

Some of the most intriguing finds of 2016 were made in labs outside Egypt. Using non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of Italian and Egyptian researchers found that King Tut was buried with a dagger made of an iron that literally came from space.

They confirmed that iron of the dagger placed on the right thigh of King Tut's mummified body has meteoric origins.

In another breakthrough, a pair of 3,200-year-old mummified legs were identified as belonging to Queen Nefertari. She was the first and favorite wife of the mighty warrior pharaoh Ramses II.

The legs had been on display at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy when an international team of researchers led by Frank Rühli, head of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, made the stunning identification.

Nefertari's mummy was ripped to pieces and tossed around by ancient robbers, so her remains were believed to have been lost forever. Nefertari is the only queen from the Ramesside era to have been identified so far.

A Bronze Age settlement in the UK county of Cambridgeshire stands as one of the most compelling finds of 2016. Dubbed Britain's "Pompeii," the site provided vivid insight into domestic life 3,000 years ago.

The settlement was home to several families who lived in a number of circular wooden houses built on stilts above a river. It was abandoned in haste 3,000 years ago as a giant fire destroyed the houses. The dwellings fell into the river, where thick silt and clay preserved the contents.

The archaeologists found an extraordinary time capsule buried just over six feet below the ground surface. Finds include clothing, jewelry, tools, furniture, textiles, abandoned meals still in the cooking pots and the the oldest, largest, most complete wheel ever found in Britain.

Food was again in the spotlight in 2016.

Evidence for one of the most common mistakes in the kitchen — burning food — was found in a 3,000-year-old clay pot that was excavated in central Jutland, Denmark, at the bottom of what was once a waste pit. The clay vessel, in near mint condition, contained burned cheese and was possibly thrown in a moment of anger over the cooking mistake.

Such cooking accidents were likely avoided by those using the "Cumanae testae" or "Cumanae patellae" — pans produced more than 2,000 years ago in the from the city of Cumae, about 12 miles west of Naples. Archaeologists found the site where such pottery, featuring a red coating that prevented food from sticking to the pan, was produced. They were the precursors of non-stick pans.

While 340-year-old Roquefort cheese was found in a Swedish shipwreck on the bed of the Baltic, turf cutters working in an Irish peat bog unearthed a 2,000-year-old lump of butter, which also smelled like a strong cheese.

Chemical analysis of prehistoric hearths, revealed that salmon has been on the American menu for 11,800 years. The dating confirms central Alaska as the earliest site of salmon consumption in the Americas.

As for drinking, researchers analyzing ancient pottery jars in China, found that barley might have been the "secret ingredient" in a 5,000-year-old beer recipe.

World's oldest dress

Among the list of world's firsts discovered this year were the oldest known dress, a stained shirt produced more than 5,000 years ago, and the oldest ground-edge stone axe, whose discovery in Australia pushed back the Aborigenal technology to between 45,000 to 49,000 years ago.

The year also brought the discoveries of the world's oldest gold artifact — a tiny bead unearthed in Bulgaria which archaeologists believe is 6,500 years old — and the oldest snowshoe. Found in the Italian Alps, it looks amazingly modern even though it dates back 5,800 years.

Huge ancient ship graveyard found off Greek islands

A discovery in a small Greek archipelago stands as this year's most significant finding in underwater archaeology.

Investigation of the Fourni archipelago, a collection of 13 islands and islets located between the eastern Aegean islands of Samos and Icaria, revealed 23 ancient wrecks, which add to 22 other wrecks identified in 2015. The discovery confirms the Greek site as the ancient shipwreck capital of the world.

Still in Greece, archaeologists unearthed a human skeleton dating back to 2,000 years ago on the Antikythera shipwreck. Dubbed the "Titanic of the ancient world," the vessel sank more than 2,000 years ago off the remote island of Antikythera, in southern Greece.

Found by Greek sponge divers more than 100 years ago, the wreck contained a mysterious "Antikythera mechanism" — a complex, geared astronomical calculator known as the world's oldest computer.

The remains, which most likely belonged to a young man, could yield the first DNA from an ancient shipwreck victim.

Mummy research produced important findings for modern clinical medicine.

Researchers rewrote the history of smallpox by analyzing the mummified remains of a 17th-century child from Vilnius, Lithuania.

The disease had long been thought to have appeared in human populations thousands of years ago, but the child mummy, which turned to contain the oldest known sample of the variola virus that causes smallpox, now challenges that timeline,placing it between 1643 and 1665.

One of the most spectacular investigations involved Ötzi the Iceman, whose voice was reconstructed by scientists with the "best possible approximation."

Presented during a major congress to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the discovery of the 5,300-year-old mummy, the experiment aimed to discover the tone of the Iceman's Stone Age vowels.

Ötzi broke his silence with a deep male voice. He spoke Italian — but just vowels, as you can hear here.

Read more at Discovery News

A 17th-Century Child Mummy Just Rewrote the History of Smallpox

An international team of researchers has identified the oldest known sample of the variola virus that causes smallpox in the mummified remains of a 17th-century child.

The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, raise new questions about the history of the pathogen, suggesting that smallpox, once thought to be an ancient disease, may have in fact emerged in rather recent times.

Smallpox remains the only human disease eradicated by vaccination — it was also the first disease to be combated with a vaccine when one was developed in 1796.

However, the history of this pathogen that caused millions of deaths worldwide remains mysterious.

"Scientists don't yet fully comprehend where smallpox came from and when it jumped into humans," said evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poinar, director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Center and a researcher with Michael G. DeGroote Institute of Infectious Disease Research.

The disease had long been thought to have appeared in human populations thousands of years ago. Some researchers even diagnosed the pharaoh Ramses V with smallpox on the basis of visible pustular rashes and scars.

They may have been wrong, the study suggests.

New clues on the evolutionary history of the devastating viral disease came from the partial mummified remains of a child of undetermined sex. The mummy was found with no coffin or associated artifacts in the crypt of the Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Once scheduled to be buried, the remains are now part of a project created in 2011 by anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali to study all the mummies in Lithuania, from the Egyptian mummies in the local museums, to the remains from the Holy Spirit crypt and 20th-century anatomical preparations.

"Those mummies revealed a number of diseases, such as arteriosclerosis, tuberculosis and bone pathologies. But this case has been really surprising," Piombino-Mascali, at the department of anatomy, histology, and anthropology of Vilnius University, told Seeker.

According to the researchers, the child died between the ages of 2 and 4 and in the years between 1643 and 1665, close to the time of several documented European epidemics.

Heavily fragmented DNA was extracted from the mummy's skin so the researchers were able to capture, sequence and reconstruct the complete genome of an ancient strain of variola virus. There was no indication of a live virus in the sample, so the mummy was not infectious.

"We believe this is the oldest smallpox genome sequenced to date," Ana Duggan, a postdoctoral fellow at the McMaster University Ancient DNA Center in Canada, told Seeker.

Duggan and colleagues compared the 17th-century strain to versions of the variola virus genome dating from 1946 up to 1977. The disease was declared eradicated by the World Health Organization in 1980.

"The results showed a very recent common ancestor for all available 20th-century variola strains and our 17th-century strain," Duggan said.

Indeed, the common viral ancestor originated sometime between 1588 and 1645, a date corresponding to a period of exploration, migration and colonization that would have helped the viral dissemination of smallpox around the globe.

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Queen Nefertari's Dismembered Legs Have Been Found

A pair of unimpressive mummified legs on display in an Italian museum may belong to one of antiquity's most beautiful women, according to an international team of researchers who have analyzed the more than 3,200-year-old remains for the first time.

Consisting of fragmented thigh bones, kneecap and a proximal tibia part (the upper portion of the bone where it widens to help form the knee joint), the body parts are likely those of Queen Nefertari.

Not to be confused with Nefertiti, who lived one Dynasty earlier, Nefertari was the first and favorite wife of the mighty warrior pharaoh Ramses II, who reigned between 1290-1224 BC during the early 19th Dynasty.

"She is the only queen from the Ramesside era to have been likely identified so far," Egyptologist Michael Habicht at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland, told Seeker.

The study, detailed in the journal PLOS ONE, indicates the ancient Egyptian beauty was very slim and tall. The information helps reconstruct the life of one of the most intriguing figures of ancient Egypt.

"Nefertari is one of the truly great and important queens of Egypt and plays in the league of Hatshepsut, Nefertiti and Cleopatra," Habicht said.

Tomb wall depicting Queen Nefertari.

Known for the impressive wall paintings of her lavishly decorated tomb in the Valley of the Queens, which depict her timeless beauty in unusually lifelike form, Nefertari was highly educated and played an active role in foreign politics.

However, little is known about her demise.

"We know that she gave birth to four sons and four daughters and that she attended the opening ceremony of the rock-cut temples of Abu Simbel in the year 24 of Ramses II's reign. After that event, she disappeared from history," Habicht said.

Egyptologists estimate she probably died around her husband's 25th year of reign, having reached an age of about 40 to 50 years.

Nefertari's tomb, known as QV66, was heavily plundered in antiquity and her mummy was ripped to pieces and tossed around by the ancient robbers.

When Italian diplomat and archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli opened the queen's burial in 1904, he found a series of broken remains, including fragments of the pink granite sarcophagus that once held Nefertari's mummy, a pair of sandals and two fragmented mummified legs.

Housed at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, the remains have now been investigated in a multidisciplinary study.

"Although no absolute certainty exists, the results speak in favor of an identification of the remains as Nefertari's," lead author Frank Rühli, head of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, told Seeker.

Anthropometric reconstruction and assessment of the size of the knees revealed they belonged to a woman whose stature ranged between 165 cm (5 foot 5 inches) and 168 cm (5 foot 6 inches).

The body height was also independently estimated by professor Maciej Henneberg at the University of Adelaide, Australia, who obtained the same results — a stature of about 165 cm.

"Data about women from the New Kingdom and 3rd Intermediate Period show she was probably taller than 84 percent of the women of her time," Rühli said.

Analysis of the materials used for embalming showed they were consistent with Ramesside mummification traditions, while X-rays of the left knee pointed to possible traces of arteriosclerosis, suggesting the legs belonged to an elderly person.

"The accumulated evidence could point to an individual between 40 and 60 years old," Rühli and colleagues wrote.

A pair of sandals found in Queen Nefertari's tomb

The mystery over the mummified legs, however, is not completely solved. The authors admit the identification can't be done with absolute certainty as some analysis failed. Moreover, QV66 is not an original undisturbed burial situation.

DNA testing was inconclusive since the samples turned to be contaminated and not suitable for analysis, while radiocarbon dating of the remains yielded odd results — the remains would predate the assumed lifespan of Queen Nefertari's by some 200 years.

"A discrepancy between radiocarbon dating and Egyptian chronology models has long been debated. Indeed, some question on the chronological model of the New Kingdom may now arise," Habicht said.

"For the future, we strongly suggest radiocarbon dating of other royal and non-royal remains of the Ramesside era, in order to validate or disprove the chronology," he added.

Nefertari's tomb also contained a pair of sandals made of vegetal material — grass, palm leaf and papyrus — in a style typical of the 18th-19th Dynasties.

According to the researchers, the fine quality and shape of the sandals suggest they were royal footwear.

They estimated the shoe size to be 39-40 (US size 9), fit an individual of Nefertari's stature.

André Veldmeijer, visiting research scholar at the American University in Cairo, agrees on the sandal' size.

"The area of the foot, if the sandal would fit neatly, would reach slightly beyond the front strap, say about 24-25 cm (9.4-9.5 inches) This would indeed result in size somewhere 39 to 40," Veldmeijer, an authority on ancient footwear, told Seeker.

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