MUMMIES. The dream of everlasting life
exhibition of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Bolzano in cooperation with the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums/Mannheim
On mummies and mummification
Why and in which circumstances are mummies formed? What do they tell us about the living
conditions in the past? By which scientific methods is it possible to draw their secrets from
them?
Mummification
A mummy is formed when the natural decomposition process of a cadaver is inhibited. Such
bodies do not follow the natural cycle and are preserved due to particular chemic, physic and
climatic circumstances. A distinction should be made between natural/accidental and
artificial/intentional mummification. Intentional mummification suggests the use of embalming
or preparation techniques or the intentional laying out of a body in a natural milieu that
favours mummification.
For many years the term mummy was only applied to embalmed corpses from Ancient Egypt.
Following Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaigns of 1798-1801 a veritable wave of Egyptomania
swept across Europe, ushering in the serious scientific study of mummies. In modern usage a
mummy can be an animal or human body in which – unlike skeletons – the soft tissue has
been preserved.
Mummies are invaluable witnesses of their time. Nowadays state-of-the-art research methods
have revealed keys to the living conditions and dietary habits, evidence of diseases and much
more.
Natural and artificial milieus
Natural mummification in caves
In caves natural mummification also occurs thanks to constant temperature and humidity.
Absolute darkness inhibits the growth of bacteria and slows the decay of dead organisms,
whilst air circulation through shafts and crevices dries them out.
Mummies have been found in caves in desert areas as well as in Siberia. Natural
mummification is possible even in damper caves in Central Europe as a result of air drying.
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Mummification in desert areas
In desert areas, whether cold or hot, bodies are frequently naturally mummified. The aridity
and wind quickly strip a dead organism of all its fluid. The desiccated body surface, whether
covered in hair or hairless, resists bacterial attack and does not re-absorb any moisture. Sand
with a high salt and natron content further accelerates the desiccation of bodies that have
been mummified in desert sand. Dry mummies are not always equally well preserved.
Decomposition can continue inside the body due to its fluid content, and the organs decay.
Natural mummification in ice
In the glacial areas of polar and mountainous regions natural mummification is possible in two
ways: A combination of high humidity and low oxygen converts body fat into adipocere, which
envelops the skeleton and conserves the body. Or an icy cold and dry environment can remove
crystallized water from the body so that the soft tissue is freeze-dried. In this process not all
the moisture is removed, which is why these mummies are called wet mummies. (e.g. Ötzi). In
permafrost areas the ice dries out the ground in which the body is lying and prevents
decomposition.
Natural mummification by salt
Salt can occur in solid or dissolved form. Solid salt is found in salt deserts or underground. Salt
has the property of binding water. The body dries out, bacterial growth is inhibited and the
corpse eventually mummifies. Salt mummies can also occur in damp environments. In salt
lakes and seas salt penetrates the body tissue thanks to a high salt concentration in the water,
displacing the water and dehydrating the body’s cells.
Natural mummification in bogs
Bogs are depleted of oxygen due to the constant excess of water from rain or groundwater.
Plant remains are only partially decomposed and form peat sediments. Bodies can be
preserved in bogs thanks to the lack of oxygen, the presence of acidity and an antibacterial
substance in peat moss (sphagnum). However, a substance called a polysaccharide which is
released when a plant dies plays the most important role. It removes calcium carbonate from
dead organisms, which bacteria need for growth. A tanning process also occurs, which
preserves skin, nails and organs.
Natural mummification in artificial milieus
Natural mummification does not occur only in natural surroundings. It can also occur in
manmade environments such as cellars, attics, ventilation shafts and power station stacks.
Natural mummification requires dry air and is also favoured by a continuous air flow and
temperature stability.
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Mummies in the world
Egypt
In the graves of the Ancient Egyptian culture the desert sand dehydrated the bodies, which
then mummified naturally. The first attempts to artificially preserve corpses were probably
based on this observation. Once the Egyptians started to build tombs in the Early Dynastic
Period (ca. 3000 BC), the environment for natural mummification was lost. They were then
forced to preserve their dead artificially. The cult of the mummy was based on the Egyptian
belief in the afterlife. To guarantee life after death, the body had to be preserved so that the
soul “ba” could return to the body and enjoy a carefree existence in the hereafter.
Asia
Naturally and artificially mummified bodies have also been found in Asia. The majority of them
come from desert areas, where the body was preserved naturally thanks to the extreme aridity
of the environment. In wetter areas the dead were preserved with the help of special
techniques and burial customs. Deliberate utilization of the natural environment and artificial
preservation techniques show that in Asia too people felt a need to preserve bodies as intact
as possible.
South America
The extensive desert areas on the Pacific coast of South America and the remote Andean
peaks provide optimum conditions for the preservation of organic substances. In the grave
fields on the coast, thousands of bodies from pre-Columbian culture groups underwent natural
mummification. In some cases indigenous people deliberately used the favourable climate
conditions to bury their dead, because preserving the human body was an important cult for
Andean culture groups. They perceived death as a transformation of the soft tissue into a hard
immutable material, in which their ancestors continued to live.
Mummies in Europe
The prehistoric cultures of Europe did not practise any artificial mummification of their dead.
Bodies underwent mummification as a result of the natural environment (the bog bodies or
Ötzi, for instance).
Elaborately prepared bodies from Egypt, which characterized the idea of the mummy, came to
Europe in the late Middle Ages along with medical knowledge from the Orient. Whole shiploads
of mummies reached the harbours of the Occident and were made into medicines. A second
import wave was unleashed by Napoleon’s Egypt Expedition at the beginning of the 19th
century. This time the mummies kindled a fascination in the mysterious arts of Ancient Egypt.
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In the Middle Ages only the bodies of emperors, kings and popes were embalmed. In
subsequent centuries the custom of preserving bodies spread to the rich and nobles
precipitated by the long period of laying out during elaborate ceremonial funerals. The internal
organs that were removed were embalmed and sometimes buried separately from the body.
Crypts in churches were much coveted as a final resting place, because relics kept in churches
were said to bring salvation to the dead.
Also in the 20th century people went on believing that the vitality of powerful people continues
to radiate as long as the body is preserved remained – this was the idea behind the
mummification of people from politics and public life. Lenin, for example, has been lying in
state in a mausoleum in Red Square in Moscow since 1925. Even Eva Perón, Argentina’s First
Lady, who died in 1953, was embalmed. But a military coup prevented her from being buried
in an opulent mausoleum. The romantic odyssey of her body only ended in 1976 in the La
Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Mummification today
Countless people still want to preserve their body for eternity, even today. Mummification can
be an alternative to burial or cremation and can be used for teaching and research purposes or
to fulfill a dream of one day being brought back to life.
Bodies today are mummified in a similar way to methods employed in Ancient Egypt. A more
modern process is plastination. After removing endogenous fat and water with acetone and
replacing it with plastics, the embalmed body is shaped as desired and cured. With the neuro
option, the brain is cryogenically frozen in the hope that some day a new body can be grown
from the brain cells by means of DNA replication.
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
via Museo 43, I-39100 Bolzano, Italy
phone +39 0471 320100, fax +39 0471 320122
web www.iceman.it, email museum@iceman.it
authorized for publication, please quote the source
please send a deposit copy to patrick.gasser@iceman.it
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MUMMIES. The dream of everlasting life
exhibition of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Bolzano in cooperation with the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums/Mannheim
Pictures and picture copyrights
Picture copyrights will be given at no cost to the press solely and exclusively for the publication
of the images in news coverage of the exhibition MUMMIES. The dream of everlasting life
hosted in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology from March 10th to October 25th 2009. All
other uses are not permitted. We kindly ask you to precisely state your source and provide
free deposit copies for the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums
and the picture copyrights holder(s) after publication.
On demand we send high resolution pictures per email or cd.
Ancient Peruvian mummy
Inca Period, 1000 – 1532 AD
South America/Peru
Native American Collection, Archaeology and Ethnology Study
Collection of the Native American Dept. of Bonn University (D)
© Bonner Altamerika-Sammlung Universität Bonn, photo W Rosendahl
Mummy and the coffins of Nes-pa-ka-schuti
Ancient Egypt, Third Intermediate Period, ca. 650 BC
Necropolis of Akhmim, Egypt
Lippian Museum, Detmold (D)
© Lippisches Landesmuseum Detmold, foto-dpi.com
Grave goods
of a Pre-Columbian mummy
Chancay Culture, Peru, 15th century
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums, Mannheim, (D)
© Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim, foto-dpi.com
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Howler monkey
Gran Chaco, Argentina
Schleswig Holstein Museum Found., Gottorf Palace, Schleswig (D)
© Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloss Gottorf
Woman with two children
Pre-Columbian Period, 1000–1400 AD
South America
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums, Mannheim, (D)
© Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim, photo J Christen
Michael Orlovits (1.765-1806)
Dominican Church of Vác, Hungary
Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Anthropology,
Budapest (H)
© photo B Szandelszky
Man from the Exloërmond Bog
Iron Age, 2nd to 4th century BC
Exloërmond, Netherlands
Drents Museum, Assen (NL)
© Drents Museum Assen
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Skeleton of a child
3.600 – 3.400 BC
Gebelein, Egypt
Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino
© Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino – foto-dpi.com
Mummy of Imhotep
Vezir of Thebes
Egypt, 18th Dynasty, 1504 – 1492 BC
Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino
© Museo delle Antichità Egizie, Torino – foto-dpi.com
The Iceman
Copper Age, 4th millennium BC
Hauslabjoch, Italy
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano (I)
© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
Reconstruction of the Iceman
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano (I)
© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, photo Andree Kaiser
South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology, Bolzano (I)
© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
For images of the Iceman/South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in high resolution please contact
Melitta.Franceschini@iceman.it
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