The inner Abruzzo region, corresponding to the province of L’Aquila, is a land mountains and highlands in central Italy. Its environmental conditions greatly foster spontaneous mummification, area well known for human mummies found last decades. We present newly discovered collection mummified remains village Calascio, located 1,210 meters above sea level, near Gran Sasso Mountain. Here, Franci...

The burial of coffins may pose an environmental and health hazard since the metals that are used in coffin-making may corrode or degrade into harmful toxins. These may leach into the surrounding soils and groundwater. Very little research has been conducted world-wide on the mineral contamination potential of cemeteries, and virtually none in South Africa. The aim of the study is to determine w...

Whereas many viruses have capsids of uniquely defined sizes that observe icosahedral symmetry, retrovirus capsids are highly polymorphic. Nevertheless, they may also be described as polyhedral foldings of a fullerene lattice on which the capsid protein (CA) is arrayed. Lacking the high order of symmetry that facilitates the reconstruction of icosahedral capsids from cryo-electron micrographs, t...

The monastery of Attel, Upper Bavaria, which was founded in AD 1030, harbours a series of crypt burials from the time period between AD 1700 and 1750. Due to a restoration of the church, 16 crypts had to be removed and were subjected to an extensive anthropological-paleopathological and isotope analysis. The 16 crypts contained 19 burials in open wooden coffins. All bodies were covered by an ex...

Inscriptions of Buddhist mantras and dhāraṇīs were interred in Chinese tombs on behalf the deceased from Tang dynasty onward as fear postmortem judgment punishment ten courts hell became firmly rooted. This notion afterlife practice enclosing dhāraṇī inscriptions seem to have been received by Korean Buddhists beginning Koryŏ (918–1392). paper, through a close examination wooden inner coffin exc...