Essays on Mummies

Excavations have timely revealed the traces of many diseases such as Tuberculosis in Egyptian Mummies indicating that they originated in ancient Egypt. Similarly, smallpox rushes were found on three mummies suggesting that smallpox might also have originated in ancient Egypt. However, the earliest written record of a disease that appears to be smallpox appeared in China, India, and Asia in the 4th Century CE, 7th century, and 10th century respectively. However, smallpox is also associated with major plagues that happen many years ago without clear identification such as the plague of Athens and the Antonine plague. The spread of ...

Joshua W.

A very positive thing I would definitely point out is that Joshua has elaborated on everything that could be construed from the mummy – what anthropological features they had, what gear they possessed, what clothes they wore and weapons they carried. However, what I think could be elaborated further is motivation of European people to go as far to the East. In this respect, it would be very interesting to compare what was going on in Europe itself at that time in order to understand what could have been the incentives to travel so far. The one thing that occurred ...

Who were the mummies in the Tarim Basin? If the findings were so revolutionary what could have been the reason of keeping them in museum storages without any publication for such a long time? At the end of the 1980s, 3000-year-old mummies who were perfectly preserved began appearing in the Desert of Taklamakan. They had very long blonde or red hair, European traits, and did not seem to have herald from the Chinese people. Archaeologists began to think that the Tarim mummies were civilians from the historical civilization at the crossroads between Europe and Asia. The mummies were tested ...