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For many people the word "mummy" conjures up images of linen-wrapped royalty
from ancient Egypt. But for scientists it describes any body that retains soft
tissue—most often skin, but sometimes even eyes and internal
organs—long after death. Peat bogs in Europe made mummies, and so did a
cave in Greenland and a mountaintop in Argentina. In this slide show, examine
both natural forces and artificial techniques that have created a wide range of
mummies around the world.—Susan K. Lewis
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Bog Bodies
Northern Europe
The key to the remarkable preservation of bog bodies, as with all mummies, was
that bacteria and fungi, nature's agents of decay, couldn't carry out
their usual work. For many years it was assumed that merely the acidic,
oxygen-free environments of peat bogs kept microbes away. But
recently a new explanation has emerged: a substance called sphagnan, found in
the Sphagnum moss that blankets many bogs, acts as an antibiotic.
Sphagnan also tans skin, giving bog bodies their characteristic coffee
color.
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Natural Mummies
Egypt
Centuries before the art of embalming or "artificial" mummification was
developed in Egypt, bodies were naturally mummified in pits dug into the desert
sands. These arid graves were inhospitable to fungi and bacteria, which need
water to thrive. In addition to being relatively microbe-free, the desert in
Egypt is rich in a mineral called natron that contains both salt and baking
soda; it's an ideal disinfectant and desiccant that drew the moisture from
buried corpses and kept them more or less pristine.
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Classic Mummies
Egypt
Most of the well-known royal mummies of ancient Egypt were prepared for eternal life through an elaborate process called
classic mummification. It involved the removal of all internal organs other
than the heart, which Egyptians believed was the source of intelligence.
Embalmers then cleansed the body with wine, dried it for 40 days in natron,
made it supple with oils, and wrapped it in resin-coated linen bandages, which
protected it from oxygen, microbes, and moisture.
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Pazyryk Mummies
Southern Siberia
Mummies discovered in the Altay Mountains of southern Siberia were shielded
from decay by both natural and artificial means. Pazyryk embalmers removed
internal organs and muscles, then stitched skin back together with horsehair
thread. The bodies were buried in graves marked by great mounds of stones that
allowed water to seep down and deflected the sun's heat. This, together with
long winters, kept the ground below permanently frozen, safeguarding woolen
rugs, sacrificed horses, and the embalmed human corpses.
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Lady Dai
Central China
She's been called the best-preserved mummy in the world. When unearthed in
1971, her flesh body was still supple, and her veins contained type-A
blood. What accounts for her conservation?
Some researchers point to her airtight coffin. Like a Russian doll, her coffin
lay nested in a series of six caskets, and the entire burial chamber, with over
1,000 Han Dynasty artifacts, was encased in charcoal and clay 50 feet
underground. Other scientists suspect that a mercury bath after death was her
ticket to immortality.
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"Ötzi" the Iceman
Northern Italy
When hikers in the Ötztal region of the Italian Alps stumbled upon this
man's corpse, his unusual bearskin cap and copper axe hinted that he wasn't
modern. Indeed, radiocarbon dating confirmed that "Ötzi," as he is
affectionately known, lived between 3350 and 3100 B.C. An arrow shot into his
back killed this Stone Age man, but conditions in his glacial tomb gave him an
afterlife. His body, first buried in snow and then embedded in ice, remained
deep-frozen for over 5,000 years.
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Ürümchi Mummies
Northwestern China
In the windswept desert region near the city of Ürümchi, China,
dozens of natural mummies have come to light, conserved by dry and salty sands
as well as severely cold winters. These 3,000- to 4,000-year-old bodies are
surprising not just because they retain lifelike features, but because many of
these features, including reddish-blond hair and long, narrow noses, seem
distinctly Caucasian. Archeologists think these people may have belonged to an
ancient civilization that existed at the crossroads between Europe and China.
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Guanche Mummies
Canary Islands
The Guanche people mummified their dead for centuries before Spain conquered the Canary
Islands in 1402. Most of the mummies have disappeared, but historic sources describe the
embalming process, and at least one mummy survived. His body had been eviscerated, smeared
with sheep butter, and dried in the sun for several weeks. The body cavity had then been
filled with sand and other packing material, stitched up, wrapped in animal skins, and laid
to rest in a funerary cave.
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Qilakitsoq Mummies
Greenland
In 1972, hunters roaming near an abandoned Inuit settlement called Qilakitsoq
chanced upon the graves of eight people. Six women and two children had been
buried in the mid-15th century beneath an overhanging rock that sheltered the
burial site from sunlight, rain, and snow. Slowly but steadily, dry winds and
subzero temperatures freeze-dried their remains as well as their sealskin and
fur clothing. Museum curators today sometimes use a similar process of
freeze-drying to conserve unearthed bog bodies and organic artifacts.
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Incan Mummies
Andes Mountains
While ritual sacrifices were rare in Incan culture, explorers have discovered dozens of sites where such ceremonies took place. Those sacrificed were invariably children, whose purity made them fit to enter the realm of the mountain gods. Frozen for over 500 years, their bodies retain beautifully braided hair, internal organs, even eyelashes. They are also stirring reminders that, no matter how they appear today, each mummy was once a living, breathing person.
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