Month: February 2009

Amazing CT scan of mummy

Ancient, Multimedia, Museums

The mummy has been at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute since 1920, safely ensconced in a beautifully decorated sarcophagus. They couldn’t open it without destroying it, so the mummy has never been seen.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, now we can all see it in astonishing detail.

The mummy was discovered in Luxor, Egypt, and sold to the Oriental Institute in 1920.

Teeter said the coffin, painted and carved to look like the figure of a beautiful woman, is an archeological marvel. She said singers who served in Egyptian temples were traditionally young, beautiful women from high-ranking families.

Hieroglyphs on the front of the coffin tell researchers more about the mummy’s life. The woman’s name was Meresamun, which means “Amun Loves Her,” and she was a singer in the temple of the Egyptian god Amun.

CT scans are often used to view mummies, but most of them are not in pristine condition. Researchers, grave robbers and hobbyists have messed with them over the centuries.

This case is remarkable because the casket has been sealed shut for 2800 years, so Meresamun has all kinds of secrets to share.

Her cause of death is not one of them, however. It was most likely some kind of infectious disease, because there is no visible trauma. She was about 30 when she died, and her skeleton suggests she was healthy until right before she died.

Check out this footage of the CT scan with commentary by University of Chicago Medical Center radiologist Dr. Michael Vannier. I can’t embed it ’cause they’re meanies, but believe me it’s well worth a click.

Little British museum finds huge Greek treasure

Ancient, Museums, Treasures

It’s been in the Maidstone Museum for years, but it wasn’t on display and the staff had no idea how rare and valuable it is until a Greek expert from the British Museum came to assess their collection.

The Early Cycladic III Kernos, a vessel that incorporates 6 cups around a globular basin on a fluted base, is an unusual item especially in the complete condition it is in. […]

The Kernos was used to make offerings to the Gods and each cup would have been filled with a different substance such as milk, honey and oats.

We know from descriptions that the filled vessel would have been held on the head of the devotee until sanctified by the priest.

This type from this period is predominantly found at Phylakopi on Melos, the same home as the most famous sculpture in the world – the Venus de Milo.

There are only 20 of these vessels known in the world, and most of them are in major museums like the Met and the Louvre.

I think it’s a little creepy looking, to be honest.

Ugh. Too many tubules. The one at the Met is even scarier.

Creepy! It’s like the archaic Greek version of a navel orange or some sort of fungal growth.

My hangups aside, it’s a major coup for the little museum. Assuming it wasn’t looted, I’m very happy for them.

Mass grave of the Aztec resistance found

Renaissance

Archaeologists excavating the ruins of a pyramid in downtown Mexico City have uncovered a mass grave which may contain the skeletal remains of some of the Aztec’s last holdouts against Cortez.

Cortez demolished this pyramid along with the rest of the Aztec city in 1521, but the skeletons buried there might have died or been killed later, perhaps during the period when Cortez left the city after razing it.

Archaeologist Salvador Guilliem, the leader of the excavation for Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the Indians might have been killed during Cortes’ war or during one of the uprisings that continued after the conquest.

Guilliem said many burials have been found at the site with the remains of Indians who died during epidemics that swept the Aztec capital in the years after the conquest and killed off much of the Indian population.

But those burials were mostly hurried, haphazard affairs in which remains were jumbled together in pits regardless of age or gender.

The burial reported Tuesday is different. The dead had many of the characteristics of warriors: All were young men, most were tall and several showed broken bones that had mended.

The men also were carefully buried Christian-style, lying on their backs with arms crossed over their chests, though many appear to have been wrapped up in large maguey cactus leaves, rather than placed in European coffins.

There is evidence of both Aztec burial rites on the site and Spanish elements. It’s a strange melange. Aztecs usually cremated their warriors, and the Spanish weren’t exactly prone to bury the locals with full honors.

We’ll hopefully come to know a little more about this mystery when the skeletons have been analyzed for cause and date of death.

Santa Domitilla in 3D

Ancient, Modern(ish), Multimedia, Roma, Caput Mundi

The Santa Domitilla catacomb is the oldest and one of the two largest of Rome’s 40 or so secret underground Christian burial networks. There are 15 kilometers of tunnels, cubicles and one suprisingly large basilica carved out of the volcanic tufa rock on what was once the property of Imperial relative and Christian/Jewish convert Flavia Domitilla’s property.

Many of the tunnels have never been explored or excavated because they’re layered on top of each other and in various states of disrepair. Also, there’s a church on top and it’s already sunken.

Thanks to some brilliant Austrian researchers who invented an awesome laser scanning device, there is finally a complete 3D map of all 15 kilometers.

The data produced by the scanner has been combined with existing photographs.

This enables people using the model to not only ”wander” through the virtual tunnels, but also to explore the individual tombs and examine wall paintings that are normally shrouded in darkness. In the next stage of the project, which lasts until 2011, the researchers want to count the exact number of tombs within the catacombs, as well as documenting the funerary paintings that have not yet undergone full scientific studies. Zimmermann said he hoped the votive inscriptions would provide interesting new sociological detail that could later be added to the model, such the age of the individuals buried in each tomb.

It looks cool, too.

Pretty damn sweet, amirite? Imagine the whole 15k. Now if only they’d put it online so we could explore like the vicarious Indiana Joneses we are….

Fun fact about Flavia Domitilla: She’s mentioned as a convert to Judaism in the Talmud. She’s also mentioned by Suetonius and Cassius Dio as having been convicted of atheism by Domitian and banished to the island of Pandateria. Then Eusebius claimed her for Christianity and said she was exiled to another island.

They may have been talking about two different Flavie, though, an aunt and niece. I think it’s cooler if they’re all talking about the same lady, especially the Talmud and Eusebius.

OMG PYGMY MAMMOTH!!1

Ancient, Treasures

It’s cool enough that a mammoth tusk was found on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of Southern California, but when the tusk may have belonged to a pygmy mammoth the size of a pony (!!1), the coolness skyrockets.

Santa Cruz Island is the largest of eight islands that make up California’s Channel Islands. During the Pleistocene epoch, more than 10,000 years ago, the four northern islands — Santa Cruz, San Miguel, Santa Rosa and Anacapa — formed one big island that scientists call Santarosae.

Scientists theorized that mainland Columbian mammoths — ancestors of the present-day elephant — swam across the channel in search of vegetation on Santarosae. Over time, they evolved into a pygmy form to better adapt to scarce resources on the islands.

Judging by the tusk size — about 4 feet long — it might have belonged to a pygmy mammoth, Vermeer said.

Apparently a more complete skeleton of a pygmy mammoth was found on another Channel Island (Santa Rosa) 15 years ago, but this is the first I’ve heard of such a marvelous creature. “Pygmy mammoth” has to be the most adorable oxymoron of all time.

Santa Cruz Island is hilly and not terribly mammoth-friendly, so it’s a big enough deal to find a mammoth there anyway. The only other one that has been found in the island was a full-size Columbian mammoth.

Mind you, it’s not 100% confirmed that the find is a mammoth tusk. They’re hard to identify, and it could be a marine mammal of some variety.

I’m rooting for the pygmy mammoth all the way.