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News: The F.B.I. and the Mystery of the... (The New York Times) - Behind the headlines

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The New York Times April 2, 2018

The F.B.I. and the Mystery of the Mummy’s Head

by NICHOLAS ST. FLEUR

A museum wasn’t sure whose head it had put on display. That’s when the F.B.I.’s forensic scientists were called in to crack the agency’s oldest case.

Read more at The New York Times

Behind the headlines

Research findings and data from the National Library of Medicine

PubMed articles

Genes (Basel) MARCH 1, 2018

Biological Sexing of a 4000-Year-Old Egyptian Mummy Head to Assess the Potential of Nuclear DNA Recovery from the Most Damaged and Limited Forensic Specimens

O Loreille et al

High throughput sequencing (HTS) has been used for a number of years in the field of paleogenomics to facilitate the recovery of small DNA fragments from ancient specimen …

AJNR Am J Neuroradiol JANUARY 31, 2008

High-resolution imaging of an ancient Egyptian mummified head: new insights into the mummification process

R Gupta et al

Defects in the ethmoid and the posterior skull base are consistent with previous descriptions of excerebration. Mutilations of the facial skeleton and jaw, which are unre …

Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg JUNE 30, 2011

Replication of ancient Egyptian osteotomies of the facial skeleton: insights into the mummification process

ZS Peacock et al

A recent radiographic study of an Egyptian mummified head from the Middle Kingdom revealed methodical mutilations of the facial skeleton that were performed after death a …

Curr Biol FEBRUARY 6, 2001

Ancient DNA analysis reveals divergence of the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, and brown bear, Ursus arctos, lineages

O Loreille et al

The cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, represents one of the most frequently found paleontological remains from the Pleistocene in Europe. The species has always been confined to …

Forensic Sci Int MAY 9, 2008

Diagnosing post-mortem treatments which inhibit DNA amplification from US MIAs buried at the Punchbowl

HE Koon et al

The US military is committed to recovering and identifying the remains of unknown military service members. Casualties of the Korean War were exhumed from the National Me …

Forensic Sci Int Genet APRIL 2, 2010

Titanic's unknown child: the critical role of the mitochondrial DNA coding region in a re-identification effort

RS Just et al

This report describes a re-examination of the remains of a young male child recovered in the Northwest Atlantic following the loss of the Royal Mail Ship Titanic in 1912 …

PLoS One MARCH 11, 2009

Mystery solved: the identification of the two missing Romanov children using DNA analysis

MD Coble et al

One of the greatest mysteries for most of the twentieth century was the fate of the Romanov family, the last Russian monarchy. Following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas I …

Nat Commun MAY 30, 2017

Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods

VJ Schuenemann et al

Egypt, located on the isthmus of Africa, is an ideal region to study historical population dynamics due to its geographic location and documented interactions with ancien …

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The Washington Post AUGUST 15, 2019

Humans pushed cave bears to extinction, their DNA suggests

Cave bears once lived all over Europe. Now they are only bones.

The Washington Post AUGUST 15, 2019

Humans probably drove cave bears to extinction, ancient DNA study reveals - The Washington Post

Cave bears once lived all over Europe. Now they are only bones.

CNN News AUGUST 31, 2018

Ancient Egyptian medical knowledge revealed by 3,500-year-old texts - CNN

To diagnose pregnancy, the ancient Egyptians instructed women to pee into a bag of barley and a bag of wheat. It's just one the findings from research at the University of Copenhagen.

The New York Times AUGUST 16, 2018

Archaeologists Find 3,200-Year-Old Cheese in an Egyptian Tomb (Published 2018)

The cheese was found in a tomb that had been thought lost to shifting sands until it was rediscovered in 2010.

The Washington Post JANUARY 23, 2020

A 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy speaks again, with some high-tech help

The mummy, an Egyptian priest named Nesyamun, would have been pleased to hear his voice in the afterlife, the researchers said.