Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania, and member of the scholarly team for this exhibition, presents an illustrated lecture discussing current research about the Tarim mummies. Hundreds of well-preserved mummies have been found at an ancient cemetary in the Tarim Basin, dating from 1800BCE to 200CE. Also at the site are numerous poles, thought to be phallic symbols.
Submitted by Michael Kan on Wed, 03/17/2010 - 13:10
A group of ancient Chinese mummies found in China have long fascinated experts and the public, largely because the bodies look more distinctly European (or even Celtic) than Asian. Now a new scientific report published last month says the oldest of these mummies — dating back almost 4,000 years — likely originated outside of China, from a mixture of places such as Europe and Siberia. What's more, these ancient people had an "obsession with procreation", burying their dead alongside symbolic vulvas and giant phalluses.
For decades now, the ancient corpses have been found in China’s Tarim Basin, a desert region near the western frontier of the country. The dry climate of the area has kept the bodies well-preserved, leaving the hair and skin, as well as their clothes, intact.
2010’s well underway now, and with it the new decade. At Heritage Key we’ve begun the teenies by asking a cross-section of heritage experts to get their crystal balls out, in a bid to try and predict what they think (or at least hope) will be the big discoveries, themes, advances and breakthroughs in their individual fields – and in archaeology and heritage studies at large – over the next ten years.
Highlighted Quote:
"Ten years ago only birds tweeted, then Stephen Fry started and now even museum staff are doing it."
The ancient Egyptians weren’t the only ones that mummified their dead for the sake of posterity. In more modern times, there have been multiple examples of mummification, using a range of weird and wonderful techniques from simple embalming to submerging the cadaver in a chemical-filled preservation tank, or perfusing it with wax, effectively rendering the corpse a giant human candle.
Here we examine ten of the most famous examples of modern mummies, their stories, and some of the methods used to preserve them for eternity. The deceased range from an Argentinean First Lady, a Soviet Head of State and various members of a powerful Tuscan political dynasty, to Japanese monks, Catholic Saints and one blatantly bonkers leader of a modern American religious and philosophical cult (who can even mummify you if you fancy it).
Highlighted Quote:
"Each day, the monks would ring a bell to indicate to people outside that they were still alive. When the bell ceased tolling, the tomb was sealed."
The Capuchin Catacombs, in Palermo on the island of Sicily, Italy, are a series of burial catacombs below the city's Capuchin monastery. They house over 8,000 bodies, many of them embalmed or preserved in glass cases. It represents perhaps the world's most macabre tourist attraction, as well as a quite incredible historical record.
The catacombs were excavated in the 16th century after the monastery outgrew its graveyard. Brother Silvestro of Gubbio, a monk, was the first person buried there, in 1599. As well as more monks and friars, people of all walks of life would follow - doctors, lawyers, bankers and artists included, as well as their families.
Their bodies were dried out on ceramic pipes, then sometimes treated with vinegar. It became the fashion for bodies to be entombed in their clothes - some would even leave instructions for their outfits to be changed regularly. The last body buried there, in the 1920s, is perhaps the best known - Rosalia Lombardo, a child who had died from pneumonia. She was preserved so expertly by notable embalmer Alfredo Salafia that she has been nicknamed "Sleeping Beauty."
The catacombs are open to the public, although photography is prohibited and iron bars have been erected to prevent people tampering or posing with the bodies.
I dropped my phone last week and it stopped working. As the daughter, sister, and wife of engineers, I generally regard most broken things as a challenge and I am quite often able to fix them, so I gathered tiny screwdrivers and a good light source and prised the handset open. Inside was a world mostly unknown to me, of miniature circuit boards, teeny candy-striped transistors, and delicate little welds. I identified the problem, but it was beyond repair, so I went out and bought another phone with a renewed respect for the intricacies inside the things we use every day.
A group of 
I dropped my phone last week and it stopped working. As the daughter, sister, and wife of engineers, I generally regard most broken things as a challenge and I am quite often able to fix them, so I gathered tiny screwdrivers and a good light source and prised the handset open. Inside was a world mostly unknown to me, of miniature circuit boards, teeny candy-striped transistors, and delicate little welds. I identified the problem, but it was beyond repair, so I went out and bought another phone with a renewed respect for the intricacies inside the things we use every day.
