Ötzi the Iceman was murdered 5,300-years-ago. Since the discovery of his well-preserved body nearly twenty years ago, archaeologists have been piecing together a detailed picture of his life and death.

First detected by x-ray in 2001, the severity of the injury it caused had been debated – but a full CT (computed tomography) scan of the mummy has now confirmed that the arrowhead tore through a major artery. The experts say this would have led to internal bleeding and a rapid, shock-related cardiac arrest.

So who killed the Iceman and why? Archaeological sleuths Gostner and Andreas Lippert of the University of Vienna, Austria, recently put forward a new scenario in the periodical Germania – where they report that Ötzi also received a blow to the head.

Putting together all the pieces of the puzzle from the individual motes of forensic evidence, the experts argue that Ötzi was shot in the back by a distant assailant at a lower elevation.

He was then struck on the head and fell on his back, where he died. Finally, the murderer rolled Ötzi onto his front, with his arm folded under his body, and tugged the arrowshaft from where it was lodged his back.

There the Iceman remained for over 5,000 years, with his arm twisted under his body, and his longbow still leaning against the wall of the gully. It took the melting of the Tisenjoch glacier – which had been gliding over the protected hollow – to bring poor Ötzi back into the light of day.

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Imaging performed on an Egyptian mummy with a mysterious packet inside of her has revealed that it was not an offering to the gods as had been hypothisized.

Previous tests led to speculation that the packet was a bird mummy something researchers said would be an unusual and exciting find but high-resolution tests Thursday at Quinnipiac University showed no remnants of a bird.

Instead, researchers said the packet and a few others in the mummy likely contained organs, which were sometimes preserved and placed back in mummies for use in the afterlife.

The mummy, known as Pa-Ib and believed to be about 4,000 years old, has been in the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport since the 1890s and was a prized exhibit of the flamboyant showman P.T. Barnum.

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Pain and agony are written onto the faces of mummies found world-wide, their mouths agape as if frozen mid-scream. Now one researcher has unlocked the reason why.

“This temporo-mandibular joint is fairly loose…. Unlike the tight ball-and-socket linking the leg and the hip, the jaw and cranium are held together only by ligaments and muscles. If unimpeded–by the position of the body, wrappings, or very fast desiccation–the jaw will drop down as the muscles relax and decompose after rigor mortis.”

So, how do morticians today keep their clients from screaming? Unlike their Victorian predecessors who employed a chinstrap, they use needle and thread. It is somewhere on the continuum between gross and disturbing, but if you really need to know, you can look at this website’s note about “Mouth Closure.”