"Egypt announced Saturday the discovery of an ancient treasure trove of more than a 100 intact sarcophagi, dating back more than 2,500 years ago, the largest such find this year." Source: Archaeology News Network.
"The sealed wooden coffins, unveiled on site amid much fanfare, belonged to top officials of the Late Period and the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt.
"They were found in three burial shafts at depths of 12 metres (40 feet) in the sweeping Saqqara necropolis south of Cairo."
"Two ancient mummies discovered in a rock-cut tomb in Egypt more than 400 years ago are finally spilling their secrets, now that scientists have CT scanned their remains, a new study finds." Source: Live Science.
"Both mummies, as well as a third on display in Egypt, represent the only known surviving 'stucco-shrouded portrait mummies,' from Saqqara, an ancient Egyptian necropolis. Unlike other mummies, who were buried in coffins, these individuals were placed on wooden boards, wrapped in a textile and a 'beautiful mummy shroud,' and decorated with 3D plaster, gold and a whole-body portrait ...
"Now, CT (computed tomography) scans reveal that at least one of these three stucco-shrouded portrait mummies was buried with organs (even the brain) and that the two females were interred with beautiful necklaces, the researchers found."
Note: The use of CT scans has become increasingly common in a new field known as paleoradiology, "the study of archaeological remains through the use of radiographic techniques, such as X-ray, CT (computer tomography) and micro-CT scans. It is predominately used by archaeologists and anthropologists to examine mummified remains due to its non-invasive nature. Paleoradiologists can discover post-mortem damage to the body, or any artefacts buried with them, while still keeping the remains intact. Radiological images can also contribute evidence about the person's life, such as their age and cause of death." (Wikipedia)
This video from 2018 shows the excavation of the remains of 30 children and 150 llamas apparently sacrificed by the Incas in Peru. No English version available.
"Archaeologists in Peru have found the naturally mummified remains of five llamas that were sacrificed to the Incan gods about 500 years ago." Source: Live Science (2020).
"The mummified llamas are still adorned with the colorful strings, red paint and feathers that the Inca decorated them with before sending them to their deaths, likely by burying these animals alive."
Note: This isn't the first time the mummies of sacrificed llamas have been discovered in Peru (see video). The Incas also sacrificed guinea pigs in large numbers:
"The Inca empire was one of many around the world that carried out animal sacrifice to its gods. Excavations by Lidio Valdez at the Institute of Andean Studies in Berkeley, California, show that dozens of guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) were ritually sacrificed there around 400 years ago. The victims were adorned with necklaces and earrings made of orange, red, purple and brown strings. Some were wrapped in cotton rugs. The animals were covered with a layer of clean river sand — and might have been alive when buried. Clay floors were then built over the sand." Source: Nature (2019).
The Huldremose Woman probably didn't die a natural death. If so, it doesn't look like she was strangled. According to the National Museum of Denmark, "Her hair was tied up with a long woolen cord, which was also wrapped around her neck several times. However, there are no marks on her throat or elsewhere, which can be interpreted as signs of strangulation. Perhaps instead the cord was of symbolic significance? Strangled people are known from other Danish bog finds. This applies to, amongst others, the bodies from Elling and Borremose, and the famous Tollund Man [who was hung in an apparent human sacrifice]."
Note: According to the National Museum of Denmark, one of the Huldremose Woman's arms was almost cut off before she died, but according to Wikipedia "it is thought that the arm was damaged by a shovel during excavation." Nobody knows exactly how she died, but "one possible interpretation is that she was killed and then placed in the bog as a sacrifice." (National Museum of Denmark)
"Reindeer hunters in Siberia have unearthed the remains of an extinct ice age beast: a mummified cave bear — the only adult of its species ever discovered that still has intact soft tissues, including its fur and even its black nose, according to news reports." Source: Live Science.
Note: "Between the years 1917 and 1923, the Drachenloch cave in Switzerland was excavated by Emil Bächler. The excavation uncovered more than 30,000 cave bear skeletons. It also uncovered a stone chest or cist, consisting of a low wall built from limestone slabs near a cave wall with a number of bear skulls inside it. Also, a cave bear skull was found with a femur bone from another bear stuck inside it. Scholars speculated that it was proof of prehistoric human religious rites involving the cave bear, or that the Drachenloch cave bears were hunted as part of a hunting ritual, or that the skulls were kept as trophies." (Wikipedia)
"Just after the turn of the first millennium A.D., a young child living in Egypt contracted a deadly illness — most likely pneumonia — and died. His tiny body was prepared for mummification and burial; some of his organs were removed, his remains were wrapped in criss-crossed linen bindings and a portrait of his face was affixed to the front of his mummy." Source: Live Science.
"This so-called 'mummy portrait' was part of a popular tradition among some Egyptians in Greco-Roman times, from about the first through the third centuries A.D. But how accurate were these portraits? To find out, a team of scientists in Austria and Germany CT scanned this little boy's body and created a 3D digital reconstruction of his face.
"The results show that the portrait was fairly accurate, except for one aspect — the artist made the youngster look older than his 3 or 4 years."
Note: I wouldn't take this new reconstruction as the gospel truth. Digital facial reconstruction using data from 3D scans is apparently fairly accurate now, but it still has its limitations:
"Facial reconstruction is destined to remain an art, albeit an increasingly informed one. The shape of the face bears only a restricted resemblance to the underlying bone structure. Facial reconstructions are inherently inaccurate, therefore, and cannot be used as a positive proof of identification – certainly not in a court of law." Source: Archaeology Data Service.
"Archaeologists have discovered more than 13 ancient Egyptian coffins piled one on top of the other within a burial well at the desert necropolis of Saqqara, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities." Source: Live Science.
"The 2,500-year-old wooden coffins are so well preserved that the intricate designs on them, painted in blue, gold, white, black and red, are still visible.
"The identity of the deceased who were buried within the coffins remains a mystery; archaeologists have yet to look inside the sealed coffins, which haven't been opened since the bodies were interred within, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities reported in a Sept. 6 Facebook post."
"These newfound coffins are the largest finding at Saqqara since 30 wooden coffins were discovered in a cache at Al-Assasif cemetery within the necropolis in October 2019, the ministry said."
"According to Dr. Janet Davey from the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in Australia, some ancient Egyptians were naturally blonde or red haired. Her research has brought an answer to an intriguing question connected with Egyptian mummies and the effects of the mummification process." Source: Ancient Origins (2016).
"An article published recently by The Sydney Morning Herald says that the mystery of the red and blonde hair discovered on some ancient Egyptian mummies may finally be solved. The new research was necessary to check the common perception that no ancient Egyptians had hair that wasn’t colored dark brown or black. Until now, most researchers had claimed that the different colors of the mummy hair were a result of the mummification process itself."
Note:According to Wikipedia, the ancient Egyptians used natron, a "salt mixture from dry lake beds," as a drying agent during mummification ceremonies. Until recently, experts believed that this treatment could have changed the color of the mummy's hair, but Dr. Davey, with the help of industrial chemist Alan Elliot, ran an experiment which demonstrated that this wasn't the case:
"Davey and Elliot covered [hair] samples in the salty powder for 40 days. It is believed that this was the same amount of time that was needed in ancient times to dry out the bodies. The donors of the hair were men and women aged from 4 to 92 years old. Most of the samples were dark hair, with one grey, one fair, and one with henna on it for comparison.
"After 40 days, all the hair was removed from the salty powder and they appeared unchanged. Microscopic analysis also showed no change in the hair."
"Three mummified animals from ancient Egypt have been digitally unwrapped and dissected by researchers, using high-resolution 3D scans that give unprecedented detail about the animals' lives -- and deaths -- over 2000 years ago. The three animals - a snake, a bird and a cat - are from the collection held by the Egypt Centre at Swansea University. Previous investigations had identified which animals they were, but very little else was known about what lay inside the mummies." Source: Science Daily.
Comment: If this technology had been available in the early 1900s, the officials of the Cabot Museum of Archaeology in Boston would have gotten a nasty surprise when they saw the first hi-def 3D X-ray images of a particular mummy in the museum's collection.