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Bodies of Evidence
Timeline
The black mummies of Chinchorro
5000BC
The black mummies found at Chinchorro in northern Chile are among the
oldest deliberately preserved mummies in the world. The bodies were covered
with black mud, which was painted with facial details and other decorations,
and they appear to have played an important role in ceremonial or religious
activities. They may have been kept in the homes of living relatives before
finally being interred. Internal organs were removed and the bodies stuffed
with straw. Special care seems to have been taken to preserve the bodies
of young children and babies (even stillborn ones).
Otzi the Iceman
3350-3100BC
Probably the most famous of all ice-preserved mummies, Otzi the Iceman
was found by a couple of mountain walkers in the Austro-Italian Alps in
1993. Five laboratories produced radiocarbon
dates of about 5,100-5,350 years ago for the remains. The remarkable
state of preservation of his body, clothes and various tools and weapons
in his possession has opened a detailed window into the Neolithic period
in European prehistory. The most recent investigative work shows that
he probably froze to death after being hit by a flint arrowhead, which
lodged beneath his shoulder.
Egypt's first mummies
3000BC
The first Egyptian mummies were most likely produced by accident as a
result of bodies being buried in the dry desert sand. People noticed the
natural drying and preservation that took place and gradually developed
more sophisticated mummification techniques. The earliest identified Egyptian
mummy dates from the 1st Dynasty (about 3000BC). All that is left of it
is a mummified wrist, probably belonging to the pharaoh Djer or one of
his wives.
The Tarim mummies of Xinjiang
2000BC
The most extraordinary thing about the Tarim mummies of Xinjiang province
in China is that these naturally-preserved bodies are not Chinese but
Caucasian. Discovered in the Takla Makan desert, where the dry climate
and high salt content of the soil has saved them from deterioration, the
mummies are dressed in what has been described as a 'Celtic tartan' style
of clothing. DNA studies have
confirmed the likelihood that the Tarim people were of European origin,
but little else is known about this early and unexpected connection between
east and west.
The tomb of Tutankhamun
1325BC
The undisturbed tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, who died aged
17, was opened by Howard Carter in 1922. Although it had been damaged
by the mummification process, Tutankhamun's body was still largely intact
when it was discovered, but then suffered badly as a result of its unwrapping
and other treatment by Carter and his associates. It has now been replaced
in its tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Tutankhamun
Exhumed: Investigating a 3,300-year-old mystery.
Ramses the Great of Egypt
1237BC
Ramses II, who ruled Egypt from 1304 to 1237BC is considered the most
likely candidate for the biblical Pharaoh of the Exodus. The third ruler
of the 19th Dynasty and son of Seti I, the latter part of Ramses's reign
saw the construction of some of ancient Egypt's most famous monuments,
including the temple of Abu Simbel and the great hall at Karnak. His mummy
was found in a cache of 40 royal mummies discovered at Deir el-Bahri,
on the west bank of the Nile opposite ancient Thebes (modern Luxor) in
1881. It is now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Cat and animal cemeteries
900BC
Animal mummies have been found in huge quantities in Egypt. Associated
with various gods, cats and other animals (such as baboons and crocodiles)
were mummified and interred either individually or in massive communal
burial places. By around 900BC, for example, cats in particular were being
bred and kept around temples devoted to the gods with which they were
associated. The numbers of animals involved was so large that in the 19th
century the English rulers of Egypt allowed their remains to be shipped
to Britain for use as fertiliser. One shipment alone is reckoned to have
contained the pulverised remains of 180,000 mummified cats. An earlier
animal burial site at Saqqara includes catacombs containing the mummies
of 1.75 million ibises and 500,000 hawks.
Herodotus records mummification
450BC
One of the earliest records of how mummification was carried out in ancient
Egypt was written down by the Greek historian Herodotus. He visited Egypt
around 450BC and reported: 'As much of the brain as possible is extracted
through the nostrils with an iron hook, and what the hook cannot reach
is dissolved with drugs. Next, the flank is slit open with sharp Ethiopian
stone and the entire contents of the abdomen are removed. The cavity is
then thoroughly cleansed and washed out, first with palm wine and again
with a solution of pounded spices. Then it is filled with pure crushed
myrrh, cassia, and all other aromatic substances, except frankincense.
The opening is sewn up, and then the body is placed in natron [hydrated
sodium salts], covered entirely for 70 days. When this period, which may
not be longer, is ended, the body is washed and then wrapped from head
to feet in linen, which has been cut into strips and smeared on the underside
with gum . . . In this condition the body is given back to the family,
who have a case of wood made, which is shaped like the human figure, into
which it is placed. The case is then sealed and stored in a sepulchral
chamber, upright, against the wall.'
The Siberian Ice Maiden
400BC
In 1993, the Russian archaeologist Natalya Polosmok and her team uncovered
a wooden tomb surrounded by the frozen remains of six horses. It contained
a 2,400-year-old woman, who was named the Siberian Ice Maiden, together
with a meal for the afterlife and various grave goods.
The Pazyryk ice mummies
450-350BC
In 1929-49, the Soviet archaeologist, Sergey I Rudenko, directed a series
of excavations of ice-preserved mummies belonging to the Pazyryk people
of western and southern Siberia. Found in the High Altai mountains and
dating from around 450-350BC, the mummies had a variety of tattoos on
their bodies, including animals, griffins and other monsters. As well
as the mummies, the frozen remains included horses, a birchwood wagon,
wall hangings and implements for smoking hemp.
Tollund Man
200BC
One of northern Europe's oldest 'bog people', Tollund Man was discovered
in a Danish peat bog in 1950. He is thought to have died in his thirties,
having been hung and strangled with a leather belt. Opinions differ on
whether he was ritually killed as a sacrifice to the gods or strangled
as punishment for some crime. Analysis of the contents of his intestines
revealed that he had eaten a last meal consisting primarily of barley
and other seeds. The oldest of the bodies preserved by waterlogged peat
is that of Koelbjerg Woman, dating from about 8000BC. In Britain, Lindow
Man has been dated to between 2BC-119AD.
China's Lady Dai
100BC
Discovered in 1971, the tomb of Xin Zhui (the Marquise of Dai, also know
as Lady Dai) yielded a fantastic array of riches from China's Han Dynasty.
Perfectly preserved in a huge timber-lined tomb, these had been placed
with Xin Zhui to make her stay in the afterlife as pleasant as possible.
Equally remarkable is the state of preservation of her body, which is
now on display at the Hunan Provincial Museum and has made her as famous
in China as Tutankhamun is in Egypt.
A Buddha in his own body
835
The Buddhist priest and mystic, Kukai, who died on 23 April 835, is believed
by his followers to have become a 'Buddha in his own body' by mummifying
himself while still alive. The preserved body of Kukai is now in the internal
shrine of a Buddhist temple on Mount Koya, in Japan. Other followers of
the Shongin thought of esoteric Buddhism, which Kukai founded, have emulated
his self-mummification, including one dating from the 19th century which
was discovered in 1960 in a Buddhist temple at Churengi. The practitioners
of self-mummification slowly starved themselves on a very strict diet,
apparently causing the mummification of body tissues from the inside.
Eric the Red and the Vikings
1000
Long before Columbus made his voyage from Europe to the Caribbean in 1492,
Viking adventurers sailed to and settled in north America. In 1921, Dr
Paul Nordlund, from Denmark, recovered a number of frozen human remains
from the Jerjolfs-nes graveyard on Greenland. Dating from around 1000,
the remains turned out to belong to descendants of the famous Viking explorer,
Eric the Red. Deterioration and damage to the bones during thawing and
transport initially led archaeologists to suggest that the bodies suffered
from degenerative diseases and malnutrition, a finding that has since
been reassessed.
The Cloud People of Peru
800-1500
In a group of dry caves high in the Peruvian Andes, some 200 mummies were
discovered in the 1990s. They belong to the Chachapoyas people, who lived
in the cloud forests of this region between 800 and 1500. Conquered first
by the Incas and then by the Spanish, the Chachapoyas embalmed and dressed
their dead in brightly coloured cloth. The mummies were first discovered
by tomb robbers but have since been investigated by archaeologists.
Juanita and the Peruvian ice mummies
1500
In September 1995, Dr Johan Reinhard, an archaeologist on a high-altitude
climbing expedition, came across the first of four ice mummies near the
summit of Mount Ampato, in the Arequipa region of the Peruvian Andes.
The Ampato ice mummy – who became known as Juanita – was a teenage girl,
who had been killed by a single, powerful blow to the head some five centuries
earlier. Archaeologists believe that she was sacrificed in an Inca ritual,
known as 'capacocha', to appease the mountain gods. Two more ice mummies,
a young girl and boy, were discovered in an archaeological expedition
led by Reinhard the following year, while a fourth body, the skeleton
of a woman, was discovered two years after that.
The catacomb mummies of Palermo
1599-1920
The catacomb mummies of Palermo date back to 1599, when the Capuchin monks
disinterred some bodies and found that they had undergone natural mummification.
Local priests mummified the body of one of their number, Brother Silvestro,
for public viewing and local families soon followed suit. Over the next
300 or so years, the catacombs were filled with mummified corpses, which
had their own designated sections, according to their status in life:
priests, monks, men, women, virgins, children and professionals. The last
monk was interred here in 1880; the last mummy was that of a two-year-old
child in 1920.
Sir John Franklin's Arctic expedition
1845-48
Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition of 1845-48, in which all 129
crew members died, went deep inside the Arctic Circle in search of the
Northwest Passage across the north of Canada. In 1981, their bodies were
discovered perfectly preserved in their permafrost graves by a team led
by the forensic anthropologist Owen
Beattie. After three expeditions, spanning five years, Beattie's team
(which carried out autopsies of some of Franklin's men on site) was able
to show that it wasn't the cold that killed them but lead poisoning from
the poor quality of soldering on their tinned food supplies.
Discovery of the royal mummies at Deir el-Bahri
1881
In 1881, after a century of excavations (and plundering) of ancient Egyptian
tombs, a remarkable find was made at Deir el-Bahri, on the west bank of
the Nile opposite ancient Thebes (modern Luxor). In a single tomb, some
40 royal mummies were found, dating from the 18th to 21st Dynasties (about
1550-940BC). They had been moved there about 3,000 years ago to protect
them from grave robbers. The mummies included those of Amenhotep I, Tuthmosis
I-III, Seti I and Ramses II (the Great).
Lenin's mummy
1924
When Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, leader of the Russian Revolution, died in
1924, his body was mummified and placed
on display at the Kremlin wall in Moscow. The exact process used to preserve
his body is still a secret, but consisted of immersing it in a bath of
preservatives. Although there have been proposals to bury Lenin's corpse,
nothing has yet come of them, and his mausoleum remains a major tourist
attraction of the Russian capital. Other famous modern mummies include
those of national leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Eva Peron,
Ho Chi Minh, Kim II Sung and opera singer Enrico Caruso.
Eva Peron's mummification
1952
When Eva Peron died in 1952, her embalmers took a year to remove the water
from her body and replace it with paraffin wax. The wife of the former
leader of Argentina, and subject of the Andrew Lloyd Weber 1978 musical
Evita, had the best-preserved corpse in the world when it was laid to
rest in 1974.
Cryonics
1962
According to the Cryonics Institute, in Michigan, USA, cryonics is 'Your
and Your Family's Last Best Chance For Health'. The institute, whose founder,
Robert C W Ettinger, claims to have founded the cryonics movement with
his book The Prospect of Immortality in 1962, offers 'whole-body
suspension' for $28,000. Cryonics is the process of freezing and storing
the body of a recently deceased person to prevent tissue decomposition
so that the person can be brought back to life when new medical cures
are developed in the distant future.
The Six Million Dollar mummy
1976
In 1976, a film crew working on an episode of The Six Million Dollar Man
television series at a Long Beach amusement park, in California, USA,
went to move what they thought was a dummy hanging from a rope. As they
did so, its arm came off, revealing the bone of what turned out to be
a mummified body. This was Elmer McCurdy, an outlaw who had been shot
dead in 1911. His mummified body had been taken by two tricksters, who
displayed it for profit in a circus sideshow. Eventually, it found its
way to the Long Beach amusement park.
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