Mummies of the World Part I

This week we began our course with a summary of what a mummy is (a spontaneous or deliberately preserved body, human or animal) and showed examples of Greenland mummies, Bog Bodies, the Austrian Italian Iceman, and Chinese Red-haired mummies. Here are some of the stars of our class:

A 5,000 BC naturally preserved Egyptian mummy

A freeze-dried baby boy from Greenland

A western European bog body

The Iceman, the most analyzed dead body in the history of man. Star of a new Nova special (aired last week on PBS in Illinois). The "Iceman Reborn" tells the story of how a 3-D print of the 5,300 year old mummy was made and recent studies of its DNA: http://www.pbs.org/show/nova/

**See also the Nova link to "10 Ways to Make a Mummy" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/10-ways-mummy.html

We will cover nearly all of these mummies in class.

A Chinese red-haired mummy with genetic connections to Europe

Stay tuned!