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Bodies of Evidence

Case studies

Maronite mummies

Who were the Lebanese mummies?

In 1990, a group of potholers discovered the mummy of a baby girl in a cave in northern Lebanon. The infant was wearing three dresses (the outermost one embroidered with silk thread), a silk headband, one earring and a necklace. The people who discovered her named her Yasmine.

As the excavation continued, more remains emerged: four more infants, three women, a male skull and a foetus. These were the remains of Maronite Christians that had been naturally mummified by the dry conditions in the cave. Artefacts found with them show that they died some 700 years ago, possibly during a siege by the Mamelukes, who ruled the region's Islamic empire and defended it against the Christian Crusaders.

Yasmine had strands of hair trapped between her toes that probably belonged to her mother, indication of a local tradition that remains today: a grieving mother will pull out strands of her hair while kissing her dead child's feet.

* Find out more about mummies in the timeline

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