Mummy scans reveal heart disease plagued our ancestors BEFORE the emergence of junk food and cigarettes

A macabre study of mummified corpses shows that heart attacks and strokes may have plagued the ancient world as well as the modern one - even without temptations like fast food and cigarettes.

Researchers say their findings suggest heart disease may be more a natural part of ageing rather than being directly tied to modern vices like smoking, eating fatty foods and not exercising.

For more, see The Daily Mail

Archaeologists discover 35 burial chambers in Sudan desert with links to Ancient Egypt

Archaeologists excavating a site in Sudan have discovered 35 pyramids revealing fascinating links between the bygone Kingdom of Kush that once existed there and ancient Egypt.

The pyramids, which date back around 2,000 years, are smaller than most Egyptian examples with the largest being 22 feet in width and the smallest, likely constructed for the burial of a child, being just 30 inches.

The site in Sedeinga, northern Sudan, was part of the ancient kingdom of Kush which shared a border with Egypt and, later on, the Roman Empire.

For more, see the Daily Mail

The brilliant beads of 'Cleopatra's necklace': Ancient Egyptian jewellery plucked from burial mound of Siberian 'virgin princess'

Extraordinary brightly-coloured glass jewellery believed to be from Ancient Egypt has been found in a 2,400-year-old burial mound in Siberia.

Nicknamed 'Cleopatra's Necklace' by the Russians who found it, the jewellery was discovered on the skeleton of a 25-year-old woman, believed to have been a virgin priestess.

Although it was discovered during a dig nine years ago, this is the first time a picture of the priceless 17-bead necklace has been shown since it was found in the Altai Mountains by archaeologist Yelena Borodovskya.

For more, see the Daily Mail

Manchester Museum scan mummies to find out secrets of the ancient Egyptians

Pictures show for the first time how cutting-edge technology is being used to analyse the millennia-old mystery of Egyptian mummies.

Staff from Manchester Museum invited the M.E.N. to watch the preserved bodies undergo CT scans at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. 

Over the coming months, museum staff hope to scan all 24 of their mummies. 

For more, see Manchester Evening News

New scans put a face on the museum’s mummies

McGill University's Redpath Museum will soon be showing off some new additions to its Egyptology collection, after decades new CT scans are putting a new face on an old display of three mummies.

For centuries our notion of ancient Egyptians has been based on two dimensional images—concepts literally carved in stone. But new technology is showing them for who they really are.

The mummies were scanned for a project run by the University of Western Ontario. The scans of the skulls were then turned into 3d models and forensic artist Victoria Lywood reconstructed the faces from the past using her artistic skills and following scientific rules.

For more, see CTV News

Ancient Egyptian mummy's elaborate hairstyle recreated in 3D

Nearly 2,000 years ago, at a time when Egypt was under the control of the Roman Empire, a young woman with an elaborate hairstyle was laid to rest only yards away from a king's pyramid, researchers report. 

She was 5 feet 2 inches in height, around age 20 when she died, and was buried in a decorated coffin whose face is gilded with gold. A nearby pyramid, at a site called Hawara, was built about 2 millennia before her lifetime. The location of her burial is known from archival notes. 

High-resolution CT scans reveal that, before she was buried, her hair was dressed in an elaborate hairstyle. 

For more see The Huffington Post

The Pharaoh Island: 90 years after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, how Britain has embraced Egyptian architecture

'Egypt in England' by Chris Elliott examines over 50 Egyptian sites in Britain, revealing the curious stories behind these unusual and often outlandish pieces of architecture and interior design.

For centuries the wonder of Ancient Egypt remained largely inaccessible to European travellers, until its 'rediscovery' in the 19th century.

Published by English Heritage to coincide with the discovery of Tutankhamen's Tomb, 'Egypt in England' provides a look at these and other forgotten paragons of Egyptian-style that span our nation.

The Daily Mail

3D laser scanner brings a modern twist to ancient Egypt’s treasures

Visits to museums on rainy afternoons have just become a lot more interesting thanks to revolutionary technology that allows artefacts to be scanned and modelled in 3D and then studied from all angles in a way the original could never be. UCL’s Petrie Museum has benefited from a shared-use agreement between the university and Canadian firm Arius3D, which makes the colour laser scanners.

The six-year collaboration, negotiated by Dr Anna Clark, UCL Corporate Partnerships, is one of the university’s most enduring business relationships. The technology has attracted interest from a range of disciplines, from engineering to biomedicine, architecture to psychology. Arius3D has benefited from its association with a world-class university.

University College London

Egypt celebrates 90 year anniversary of Tutankhamun’s tomb discovery

Ninety years ago on November 22 the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in Egypt.

After years of finding smaller archaeological hauls in the area Egyptologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, opened the tomb and discovered an abundance of gold and fineries left with the king after his death and mummification.

On Thursdaythe great-grandson of the 5th Earl, the 8th Earl of Carnarvon, Lord Carnarvon attended an event to celebrate this anniversary at Howard Carter’s house which is now a museum a few miles from the Valley of the Kings.

Al Arabiya News

Statues of 5th dynasty top officials discovered in Abusir

During routine excavations in Abusir South, 30km north of Giza plateau, Czech excavators from the Czech Institute of Egyptology of the Charles University in Prague, unearthed a collection of fifth dynasty ancient Egyptian statues.

Miroslav Barta, the head of the Czech mission told Ahram Online that the statues were found in a hidden tunnel located inside a rock-hewn tomb of Iti, the crew inspector. His tomb is located between two rock-hewn tombs of two fifth dynasty high officials: the overseer of the crew scribe, Nefer, and the chief of justice of the Shepespuptah great house.

Ahram Online

Who stabbed Ginger in the back? Scan reveals 5,500-year-old murder mystery of British Museum's most famous mummy

An ancient mummy who has been on display in the British Museum for over 100 years was a young man murdered by a killer who stabbed him in the back, new research shows.

Scans of the ancient Egyptian, known officially as Gebelein man but nicknamed Ginger for his red hair, show that a puncture just beneath his left shoulderblade was made by his murderer.

Forensic experts studied the scan on a 'virtual autopsy table' concluded that there is almost no doubt he was the victim of a deliberate, violent killing in peacetime.

The Daily Mail

Art Daily: Ground-breaking technology allows a virtual autopsy to be undertaken on one of British Museum's mummies

Ancient hieroglyphics meet cutting-edge technology

Engineers from Loughborough University have used the latest cutting-edge technology to bring to life an ancient Egyptian inscribed tablet.

Working with The Manchester Museum, Loughborough’s Professor John Tyrer has created a high-tech interactive display that will enable visitors to immerse themselves in the story behind the Stela of Hesysunebef.

The Loughborough Echo

Destroy the Sphinx and the pyramids, says Egyptian jihadist

An Egyptian Islamist leader with ties to the Taliban has called for the "destruction of the Sphinx and Giza pyramids", suggesting these "idols" contravene the laws of Islam, reports Al Arabiya.

Murgan Salem al-Gohary, who served two jail sentences under former President Hosni Mubarak for inciting violence, called on Muslims to remove the ancient Egyptian relics in an interview broadcast Saturday.

The Independent

King Tut: Technology in the service of history

For 3,000 years it was unknown—and that is what kept it safe. But so many people have visited the tomb of Tutankhamun, since Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, unearthed the steps leading down to the royal burial-chamber in November 1922 that it is now in critical condition. Shifting temperatures and humidity are affecting the delicate painted surfaces and conservation of the plasterwork has led to a build-up of salts under the plaster, pushing it off the walls.

Ninety years after Carter’s discovery, an exact facsimile of the royal tomb has been unveiled in Cairo.

The Economist

Ahram Online: Tutankhamun's replica tomb unveiled

Putting a lid on ancient Egyptian story

From Egypt, via a railway station to Leamington Art Gallery and Museum - an ancient artefact is set for another chapter in its long and strange history.

Warwick District Council is set to give the green-light next week for the presentation of a 2,500 year-old Egyptian mummy coffin lid to Birmingham University.

See Leamington Observer