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A scientist who has been doing much analysis of the two mummified female fetuses in Tutankhamun’s tomb has raised eyebrows of the young teenage pharaoh having two stillborn baby girls. The scientist explained that earlier, in 1979, he studied on the larger fetus and compared the blood group with that of Tutankhamun’s blood group. Reports matched the test and confirmed that the fetus could have been the pharaoh’s daughter.

Infact, the stillborn fetuses have been preserved in the faculty of Medicine of Cairo University ever since it was first discovered by Howard Carter, an archaeologist in 1922. Egyptologists are of the opinion that the two female fetuses may have been the daughters of Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun or the kids could have been inside the tomb in the hope that the boy king would live as newborns in the lives after.

Experts opine that further study on the fetuses that will identify if they had any diseases or in any way really connected to the pharaoh will continue. The older fetus is perceived to be in the 7th and 9t months of his gestational cycle. The fetus is not as well preserved as the other one as is estimated to be about 15.16 inches long.

There are some imperative questions that surround the discovery of the female fetuses – Who were these two baby girls? Why were they buried with Tutankhamun? Was he their dad? How did they die?

Scientists opine that DNA tests could do the trick in finding out the answers to all of these questions. Ever since the treasure-laden tomb was discovered, Tutankhamun has been in much hype. Some facts revealed about the young pharaoh are that he took to the throne in 1333 B.C. A descendant of the most ancient royal Egyptian families, Tutankhamun ruled till his death at 19 years and was a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty.

Further research on whether Ankhesenamun (who changed her name from Ankhesenpaaten) was a half or full sister to King Tut is yet to be determined by conducting a DNA analysis of the fetuses. In such a case, if their DNA tests match, that is the pharaoh’s and the Ankhesenamun, then they would be kid from the same mother.

A 30-year old analysis tells that the female fetuses could be the daughters of King Tut and Ankhesenamun, or of the pharaoh Amenhotep III and his wife/daughter Sitamun, or of the pharaoh Smenkhkare (King Tut’s predecessor) and Sitamun or King Tut himself and Sitamun.

Researchers have revealed that an astronomical clock was able to detect dates and events or more precisely the ancient Olympic Games. Experts from the United States, Greece and Britain have found “Olympia” written on a bronze dial. In addition, names of several Greek games were found on a device called the Antikythera Mechanism.

The Antikythera Mechanism is assumed to be almost 2100 years old and was recovered from a shipwreck way back in 1901 near an island called Antikythera. The island lies on the southern coast of Greece.

The inside of this mechanism represents a clock. About 30 bronze gears had to be turned and rotated to arrive at the dates related to a specific event like – different phases of the moon, eclipses and other celestial information.

Researchers opine that this was quiet some discovery because it did not relate to an astronomical cycle but an Olympian cycle and thereby marked the significance of social events in ancient times.

Later researchers were also prompt in finding names on the Antikythera Mechanism. These names also seem to relate those used in the Corinthians colonies in Sicily. These results thereby also date back to Archimedes (Greek mathematician) who died there even before the device was built.

3D scanners built by the British X-Tek Systems, have enabled scientists to cut though the device and fragments to read the Greek inscriptions. The US-based Hewitt and Packard also made use of a special technique where the remnant of the device or the celestial clock was studied under different lighting conditions.

Mike Edmunds, an astrophysics professor at the Cardiff University, Britain is leading the study and further research on the Antikythera Mechanism device.

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Decorated with scarlet paint and a tattoo, a well –preserved mummy, 1000-year old, was discovered in Peru. The anthropologists removed the layers of ancient textiles on the thirty- year -old male at a lab in Lima. Other things found were a slingshots, figurine in similar dress and corn.

The artefacts, excavation site and the mummy indicate that the Chancay civilization had a tight grip on the fertile areas of the north-central Pacific coast of Peru between 1000A.D. and 1500 A.D. It fell to the Inca empire.

The discovery of the mummy in corn-cob lined tomb in Chancay civilization  Rontoy farming village is quite a breakthrough.  Scientistsists have nicknamed the mummy as “ Kiko Rontoy”. It holds a loop of yarn and empty bag in its right hand. Kernels and corncobs were found in the layers.

Corn was used to make a type of beer known as chichi and used for food according to Guiellermo Cock, Peruvian archaeologist as well as an Andean expert culture. Since the corn in the burial was in abundance, it indicates that the mummy belonged to social status of high order. Of course, some amount of corn is found in burials.

The mummy was found dressed in loin cloth and two tunics. A foot long wooden figurine, dressed similar to mummy, was found near the head of the mummy. Further study is essential to understand the significance of the artefacts.

A black tattoo was found on the right knee. Tattoos indicate high social status. The mummy’s face was covered with gauzy, loosely woven material. In each layer, little offerings could be seen, such as, a piece of silver. He also had a sliver bead necklace adorned on a cotton string around his neck.

The well- preserved face of the mummy was covered with  red paint  prepared with mercury sulfide, an adornment which is indicative of a high ranking individual’s burial. Pieces of silver and copper metal cover the eyes. Another such piece is placed between the teeth.

The mummy’s bowels seems to have been removed from the anus, which indicates they may have been enlarged. Disembowelment, which is practiced by the Egyptians, helps in the preservation of the body. The tight wrapping of the mummy in textiles also helped in its preservation.

Other prehistoric mummies were not found in the specially built Kiko Rontoy’s tomb. A burial from the 1800s was discovered at the top of the site that was dug.

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It has been reported that monks who were writing biblical and/or other religious texts were exposed to toxic mercury which was being released from the ink they were writing with. Evidences were collected from medieval bones from about six different cemeteries.

This study is going to be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in August. The study also takes care of an undocumented disease called the FOS, which is somewhat like leprosy that can cause skull lesions. In addition, it was also reported that a medicine containing mercury was administered to about 79 percent of the buried individuals suffering from leprosy and about 35 percent of the people suffering from syphilis.

Scientists opine that it was during the preparation and administration of the medicines that contained mercury or while writing letters or while writing texts in prior to 1500 A.D that caused the deaths. Kaare Lund Rasmussen, a scientist from the University of Southern Denmark suspects that it was the ink that led to the poisoning of these monks who were involved in writing the scripts. He revealed to Discover News that it was natural to lick the brush to produce fine lines after all.

Rasmussen claims that no one should still touch or rub the pages written in incunabulum because earlier, cinnabar (a mercury type) was used to provide the bright, rich, pure and red color to ancient scripts.

Scientists claim that the diseased patients who were found buried in the earth were most likely to be administered with the vapor of metallic liquid mercury. So scientists claim that if the monks were little careless in avoiding their proximity to the vapor or during the preparation of the medicines, the mercury vapor could have poisoned them as well.

It is also assumed that other religious factions may have experienced a similar case of mercury poisoning while scripting holy texts. For instance, scientists at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel and the Israel Museum found that cinnabar appeared on about four fragments of the scrolls from Dead Sea that included verses and passages from the Hebrew Bible.

This Danish study has come out to be very certain in confirming the poisoning of the monks by the ink used by them while writing holy texts in the early medieval period. Bones were drilled to establish the results of mercury causing the poisoning of these monks.

Early winery came into focus by the discovery of two wine presses in Egypt. The holy wine produced was being exported to Christians abroad, according to archaeologists.

The two wine presses had carved large crosses across them and are located close to St. Catherine’s Monastery, a complex belonging to the 6th century A.D. near Mount Sinai, which is on Sinai Peninsula.

More wine presses may be discovered, as the region happens to be a hub of wine industry. The discoveries not only include the presses, but also clay vessels known as amphorae as well as grape seeds. Red residue was found on some of the walls.

The presses have not been dated, but the tools belong to the 4th and 6th century A.D. Several coins made in gold having the picture of Roman Emperor Valens, who ruled between from 364 A.D. to 378, were found close to the presses. The wine presses could belong to the same period according to the archaeologists.

The coins, according to El-Naggar, director for Southern Sinai at the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, were minted in Antioch in present southeastern Turkey.

The wine was stored in the amphorae, which are standard vessels for shipping wine, grain, olive oil, fish and other items. The wine appears to be from a holy site and was used in religious ceremonies. Some believe that Prophet Moses received the Ten Commandments from God at the site.

The presses consist of basins ( 4-ft-square), where monks crushed grapes with their feet. The wine flowed through a hole, located at the end of the wine press, into a lower basin.

The structures are quite similar to those used by ancient Egyptians, although there is no evidence which shows that wine was produced in the Sinai Peninsula as early as 3,000 B.C. Early Christians were able to grow grapevines as well as palm trees at the site of the wine presses. The area was more cooler than the neighboring desert.

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Archaeologists have discovered a pyramid belonging to ancient pharaoh, which was buried for generations. The pyramid is the tomb of King Menkauhor, who is supposed to have ruled Egypt’s 5th dynasty in mid 2400s B.C. for over eight years.

The structure was earlier known as Number 29 or the “Headless Pyramid”. It was lost in the sands of Saqqara, which is a spacious burial complex, belonging to the royals, located near present Cairo.

It took at least a year and half to remove the sand spread over the pyramid. The pyramid was lost and its substructure also could not be seen. It was discovered after archaeologists began to search the area.

Opinions vary about the date of the pyramid, placing it sometime in the Old Kingdom, between 2575 to 2150 B.C. It was also placed sometime during the Middle Kingdom, dating between 1975 to 1640 B.C. It was also observed that the lack of inscriptions and artwork, and blocks of red granite structure indicates its existence in Old Kingdom.

The newly discovered pyramid resembles the pyramid next to it. The latter belonged to the first pharaoh, who hailed from the 6th dynasty, Teti, who reigned during 2345 to 2181 B.C. The lost pyramid could also belong to the 5th dynasty. The neighboring pyramid also states that the lost pyramid belonged to Menkauhor.

The Egyptian pyramids are huge structures made up of stone or brick and are man-made constructions. The royals were buried under these structures.

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