Archive for the ‘Mummy’ Category

Ancient Egyptian Statuette Mysteriously Starts Doing 180s in Museum

Monday, June 24th, 2013

Something weird is going on concerning a 10-inch statue of Neb-Sanu that is on display at the Manchester Museum.

This small statue is turning around…by itself.

During the course of the day Neb-Sanu’s little statue decides it’s done being stared at by museum guests so quietly and very, very slowly it turns itself around to face the other way.

While many are saying that vibrations from museum guests are causing vibrations in the glass shelves that the statue sits on causing it to turn around, the museum staff is disagreeing with the idea.

“But it has been on those surfaces since we have had it and it has never moved before. And why would it go around in a perfect circle?”

Egyptologist Campbell Price who works at the museum has even weighed in with his somewhat eerie thoughts:

“I noticed one day that it had turned around. I thought it was strange because it is in a case and I am the only one who has a key. I put it back but then the next day it had moved again. We set up a time-lapse video and, although the naked eye can’t see it, you can clearly see it rotate on the film. The statuette is something that used to go in the tomb along with the mummy. Mourners would lay offerings at its feet. In Ancient Egypt they believed that if the mummy is destroyed then the statuette can act as an alternative vessel for the spirit. Maybe that is what is causing the movement.”

[IO9]

Scientists Recover World Oldest Blood Cells from Iceman Mummy

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

_Iceman_ mummy holds world_s oldest blood cells - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience - msnbc.com.jpg

He lived. He ate deer meat. He took an arrow to the shoulder and died.

That was roughly 5,300 years ago for the corpse they call Ötzi. Hikers found his body in the Alps in 1991. But only now did scientists realize he brought us an amazing gift: the world’s oldest recovered completed blood cells.

To confirm the finding, the researchers used a technique called Ramen spectroscopy, which uses light-scattering patterns to determine which molecules are present in a sample. The suspected blood cells had all the markers of true red blood cells, including hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen in the blood.

While other researchers have attempted to identify blood on older stone tools, this is the oldest definite confirmation of blood, Zink said. The find may help advance forensic science, because current crime-scene technology has trouble differentiating between old and new blood, he said.

Ötzi. If only all 45-year-old murder victims could be so ambitious.

[MSNBC]

“Mummy” On Loose In Texas

Monday, January 10th, 2011

“Harris County sheriff’s deputies recommended that homeowners who see the man dressed as a mummy in their yard call 911 immediately.”

[KPRC via io9]