When you hear the word mummy, you may be thinking about ancient Egypt. However, many different cultures preserve their deceased, and scientists in particular Unexpected case.
As detailed in study Today, researchers featured in the Journal Frontiers in Medicine analyzed 18th-century mummies from a small Austrian village. Individuals represent the first documented example of previously unknown and frankly strange methods. What’s even more surprising, however, seems to have worked, allowing researchers to study the mystical mummification process centuries later.
“The unusually well preserved mummies of the Church District of St. Thomas am Blasenstein [corpse] Andreas Nerlich, a pathologist and first author of the study at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, is Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, a local parish pastor. statement. “Our research revealed that excellent preservation was achieved by filling the abdomen with wood chips, twigs and dough into the abdomen and adding zinc chloride for internal drying.”
The head and lower legs were in poor condition, but the pastor’s upper body was completely unharmed. To study and identify mummies, researchers performed radiocarbon dating (a proven technique for dating organic materials), CT scans (a type of x-ray image), and autopsy. In the abdominal and pelvic cavity, they identified linen, flax, hemp fabric, beads, branches, FIR and spruce wood chips.
“Obviously, the wooden chips, twigs and dried cloth absorbed a lot of the liquid in the abdominal cavity,” explained Nerich. These were widely available materials in that area of Austria, according to the statement. Additionally, researchers have discovered traces of zinc chloride on mummies that also dry the materials.
Unlike the mummification process widely studied in ancient Egypt, when priests open individuals to remove and treat certain organs, inserting material into the body through the rectum is a previously undocumented method of preservation. “This type of preservation may have been much more widespread but unrecognized if the operation was not realized because the ongoing postmortem damping process caused damage to the body’s walls,” Nerlich added.
Researchers have revealed that Sidler von Roseneg likely died between the ages of 35 and 45 between 1734 and 1780. The results of their analysis show that they have a potential food shortage that is likely to be caused by the Austrian war of succession. His skeleton has no evidence of considerable stress, so he ate a seemingly balanced grain, animal products, and perhaps a fish diet. However, he is a long-term smoker, and researchers suggest that he suffered from tuberculosis in the lungs on his last day.
Ultimately, this study shows that we still have a lot to learn about how past cultures dealt with the dead.
