An Egyptian archaeological mission discovered stones and sarcophaguses at a cemetery dating back to Rameses II in the Saqqara district.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Zahi Hawass said among the discoveries was a sarcophagus of a woman hailing from the royal doctor at the time.

The mission also recovered a big stone, which served as a foundation for the cemetery, along with 50 stones inscribed with the name of King Djoser, his wife and daughter.

New pharaonic discoveries back to Rameses II in the Saqqara district, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 15, 2007.

Egyptian mummies may be more international than previously thought, as analysis of one such mummy in the Brooklyn Museum's [Egyptian] collection has revealed a surprising connection to Spain.

The mummy, named "Demetrios," turns out to have been wrapped in linen that was decorated with red pigment containing lead that originated in Spain, according to the museum.

"We now think the ancient Egyptians made very specific material choices for mummy preparation," Lisa Bruno, the museum's lead object conservator, told Discovery News...

Mummy Was Painted Red With Spanish Lead, Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News, USA, August 14, 2007.

Previously:

Mummies in Brooklyn Museum To Undergo Scientific Study, August 10, 2007.

Mummy's Log: Visited Scan God in Land of the Dead, August 07, 2007.

Spectral analysis of stable isotope ratios in readily available tissues such as hair and tooth enamel could help researchers monitor the effects of neuroprotective drugs or even track neurodegenerative disease, according to research published in PLoS One. The same approach might also be used to analyse archaeological specimens and provide new insights into the physiology of ancient people and animals.

Otto Appenzeller of the New Mexico Health Enhancement and Marathon Clinics Research Foundation, in Albuquerque, USA, and colleagues there and at the Universita degli Studi di Milano, in Italy, explain how biological rhythms can provide insights into normal physiology and disease, but tracking them over time normally requires constant, potentially invasive, monitoring. Such monitoring is obviously impossible for a preserved, or mummified, body long dead...

Previously, Appenzeller and his colleagues have looked for the telltale signs of neurological problems in paintings of the ancient Egyptians and identified cases of progressive facial hemiatrophy, a disfiguring disease, based on distortions of facial features reproduced in the paintings. Such studies coupled with hair and teeth analysis from ancient samples could provide important clues about our past that would otherwise remain hidden...

Hair and teeth betray master timekeeper, David Bradley, Chemometrics & Informatics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, UK, August 15, 2007.