Each New Day

I just read about a frozen Incan mummy which has just gone on display in a museum in Argentina. The mummy of a 16 year old girl was found along with two other child mummies, frozen atop the Andes Mountains. It is believed these children were offered up as part of a ritual sacrifice. These mummies are said to be the best presevered mummies seen. The mummy is being displayed in a refrigerated, low oxygen display case to help reproduce the conditions in which it was found and so well presevered.

Well, we have still been stuck on mummies today. My young nephews are loving the mummy wrapping we’ve been doing. Today my daughter finished up our salt dough mummy by painting on the mask, then her and the boys decorated the “sarcophogus”, complete with amulets and treasures inside. Then, to top it all off, we cut up a sheet and the boys played mummies again. (This saved me rolls of toilet paper!)

My friend Christine pointed me to this very interesting article. It seems that a few years ago, archeologists found a mummy wearing what appears to be the oldest prosthetic known. Ancient Egyptians were known to add fake body parts to dead bodies for religious or ceremonial reasons, but the Cairo Toe appears to have been a working prosthetic. If this proves to be true, it will push the date back for the earliest known prosthetic use by 600 or 700 years. You can read the full article here.