Child Mummy Wows Egyptologists

by **proldic** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:28 pm

Child Mummy Wows Egyptologists by Kristen Philipkoski - Wired News Aug. 03, 2005 PT Two thousand years ago, the...parents of a 4-year-old girl...mummified their daughter's remains to ensure her soul would thrive in the afterlife. The parents in some ways got their wish today, when seven experts revealed remarkable new details they've learned about the child mummy thanks to breakthroughs in imaging technology. Scientists were able to view each layer of linen bandages wrapped around the mummy's body. One of the most remarkable discoveries was the drawing of a sphinx on one layer of the bandages.... Many mummies have hieroglyphics on their bandages, possibly identifying who they are and where they came from.... The mummy has been stored at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium in San Jose since 1930, but because the child was only about 4 years old and about 4 feet tall when she died, no one knew her sex until the scientists were able to examine her using new technology. But with the remarkable images the researchers generated, they determined the mummy was a girl based on the long, curly hair they found preserved beneath the mummifying resin. "Looking at that, we were just blown away," Mistri said. The researchers also determined that the mummy, which they named "Sherit," meaning "little one" in Egyptian, shows no sign of injury and likely died of an intestinal illness. In accordance with Egyptian beliefs about the soul, four of the mummy's internal organs (the liver, lung, stomach and intestines) were transferred to canopic jars and placed between her legs. The four organs were personified in Egyptian mythology as the four sons of Horus, the Egyptian god of the sky. They also found evidence that someone, likely the mother, in keeping with Egyptian burial tradition, burned scented resin over the child's mask. A perfume maker for stars like Madonna, Mandy Aftel, is planning to re-create the scent, which the scientists determined to be made of frankincense and myrrh.... <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68416,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_5">www.wired.com/news/medtec..._tophead_5</a>

by **proldic** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 2:32 pm

Original Draconian Laws may be Revealed by New Machine By Robert Roy Britt LiveScience Senior Writer posted: 02 August 2005 02:09 pm ET Much of what ancient scribes carved in stone is lost to weathering. Among the hard-to-read are tablets from Draco, a rather severe politician who codified the laws of ancient Athens. A new technique promises to reveal these and other stone scribblings using X-rays. Scientists figure there are at least half a million Greek and Latin inscriptions on stones in various states of decay and legibility. "Because of the information contained in them, they are invaluable sources for the historian, archaeologist, art historian and every student of institutions and life in the ancient world," said Kevin Clinton, a Cornell University professor of classics and co-author of a new paper on the technique.... Tests conducted on stone tablets a hundred generations old clearly reveal writing that was lost to the eye. The study of incised writing on stone and other surfaces is called epigraphy. "This means restoring thousands of stones, including, possibly, part of the law code of Draco," Clinton said. "It applies to practically any kind of public document you can think of, including many laws, decrees, religious dedications and financial documents." You've heard Draco's name referred to in phrases starting with "Draconian." He didn't make up the laws, but he was the first to get them written down. Back then, minor offenses carried the death penalty, and debt was a road to slavery....

Child Mummy Wows Egyptologists

Child Mummy Wows Egyptologists

Original Draconian Laws may be Revealed by New Machine

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