Ancient World Review

The Mystery Of Egypt's Screaming Mummy

Video from 2008.

"'The gruesome mummy of Unknown Man E, also known as the ‘Screaming Mummy’, has long puzzled scholars,' renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that this particular mummy is surrounded in mystery. Although he was re-buried in the royal mummy cache of Deir Al-Bahari, he was not wrapped in the usual fine linen bandages like the rest of the mummies. Instead, he was wrapped in sheepskin, which was considered impure by the ancient Egyptians. His hands and feet were tied with leather thongs. He was not even mummified, but was merely left to dry in natron and then had some resin poured into his open mouth." Source: Archaeology News Network.

Note: There has been speculation that this is the mummy of a 20th Dynasty Egyptian prince known as Pentawar who was "involved in the so-called 'harem conspiracy', a plot to kill his father [Ramesses III] and place Pentawer on the throne," according to Wikipedia. "He either killed himself or was executed following the assassination attempt."

Mummification In Egypt Predated The Pharoahs

"Embalming in ancient Egypt predated the pharaohs, an ancient mummy reveals. That would mean that the practice began at least 1,500 years earlier than once thought." Source: Live Science.

"The mummy — an adult male curled on its left side in a fetal pose — is about 6,000 years old. It was previously thought to be naturally preserved by desert conditions at the site where it was buried. But the first-ever tests performed on the remains showed that the mummy was embalmed, making it the earliest known example of Egyptian mummification, researchers reported in a new study."

"Cursed" Mummy Cheese Might Be The World's Oldest

"If you are still disappointed about being denied the opportunity to drink the toxic red mummy juice [1] unearthed in Egypt last month, we have some good news for you. Researchers have just discovered the world's oldest cheese (also in Saqqara, Egypt), and it is almost certainly cursed… or at least contaminated." Source: Live Science.

"The cheese in question was discovered among a large cache of broken clay jars inside the tomb of Ptahmes, former mayor of Memphis ... and a high-ranking official during the reigns of pharaohs Seti I and Ramesses II. The tomb is thought to have been built in the 13th century B.C., making it — and the cheese within — about 3,300 years old."

[1] People want to drink mummy water from recently unearthed sarcophagus.

Related: 10 Unbelievable Historical Food & Drink Artifacts

Iceman: In Select Theaters & On Demand July 27, 2018

"On Friday 27th July, the epic and unique revenge thriller ICEMAN is released in UK cinemas. Staring Juergen Vogel (The Wave), Susanne Wuest (Goodnight Mommy), André Hennicke (Downfall) and Franco Nero (Django), ICEMAN is brought to the screen by writer / director Felix Randau (Northern Star, The Calling Game).

"Inspired by the discovery of ‘Ötzi The Iceman’, the oldest known human mummy found in 1991, approximately 5300 years after his death, ICEMAN is an immersive, universal story of survival told with minimal dialogue in an extinct dialect and without subtitles, offering a unique and fascinating cinematic experience which walks in the footsteps of ancestry to investigate a five-thousand-year-old murder mystery."

Note: Iceman was released in Germany and South Tyrol in 2017:

According to the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, "the feature film by author and director Felix Randau tells, against a backdrop of impressive nature shots, the story of Kelab, the leader of a small settlement in the Alps during the Copper Age. After his village and his loved ones were attacked he swears revenge and becomes the persecutor of a rival clan. In so doing he comes up against the existential question as to what will be achieved by his retaliation.

Neither scientific research nor archaeological investigation have so far been able to explain what exactly happened before his death, and why this man, who 5000 years later was to be named 'Ötzi', was murdered. The film 'Iceman' fills in the missing pieces in the story of a dramatic event which took place on the Tisenjoch one day in early summer some 3300 years BCE."

Researchers May Have Cracked The Case Of How Otzi The Iceman Died (2017)

Video from 2016.

"There’s a lot of mystery surrounding Ötzi the Iceman, Europe's oldest natural mummy. The best guess is that 5,300 years ago, Ötzi was crossing an alpine ridge in the Italian Alps, where he was murdered and his body preserved in the ice." Source: PRI (2017).

Note: No one has ever been able to prove conclusively that Otzi was murdered, but it definitely looks that way. The evidence suggests that he was trying to get away from an enemy he ran into in the mountains. For instance, he had a partially healed defense wound on his right hand which indicates that he got into a fight a few days before his death:

"'One or two days before the murder, there was a fight. Ötzi was part of that fight and he managed to defend himself, grabbing a sharp object like a knife. He had a massive injury to the right hand..'" according to one of the investigators (PRI).

Otzi was either attacked or attacked someone else. Whoever went after him with the knife apparently followed him along the ridge for a few days and then shot him from a distance with an arrow:

"... by examining how deeply the arrow head penetrated the Iceman’s body [the investigator] was able to deduce that the arrow was shot from behind from quite a distance, about 30 meters or so, and likely surprised the victim..." (PRI)

Whoever tried to kill Otzi must have been a good shot to hit him from over 300 feet away. Otzi could have died from blood loss, but he also suffered some kind of head trauma -- another possible cause of death. This could have happened in a fall and it's also possible that his enemy bludgeoned him to death. It's also possible that he froze to death, weakened by his wounds:

"Ever since Ötzi’s mummified body was found in the Italian Alps in 1991, researchers have been trying to pin down how the 5,300-year-old Tyrolean Iceman died. It now looks like this Copper Age hunter-gatherer simply froze to death, perhaps after suffering minor blood loss from an arrow wound to his left shoulder..." Source: Science News (2017).

Oldest Traces Of Human Blood Found In Italy's Prehistoric Iceman (2015)

"The world's oldest known blood cells have been found on Ötzi the Iceman, according to the latest research on the 5,300-year-old mummy." Source: National Geographic (2015)

"What's more, the discovery proves that the Stone Age homicide victim had a quick, if not painless, death."

Note: Blood cells were discovered in the mummy several years before this National Geographic story appeared. According to  Live Science (2012), "The Iceman was so well preserved that scientists could estimate his age (about 45), his health, his last meals (they included red deer meat with herb bread) and even his probable cause of death, an arrow wound to the shoulder that sliced an artery. But no one had ever found blood cells in the ancient man's corpse [before this 2012 study]."

Otzi The Iceman's Tools Reveal How Copper-Age People Lived

Video posted to YouTube in 2017. I'm not sure when the documentary was made.

"Stone tools found with a 5,300-year-old frozen mummy from Northern Italy reveal how alpine Copper Age communities lived, according to a study published June 20, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ursula Wierer from the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Florence, Italy, and colleagues." Source: Science Daily.

Note: "The present research deals with the Iceman’s tools which are made from chert or are related to chert working: the dagger blade, the two arrowheads, the three unhafted chert tools and the retoucher. The study also considers the arrowhead still embedded in the Iceman’s left shoulder which most probably caused his decease. The aim of the study is to investigate the story of the owner, Ötzi, in order to gain insights into his individual history, last days and cultural and social background." Source: "The Iceman's lithic toolkit: Raw material, technology, typology and use," Ursula Wierer, et all.

How Neolithic Mountaineers Geared Up

"[Otzi the Iceman's] clothing was made solely from leather, hide and braided grass. It was stitched together with animal sinews, grass fibres and tree bast. No wool or woven textile was found. Unfortunately, there are no comparable items from Ötzi’s era [3400 - 3100 BC], so we don’t know whether he was wearing traditional everyday wear or special clothing. In any case, Ötzi was well prepared for life in the wilderness. His garments, practical and functional, afforded protection from the cold and wet." Source: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Great Riddles In Archaeology Lecture Series: Otzi The Iceman (2012)

"The question of Ötzi’s role in society is still controversial. The copper axe clearly identifies him as a man of status. Was he a tribal leader? Since he was found on a main route along an alpine ridge, some claim he was a trader. But he didn’t have anything with him that could be identified as trading goods. Others have suggested that he was a shepherd. He was certainly a hunter, but this was a daily occupation of most people in the Alps at the time. Was he a shaman? There is no evidence of this. Was he a fugitive? The fact that he had repaired his equipment in a makeshift manner indicates that he hadn’t lived in a settlement for some time." Source: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Note: Whoever he was, Otzi met a violent death, most likely at the hands of another human. He had an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder and a study released in 2013 showed that he suffered a head wound in the last moments of his life that apparently caused brain damage:

"After decoding the Iceman's genetic make-up, a research team has now made another major breakthrough in mummy research: Using just a pinhead-sized sample of brain tissue from the world-famous glacier corpse, the team was able to extract and analyze proteins to further support the theory that Ötzi suffered some form of brain damage in the final moments of his life." Source: Science Daily (2013).

It appears that Otzi ran into someone in the mountains who shot him with an arrow and may have finished him off with a blow to the head.

How To Make An Otzi The Iceman Copper Axe

"Ötzi’s axe was preserved intact and is the only one of its kind in the world. The blade consists of 99.7% pure copper and is trapezoidal in shape. The knee haft is made from yew and is approx. 60 cm long. The copper blade is fixed into the forked shaft of the haft with birch tar and is tightly bound with leather straps to hold it firmly in place. The blade was cast in a mould, cooled and then compressed by hammering. Signs of wear show that the axe had been frequently used and therefore had to be re-sharpened. The copper used in the blade does not derive from the Alpine region but from Central Italy. Researchers have discovered that the metal had been obtained from ore mined in South Tuscany." Source: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.

Note: Otzi's axe proves that he didn't live in isolation. According to Discover Magazine, "[p]revious scholarship has shown that the alpine settlements of the Copper Age were part of a vast trade network. It’s been revealed, for example, that the copper from Ötzi’s axe came from Central Italy, hundreds of miles south."

It also appears that he spent his last days trying to repair his tools.