Humans have long looked forward to the continuation of life after death. For example, the ancient Egyptians were known for their elaborate funeral rituals and belief in the afterlife. However, the deliberate preservation of corpses may have predated ancient Egyptian mummies by 3,500 years. Mummies buried along with wealth and personal belongings have been found all over the world.
In some cases, these mummies provide a detailed understanding of the beliefs and practices of ancient cultures. Mummies and funerary objects reveal what people consider important, their spiritual symbols, and what they believe happens after death. Autopsies performed by modern scientists can reveal what these ancients ate, what diseases they suffered, and ultimately what killed them.
From King Tutankhamun to Madame Day, these seven famous mummies brought their secrets to the tomb and then back.
In this article, we will take a look at 7 famous mummies in the world and the secrets of the ancient world they revealed.
Oz Iceman
The natural mummy of Oates the Iceman, discovered in the Alps Pass in 1991.
When the mummy, known as the Ötz Iceman, was found in the Alps in 1991, Austrian authorities initially believed the body belonged to a modern mountaineer because it was so well preserved. But when the iceman was hastily chiseled from an alpine glacier, they realized he was from the Bronze Age.
Oates is found in a mountain pass at an altitude of 10,530 feet (3,210 m), well above the Ötztal valley near western Austria. He lived 5,300 years ago, when Europe was just beginning to develop complex social hierarchies. His death was violent: According to research conducted in 2013, Oates died of being shot by an arrow and suffering a head injury in his final moments.
The man's mummy reveals a wealth of information about life in Bronze Age Europe. His genes suggest he is Central European, and his stomach contents indicate that he has eaten wild goat meat. He is in his 40s and suffers from arthritis, arterial stenosis and intestinal parasites, but he most likely uses acupuncture and herbal remedies to treat pain. We even know that he polished his scratching tools a few days before his murder, although no one knows if he wanted to fight or was just preparing tools for his daily routine.
Tolunds
The Tolunds may have been victims of human sacrifices between 405 BC and 380 BC
A swamp corpse found in Denmark in 1940 by Torund may be evidence of human sacrifice. This well-preserved mummy belongs to a man who lived in the Iron Age (c. 405 BC to 380 BC). On his last day, he ate a meal of barley porridge and fish before being hanged.
Researchers suspect his death was part of a sacrificial ritual because, according to the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark, Tollund Man was buried in a fetal position with his eyes and mouth carefully closed. (Most people in this period were cremated, so the fact that he was buried in a swamp confirms the "human sacrifice" theory.) )
According to the Silkburg Museum, which exhibited the mummy, Tolend Mann was between 30 and 40 years old when he died, standing at least 5 feet 4 inches (163 centimeters) tall (probably taller, assuming his body atrophied in the swamp after his death). He wore a sheepskin hat with a belt and a rope around his neck to hang him.
King Tutankhamun
An archaeologist looks at King Tutankhamun's face in 2007 as the mummy is transferred to a climate-controlled box.
Perhaps no mummy is more famous than the mummy of the young king Tutankhamun. The young pharaoh died more than 3,000 years ago at the age of 19.
The opening of his mausoleum in 1922 caused an international sensation because, unlike many royal tombs, his mausoleum was not ransacked. The young pharaoh's mummy is still housed in three coffins, one of which is pure gold.
Tutankhamun's glittering funerary objects document the history of ancient Egypt, his mummy reveals the customs and cultural changes of his death around 1324 BC, and DNA extracted from the corpse helped narrow the search for Tutankhamun's parents and unravel the mystery of Tutankhamun's relationship with the royal family. Through DNA analysis, scientists identified two mummies believed to be Tutankhamun's father, Akhenaten, and his mother, whose names are unknown. Tutankhamun's mummy also revealed that the pharaoh suffered from malaria and a rare skeletal disorder of the feet that could make it difficult for him to move around. It may have been malaria or another infection that killed him.
Some archaeologists believe that Tutankhamun's penis was mummified upright — a symbol that negated his father's Reformation. Ahnathorn had tried to focus religious worship on the solar disc Atun, but Tutankhamun's erect penis was reminiscent of Osiris, the god of fertility, resurrection, and the afterlife. In mythology, Osiris was dismembered by his brother, but his wife Isis collected body fragments, including a penis, and became pregnant with their son Horus. Tutankhamun's mummy may have tied him closely to Osiris to cement his father's failure in the Reformation.
Symptic vertebrae
The mummy of Xin Shi, aka Mrs. Dai, is very realistically preserved.
The typical mummy is tough and dry, but does not include the spices known as "Mrs. Dai".
The wealthy lady who lived in China's Han Dynasty was found in 1971 in an elaborate tomb sealed with clay. The conditions of her burial created an almost oxygen-free environment, and Xinzhen's coffin was filled with embalming to help preserve the body, so her body was in its original state of preservation. Her limbs are still flexible, her skin is still soft, and her hair is still thick.
The mummy, which dates back to 168 BC, is now in the collection of the Hunan Museum in China, and she is buried with hundreds of other objects. These include ornate lacquerware tableware, musical instruments and fine painted silks. From the records of the tomb, archaeologists learned that Xin Zhun was the wife of the acting Marquis Li Cang. The marquis is buried nearby, and in the grave next to it is buried a man in his 30s, believed to be the couple's son or the marquis's brother.
According to the journal Archaeology, scientists were able to perform a complete autopsy on Shinsuke's mummy. The test showed that she had died of a heart attack at the age of about 50.
Chinkoro mummy
A chincoro mummy at the Archaeological Museum of San Miguel de Azapa, Camarones, Arica, Chile.
The chincoro mummy found in present-day Chile is one of the oldest known man-made mummies in the world, dating back 7,000 years – 2,000 years before the oldest Egyptian mummy.
According to the journal Archaeology, these mummies were as meticulously prepared as any member of the royal family in ancient Egypt. Their organs are removed and their muscles are stripped from their bones. The body was then reassembled with reeds, plants, and clay to replace the removed internal organs. The skin is painted black or red. Elaborate human hair wigs and carved clay masks were added to the postmortem treatment.
The Chinkoro people who made these mummies lived in the Atacama Desert and left no written record, so these carefully preserved corpses provide a rare window into their beliefs and culture. It is noteworthy that, according to Archaeology, the Chinkoro people mummified everyone, regardless of their status - even stillborn.
"The Chincoros seem to respect all people, whether they contribute to society or not, with special attention to those who never realize their potential," the anthropologist wrote in the magazine. "In the minds of the Chinkoro people, the life of a mummy may be seen as a second chance."
Ramses II
Ramses II mummy at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, 2007.
Ramses II, also known as Ramses the Great, ruled Egypt for 68 years. During his lifetime (circa 1303 BC to 1213 BC), the pharaoh oversaw military campaigns to gain new territories and financed complex construction projects along the Nile, including the huge temple complex now known as Ramesem. Many artifacts from Ramses' reign are still preserved, including a granite statue of a king weighing 83 tons.
Ramses' mummy has also been preserved in modern times, but there are also some posthumous dramas. When the New Kingdom of Egypt (1550–1070 BC) began to decline in the 11th century BC, priests relocated royal mummies, nominally to protect them from plunder. In fact, according to the Center for American Studies in Egypt, the priests may also have wanted to take the tombs apart to obtain gold and raw materials that were in short supply at the time. Ramses II last lay in an ordinary coffin secretly vaulted by a royal mummy in Deir Bahari, rediscovered in 1881 and his travel records written on his parcel.
According to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California, Ramses II was over 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall. He lived a long life and died around the age of 90. A 2014 study showed that King suffered from a bone disorder called diffuse idiopathic osteohyperplasia, which causes ligaments near the spine to harden, reducing flexibility. The mummy is now stored in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
Siberian ice girl
Tattooed arm and shoulder of a Siberian ice maiden, a mummy found in the permafrost of the Uk Plateau in Russia.
The Siberian Ice Woman was probably an important woman of her time. She was a member of the ancient Pazyryk culture and the Siberian Great Scythian culture, living in the 5th century BC.
Her grave was found in 1993 in the Russian Altai Republic, where she was found buried in a huge larch coffin with six sacrificial horses buried next to her.
According to a 1998 NOVA documentary about the discovery, the Siberian Ice Girl, also known as Princess Ukok, was probably about 25 years old when she died.
She was embalmed with peat, her brain and eyes were removed, and the eye sockets were stuffed with animal fur. Her body is adorned with a 3-foot (0.9 m) high felt headdress decorated with gilded carvings. She wore a woolen and camel coat dyed red, chestnut and yellow. Perhaps the most incredible detail is the tattoo of the maiden, which includes a deer head, a spotted panther, and a jumping deer with a griffin's beak and forked flower-shaped antlers.
This mummy reveals the amazing secrets of the Pazrek people who lived between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC. For example, her shirt was made of wild silk and probably came all the way from India, suggesting that there were long trade routes in the region about 2400 years ago.