Humans have long envisioned the continuation of life past death. Ancient Egyptians, for example, are famous for their elaborate funerary rituals and beliefs about the afterlife. But the practice of deliberately preserving bodies extends possibly 3,500 years earlier than the mummies of ancient Egypt. And mummies buried with riches and personal objects are found all […]
A team of archaeologists from London’s Kingston University has mapped a prehistoric temple complex at a Neolithic site near the village of Damerham – located about 15 miles from the iconic Stonehenge – and discovered a sink hole of material that may hold information about plants that thrived there 6,000 years ago. “The site at Damerham is […]
Spanish and French archaeologists excavating at the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus have discovered what could be one of the earliest known images of Jesus Christ. At the archaeological site, which is located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, the team led by Prof Josep Padro from the University of Barcelona unearthed an underground stone structure […]
Restorers give progress report as they attempt to rectify damage done when beard was broken by worker, then bodged back together with everyday glue Restorers have put their work on the famed golden burial mask of King Tutankhamun on display in Cairo, over a year after the beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued […]
More than 4,000 years ago in Egypt, dozens of men who died of terrible wounds were mummified and entombed together in the cliffs near Luxor. Mass burials were exceptionally rare in ancient Egypt — so why did all these mummies end up in the same place? Recently, archaeologists visited the mysterious Tomb of the Warriors […]
Archaeologists find mummification workshop in the Saqqara necropolis Deep below the sands of the Saqqara necropolis, archaeologists have uncovered a unique discovery they say reveals the secrets of the ancient Egyptian mummies. A mummification workshop and adjoining burial shaft as well as five mummies, their bejewelled sarcophagi, figurines, and a gilded silver and onyx mummy […]
A POOL of murky, red liquid found around three mummies in an Egyptian sarcophagus has been analysed by scientists. THE unsettling red liquid pooled around three decomposed mummies found inside a 2000-year-old burial chamber in the historic port city of Alexandria in Egypt has taken on a life of its own. Horrifying images of a […]
In the 14th century, the Black Death wiped out as much as 60% of the population of Europe, spreading rapidly from the shores of the Black Sea to central Europe. Although historical records first document its appearance in 1346 C.E. in the lower Volga region of Russia, researchers didn’t know whether the highly virulent strain […]
Researchers have discovered the world’s oldest figurative tattoos on two 5,000-year-old mummies from Egypt. The drawings consist of a wild bull and a Berber sheep on the upper arm of a male mummy, and S-shaped motifs on the upper arm and shoulder of a female. The discovery pushes evidence for the practice in Africa back […]
