THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF

MUMMIES

Arthur C. Aufderheide, M.D.

University of Minnesota, Duluth


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Arthur Aufderheide 2003
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Aufderheide, Arthur C.
The scientific study of mummies / Arthur C. Aufderheide.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 81826 5 (hb)
1. Mummies. 2. Paleopathology. I. Title.
R134.8.A934 2002
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Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments

xiii
xvi

Personal or population status and/or security

practice of Egyptian mummification

1 History of mummy studies

Introduction

30

Mechanisms that fueled the later, widespread

War trophies
Regulation of spiritual force of the deceased

30
31
32

Justification of studies

Aleuts

33

Ethical aspects of mummy studies

Temporary mummification

34

The Archaic Period

Summary of ethnohistorical observations

Classical Greek and Roman periods

Application of defined mummification purposes

The Dark Ages

to ancient populations

The Renaissance

The Guanches of Tenerife

37

Scientific rustlings in the eighteenth century

The Chinchorros of north Chile

38

The autopsy in the nineteenth century

36
37

3 Mechanisms of mummification

41

11

Introduction and definition

41

Egyptomania of the first quarter

11

Principles of mummification

The irresolution of the second quarter

16

Reawakening of the third quarter

17

Dynamism of the fourth quarter

17

Mummy dissections in the nineteenth century

The twentieth century

41

Factors influencing enzyme action

42

Mummification mechanisms
Desiccation

2 The purpose of anthropogenic

mummification

41

The postmortem decay process

43
43

Thermal effects

48

22

Chemical effects

50

22

Anaerobiasis and plaster mummies

56

23

Miscellaneous mummification methods

58

The Inca empire

23

Excarnation (defleshing)

62

Early Egypt

25

Indeterminate mummification mechanisms

64

History of modern embalming practices

66

Introduction
Enhancement of royal authority in a theocracy

Summary of mummification practices related

to political power

28
vii

Contents

4 The geography of mummies

MUMMIES FROM NORTH AMERICA
Mummies from Canada
Mummies from the Canadian Arctic

72
72

Mummies from San Pedro de Atacama,

Chile

72

Mummies from Iquique

155

72

Mummies in Santiago museums

156

Mummies from Western Canada

73

Mummies from Central and Eastern Canada

74

Ancient Andean coca-leaf-chewing practices

Mummies from Argentina

Mummies from the USA

74

Mummies from Alaska

74

Western USA

80

Eva Pern mummy

The cave mummies from the Southeast

82

Mummies at the Museo Etnogrfico

Miscellaneous mummies

84

Mummies from Mexico

154

88

157
159

Mummies from the Museo de Arqueologa y

Antropologa, La Plata

J. Ambrosetti in Buenos Aires

Mummies from Brazil

159
159
161
161

The mummies from Guanajuato

88

Mummies from other Mexican sites

89

MUMMIES FROM EUROPE

161

Mummies from Central America

92

Mummies from Spain

161

MUMMIES FROM SOUTH AMERICA

92

Canary Island mummies (Guanches)

161

Mummies from Venezuela

92

Hydrocephalic mummy

166

Mummies from Ecuador

92

Miscellaneous mummies from Spain

166

Fundao Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro

The Jivaros (Shuar)

92

Mummies from Colombia

96

Mummies from Portugal

96

Mummies from France

The geography of Colombia

Pre-Hispanic mummifying Colombian
populations

96

Mummification methods of Colombia

97

Purpose of Colombian mummification

101

Mummies from Peru

Preceramic Period (prior to 1800 BC)

167
167
167

John Paul Jones

167

Miscellaneous mummies from France

169

Mummies from Germany

169

Mummies from Austria

170

102

Austrian catacomb mummies

170

102

Hallstatts salt mummies

171

Tyrolean glacier bodies

171

Initial Period and Early Horizon

(1800200 BC)

Mummies from Madrid

161

104

Mummies from Switzerland

Franciscan friars at Basel

Early Intermediate and Middle Horizon

172
172

107

Other mummified clerics

172

Late Intermediate Period (AD 10001470)

116

Mummies of historical figures

172

Late Horizon (AD 14701534)

122

The Colonial Period (AD 15341821)

129

and Ireland

mummies (200 BC to AD 400)

Summary of mummies from Peru

Mummies from Chile
Geography and climate

172

134

Peat bogs

173

135

Preservation features of peat bog mummies

175

135

Number and chronology of bog mummies

176

Cultural nature of bog mummies

176

Overview of some well-known bog mummies

178

Synopsis of prehistory and history of Chilean

populations

Bog bodies of northern Europe, England

139

Mummification features of northern Chile

141

Mummies from Ireland

Coastal and low valley sites near Arica, Chile

142

Miscellaneous mummies from Scotland

181

Summary of Arica area mummies

151

Mummies from Denmark

183

viii

181

Contents

The Mound people from the Bronze Age

183

Sociohistorical features of the Archaic Period

The preserved brains from Denmarks medieval

monastery
Greenland mummies
Mummies from Sweden
Freeze-dried mummies of Arctic balloonists
Mummies from northern Scandinavia
Mummies from Lapland

183

The Old Kingdom

184

Sociohistorical features of the Old Kingdom

187

The First Intermediate Period

190

Mummies from the Czech Republic

192

Mummies from Italy

192

Catacomb mummies from Venzone

193

Mummies from Urbania, Central Italy

194

Catacomb mummies from Palermo, Sicily

195

Intermediate Period
Intermediate Period
The Middle Kingdom

227

Kingdom

227

Mummification features of the Middle

Kingdom

198

The Second Intermediate Period

228
230

Sociohistorical features of the Second

199

Intermediate Period

199

230

Mummification features of the Second

Mummies from Abbey of St Domenico

Maggiore, Naples

227

Sociohistorical features of the Middle

Catacomb mummies from Navelli, Central

Mummies from Arezzo, Tuscany

226

Mummification features of the First

Mummies from Savoca, Sicily, and Ferentillo,

Italy

226

Sociohistorical features of the First

190
191

223
223

Mummification features of the Old Kingdom 224

187

Mummies from Hungary

Tuscany

220

Mummification features of the Archaic Period 222

Intermediate Period
199

The New Kingdom

230
232

Mummies of Italian saints

201

Sociohistorical features of the New Kingdom

Miscellaneous Italian mummies

202

Mummification features of the New Kingdom 235

Mummies from Greece

206

Mummies from Russia and Ukraine

207

Mummies from the Siberian steppes

207

Russias royal Romanov mummies

209

The mummy of Nicholas Rubinstein

210

The mummy of Vladimir Ilich Lenin

210

Miscellaneous mummies from Europe

Cromwells head

Non-royal mummies from the New Kingdom 241

The Third Intermediate Period
Intermediate Period
Intermediate Period

211

The Late Period

211

242
245

Sociohistorical features of the Late Period

245

Mummification features of the Late Period

245

212

Geography and climate of Egypt

212

Kings of the Ptolemaic Dynasty

Nubia

216

Sociohistorical features of Egypts Greek

Sources of our knowledge

217

The Predynastic Period

217

Egypts Greek Period

(Ptolemaic) Period

247
247
247

Mummification features of Egypts Greek

Sociohistorical features of the Predynastic

(Ptolemaic) Period
217

The Roman and Greco-Roman Periods

Mummification features of the Predynastic

Period

242

Mummification features of the Third

REST OF AFRICA

The Archaic (Early Dynastic) Period

242

Sociohistorical features of the Third

MUMMIES FROM EGYPT AND THE

Period

232

Sociohistorical features of the Roman Period

219

248
248
248

Mummification features of the Greco-Roman

220

Period

ix

248

Contents

Mummies after the Roman Period

250

Use of Egyptian mummification methods as a

dating system

5 Soft tissue taphonomy

Introduction

287
287

250

The taphonomy of proteins

287

251

Normal protein structure

287

Body cleansing agents

252

Methods of protein degradation

288

Body stuffing materials

252

Applications of protein degradation principles 289

Anointing materials

255

The taphonomy of nucleic acids

294

Desiccating agents

255

The taphonomy of lipids

294

Cosmetic materials

256

Normal lipid composition of the human body 294

Disposal of the viscera (canopic apparatus)

257

Postmortem alterations of human body lipids

295

Egyptian mummification materials

259

Summary of the taphonomy of human lipids

298

Mummies from Libya

259

Mummification by adipocere formation

299

Plaster burials from Northern Africa

259

Mummies from Northern Africa

MUMMIES FROM THE MIDDLE EAST

The taphonomy of carbohydrates

300

The taphonomy of bone mineral

300

AND ASIA

260

Soft tissue taphonomic agents: water

301

Mummies from Jordan

260

Soft tissue taphonomic agents: heavy metal ions

304

Mummies from Lebanon

260

Arsenic (As)

304

261

Mercury (Hg)

304

The mummy of Alexander the Great

261

Copper (Cu)

305

Mummies from Myanmar (Burma)

262

Lead (Pb)

305

Mummies from Vietnam

262

Heavy metals for protease suppression

307

Mummies from China

262

Summary of antimicrobial effect of heavy

The mummified patriarch

Mummies from the Western Han Dynasty

262

Mancheng burials and jade suits

265

Xinjiang mummies

267

Mummies from Tibet

271

Mummies from other Chinese regions

271

Mummies from Japan

273

Mummies of political leaders

273

Mummies of Buddhist priests

273

metals
Soft tissue taphonomic agents: bacteria

307
307

The postmortem spread of bacteria through

the body

308

Bacterial effect on postmortem tissue structure 308

Summary of bacteria as taphonomic agents
Soft tissue taphonomic agents: fungi

309
309

Location of fungi

310

Fungal contamination of cereal grains

312

Mummies from the Philippines

276

MUMMIES FROM OCEANIA

277

Soft tissue taphonomic agents: insects

312

Introduction to mummies from Oceania

277

Soft tissue taphonomic agents: thermal effects

313

Mummies from the Buang Tribe in Papua New

Guinea
Mummies from Australia

279
279

Cooling as a taphonomic agent

313

Heat application as a taphonomic agent

315

Anatomical taphonomic effects

316

Mummies from the Queensland area

280

Head

317

Mummies from Torres Strait

281

Hair

317

Mummies from South Australia

284

Eyes

318

Maori Mummies from New Zealand

284

Nails

318

Breasts

318

285

Heart

318

286

Lungs

318

Mummies from the Cook Islands, Tahiti and

Samoa
Mummies from Indonesia

Contents

7 Mummification of animals

395

Gastrointestinal tract

319

Liver

319

Introduction

Spleen

320

Anthropogenic animal mummification

Kidney

320

Origin of the practice

395

Bladder and prostate

320

Pastoralism and animal cults

397

Uterus and adnexae

320

Dynastic Egypt and animal cults

397

Pancreas and adrenals

320

The Apis bull cult

398

External genitalia

320

The ibis cult

399

Brain

321

Baboons

400

Cats

401

322

Crocodiles

402

322

Rams

403

Other animals

403

6 Mummy study methodology

Introduction
Morphology-based methods: anatomical

395
395

Summary of anthropogenic animal

dissection methods

323

Purposes of anatomical dissection

323

mummification in Egypt

404

Extent of dissection

324

Non-Egyptian mummified animals

404

Dissection procedure

326

Horses

404

General features of anatomical dissection

327

Dogs

408

Performance of mummy dissection

330

Mammoths

412

Anatomical study methods: internal dissection 348

Morphology-based methods: paleohistology

368

Abstract of paleohistology

369

Rehydration of desiccated tissues

370

Embedding and processing of mummified

tissues

Insects

413

Miscellaneous animal mummies

415

8 Soft tissue paleopathology: diseases of the

viscera

372

Introduction

418
418

Sectioning and staining mummified tissues

372

Factors influencing preservation

418

Applications

373

Variable response of body tissues

418

Electron microscopy (EM)

374

Recognition of morphological alterations by

Physical methods: radiographical methods

376

disease

Abstract of radiological methods: plain

radiography

Topics covered
377

Soft tissue lesions of the head and neck

Abstract of radiographical methods: computed

419
419
419

The brain and meninges

419

377

Soft tissue lesions of the eye

422

History

378

Soft tissue lesions of the ear

425

Equipment

379

Soft tissue lesions of the nose

430

Applications

381

Soft tissue lesions of the neck

433

Magnetic resonance imaging applications

385

tomography

Physical methods: endoscopy

Heart and pericardial diseases

434

385

Coronary thrombosis and infarction

385

Infections

435

388

Valvular heart disease

435

Molecular (DNA) chemistry

388

Heart disease due to miscellaneous

Amino acid racemization (AAR)

391

Abstract of endoscopy
Biochemical methods

Other methods

causes

394

Paleopathology of cardiac pathology

xi

435

436
437

Contents

Pulmonary diseases

437

Fibrocystic disease of the breast

488

438

Neoplasms of the breast

488

Pulmonary infections

438

Gynecomastia

490

Degenerative conditions

440

Paleopathological aspects of the breast

492

Vascular conditions

444

Neoplasms

445

Preservation

Congenital conditions

Dermatological diseases

497
497

446

Traumatic dermatological lesions

498

446

Infectious dermatological lesions

498

Preservation and appearance

446

Metabolic dermatological lesions

498

Hepatitis

447

Dermatological neoplasms

499

Cirrhosis

447

Miscellaneous conditions

499

Fatty degeneration of the liver

447

Foreign bodies
Liver and biliary tract diseases

9 The museology of mummies

500

Congenital lesions

448

Gas gangrene septicemia

449

Introduction

Abscesses

450

Collection

500

Neoplasms

451

Exhibition

500

Biliary tract diseases

452

Conservation and preservation

502

Miscellaneous conditions

454

Gastrointestinal tract diseases

454

destruction of mummy tissues

502

454

Secondary (indirect-acting) agents

504

Ulcerative gastrointestinal lesions

457

Types of bodies requiring conservation

505

Intestinal obstruction

459

Mummy preservation methods

507

Congenital lesions

Infectious conditions

461

Neoplasms

463

Miscellaneous lesions
Urinary diseases

463

500

Primary (direct-acting) agents causing

Research

10 Use and abuse of mummies

514

515

465

Introduction

515

Congenital lesions

465

Mummy as a drug

515

Infectious conditions

466

Mummy as loot

518

Hydronephrosis

467

Mummy as display

521

Glomerulonephritis

468

Mummy as paper

523

Metabolic conditions

469

Mummy as fuel

524

Hypertension and diabetes mellitus

472

Mummy as a commercial product

524

Neoplasms

472

Mummy as curse

525

Genital diseases

473

Mummy as deception

527

Preservation of external genitalia

473

Mummy as neglect

530

Sexually transmitted diseases (STD)

475

Mummy as language, literature and film

531

Testis

476

Mummy as a political or religious implement

533

Prostate

477

Mummy as science

536

Abnormalities of female internal genitalia

477

Pregnancy-related conditions
Breast diseases

482

References

537

487

Index

590

Normal

487

Infectious lesions

488
xii

The plate section is between pp. 174 and 175.

Chapter 1.

Introduction
A book about mummies needs to begin by defining the
term mummy. Historically the term is a misnomer.
The English word mummy has taken a circuitous
course to reach its present meaning. Pursuit of this serpentine path exposes us to several fascinating eras of
ancient history. One of these is detailed in Chapter 10
(see Mummy as a drug) but can be summarized here.
As early as the first century AD the Roman historian
Pliny the Elder (AD 2378) was lauding the medical
virtues of a black, tarry material oozing spontaneously
from earth fissures in several locations of what we now
call the Middle East. Especially popular was a site in
modern Iraq (ancient Persia) near Babylon in the territory of Darbgerd. This material, which we would
call asphalt or bitumen, was called mmiy by the
Persians (perhaps because its consistency resembled
that of wax, called mm by the Arabs) (Pettigrew,
1834:1). When its medical popularity exceeded its
supply in about the thirteenth century, the black, crystalline resin found in ancient, mummified Egyptian
bodies was substituted for the bitumen, since its gross
appearance suggested chemical identity. The term
mmiy was then transferred to such resins (Dawson,
1927f). Still later, when the resins apparent superior
clinical efficacy was attributed by European physicians
to the desiccated, light-brown muscle fragments often
accidentally included within the mummies resin, the

History of mummy studies

term was again transferred this time to the preserved

nonskeletal (soft) tissues of the human body that were
thereafter employed as medical therapeutic agents.
When that practice subsided in the eighteenth century
the term finally evolved into its present application,
referring to any form of mummified human remains.
In adjectival form the term mummified human
can be applied conveniently to even the smallest nonskeletal fragment of a human body surviving a postmortem interval long enough normally to anticipate
complete decay. Few, however, would use the noun
mummy to designate an isolated fingernail, lock of
hair or dry skin fragment. This indicates that, for most
people mummy induces a mental image of a corpse
with soft tissues sufficiently preserved to resemble a
once-living person. This is far from the type of precision we normally accept within scientific terminology,
but if language is to be an effective communication
medium it must conform to popular usage. Hence, this
book will employ the term mummy in this general
sense, modifying it with descriptive adjectives where
necessary.

Justification of studies
But why study mummies at all? The tombs of the
worlds largest and most examined group of mummies
in Egypt have contributed much information useful to
recovery of Egyptian views of life and the afterworld
1

History of mummy studies

through study of inscriptions on the tomb walls, on the

mummys container (cartonnage, coffin or sarcophagus) or on linen wrappings and included papyrus
scrolls. The principal focus of interest on the body
itself, however, has been the documentation of specific
features of the mummification process. These would
then be used to establish a chronological sequence of
mummification features that can be used for dating
purposes in much the same way that the form, composition, and decoration of ceramic features are commonly employed in archaeology. Even the evidence of
disease occurring in Egyptian mummies has been
derived largely on the basis of simple gross observations of skeletal and some soft tissue malformations,
commonly published as isolated cases or simply as
addenda to archaeological reports.
The above only hint at the vast residue of latent
information that is resident in both the soft and skeletal tissues in these bodies. But how available is this
information, and what needs to be done to obtain it?
Some of the answers to these questions were provided
at several pioneering seminars by the University
of Manchester, England (David, 1979, 1986), the
mummy dissections by members of the Paleopathology Club and the Paleopathology Association,
and especially in the 151 manuscripts read at the First
World Congress on Mummy Studies held in Puerto de
la Cruz on Tenerife in the Canary Islands on February
36, 1992 (Archaeological and Ethnographical
Museum of Tenerife, 1995). The more than 300 scientists gathered at that Congress described the application of a broad range of biochemical, biophysical,
radiographical, radiometric, photo-imaging, molecular
biological and other techniques to spontaneously
(naturally) and anthropogenically (artificially)
preserved human remains from sites on nearly every
continent. The wealth of new data presented at that
meeting represents a quantum leap forward in the
study of ancient populations. Above all, it brought into
focus the existence of the enormous legacy of biomedical and sociocultural information present in mummified human remains. Even extant technology is
capable of extracting a significant fraction of it. Such
2

recovered information can be integrated with the existing biomedical and bioarchaeological database; these
data are unique because they can not be acquired by
other means.
This is the very definition of a new branch of
science. Because science is the pursuit of truth, it is its
own justification. The term science is used here to
include all forms of scholarly endeavor including, but
not limited to, history, archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, art, biology, museology and medicine. The
purpose of this book is to document the fields current
database as well as identification of the nature and
potential of methods employable to expand it.

Ethical aspects of mummy studies

A growing world-wide movement emphasizing ethnic
identity is affecting the study of human remains. In
some areas ethnoconsciousness is so powerful that it
overrides nationalistic concerns. The roots of these
forces are so deep and complex they may be unknowable in their entirety. They surely, however, include
such factors as disappointment over the failure of both
science and many experimental forms of population
governance systems to solve basic social problems.
They also involve the perception of anonymity of population subgroups in increasingly densely populated
areas, and the extension of communication systems
that permit the people of even the remotest part of our
planet to be aware of conditions elsewhere. The effect
of these and other contributing factors is a search for
identity and socioeconomic solutions among population subgroups sharing common cultural heritage
practices and world views as well as language, and, in
some cases, religious hallmarks of ethnic identity.
Ironically, this process of shrinking ones sociocultural
space coincides with the increasing awareness by large
nation states of their global interactions and interdependence.
This process has had a profound impact on the study
of antiquity through examination of human remains.
One aspect of the several, different responses to these
changes has been increasing interest in ones ancestral

The Archaic Period

origins, and is reflected not only in a flurry of related

publications (Haley, 1976) but also in grass roots efforts
to recover the features of the life of aboriginal populations (Tenerifes 1990 Cronos Project, others).
Simultaneously such growing identification with
ancestors has also extended to their physical remains in
many areas, leading to restriction of their exhumation
and study by dissection or other methods that are
viewed as offensive and irreverent. Australia, USA,
Israel and other countries have regulated such practices, and increasing minority militancy is making
similar demands in parts of South America, the
Canadian Arctic and elsewhere. Understanding of
such ethical concerns is imperative for the success of a
scientist involved in mummy studies.
Because it is within this global climate that we must
carry out our work, ethical concerns need to be dominant in the minds of scientists involved in the dissection or sampling of mummified human remains.
Investigators of mummy studies will be most comfortable in subsequent work if they first evaluate their own
views by any criteria or features perceived to be relevant and arrive at a comfortable conviction. It may be
necessary to participate in one or more dissections to
achieve the experience necessary to make this informed
decision. The next, equally important step is the recognition that all others concerned with a possible
mummy dissection have an equal right to reach other,
but equally valid, viewpoints. In the perfect world
those influencing the decisions regarding the extent of
dissection (museum board, institutional administrators, legislators, etc.) would make the same effort to be
as informed as possible when making such judgments.
Since this seldom occurs spontaneously, it is in the
investigators interest to prepare such a report or oral
presentation. In such circumstances, a highly persuasive stance by the investigator is rarely successful.
Usually more useful is a presentation identifying the
nature of the proposed study, the types and value of
information expected to be gained and possible alternative limitations of the extent or modifications of the
dissection. Risks, inconveniences or costs as well as
possible museum applications of the data generated

need to be pointed out. Optimally, all this can be

carried out in a manner transmitting the investigators
recognition of normal concerns about dissection and
respect for the ultimate decision. Once the decision has
been made, all concerned with the examination must
honor whatever restrictions are imposed without
manifesting judgment.
The degree of survivors identification with the
physical bodies of deceased relatives varies enormously
both between and within cultural groups. I have
encountered the full range of concerns about the
extent of dissection, varying from total indifference to
complete prohibition. Furthermore, if the decisionmakers can be fully informed, the degree of dissection
limitation is not necessarily correlated with emotional
concerns for the remains. In one such study in which I
participated, the controlling groups members sincere
and deepest reverence for the remains was obvious, yet
after becoming fully informed they imposed as their
only restriction the prohibition of public display and
the prompt return of the remains after study completion.
This situation is not very apt to change in the near
future. Hopefully the information in this book will
help both scientists and those controlling access to
mummified human remains to reach a level of understanding that will permit both to be comfortable with
such studies. Human behavior is best understood when
it is studied in the context in which it occurred. It
seems appropriate, therefore, that we begin our process
of understanding this new scientific discipline by
reviewing its history.

The Archaic Period

The study of mummified human remains is an outgrowth of the study of the bodies of recently deceased
humans. Not surprisingly, then, the history of human
mummy dissections is an inseparable part of the
pursuit of human anatomical knowledge. We can begin
our review, therefore, with Preceramic hunter
gatherer groups. Certainly, early hunting groups dissected their prey both as part of the butchering process
3

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.1. Clay model of sheep liver.

Cuneiform inscriptions on this clay model of a sheep liver suggest its employment for divination purposes.
(Courtesy of author Albrecht Goetze, 1947: Plate CXXXIV, and Yale University Press (copyright).)

and also for magicoreligious purposes such as sacrifice

or divination. One might anticipate that, by opening
animal or human bodies, these early populations would
have gained anatomical knowledge from such rituals.
Archaeological findings at Mesopotamian sites have
uncovered clay models of animal livers that presumably were employed as instructional devices to teach
neophyte clerics the interpretation of changes useful
for the translation of divine messages (Goetze, 1947;
Mujais, 1999) (Fig. 1.1). A comparable bronze model
of a sheeps liver with inscribed subdivisions found in
Italy apparently served a similar divination purpose for
Etruscans (Lyons & Petricelli, 1987:67, 232). Both ethnographical and archaeological data indicate that
examination of intestines extracted from human sacrifice probably was based on a similar divination princi4

ple (haruspicy) among Pre-Hispanic Peruvian populations (Allison et al., 1974c). Guides to the Hebrew
practice of examination of animals and meat in the
Babylonian Talmud of the second century AD include
reference to several specific visceral structures
(Garrison, 1929). However, as Ackerknecht (1943)
points out, there is no evidence that any such dissections led to an understanding of detailed human
anatomy, the functional interaction of various body
tissues or any other useful anatomical information
beyond that needed to satisfy the requirements for the
ritual purposes of such dissections. Benedict (1934)
has established a theoretical basis for support of a
concept that only in the context of a culture pattern
oriented towards a kind of science do dissections
furnish anatomical knowledge . . ..

The Renaissance

Classical Greek and Roman periods

Flickers of the beginning of such a scientific movement
about 500 BC can be read into the animal dissections
carried out by the southern Italian physician Alcmaeon
of Crotona. In his book Concerning Nature detailing
his dissections, Alcmaeon made it clear that his goal
was a better understanding of human anatomy that
would be helpful in his medical practice. Lyons &
Petrucelli (1987:192, 399) consider him to be the first
medical scientist, and note also that a subsequent
Hippocratic publication about shoulder anatomy most
likely was the product of a human dissection. The
intellectualism of classical Greece, however, did not
include human dissection. Thus it is not surprising
that the commitment to a search for truth that formed
the basis for the existence of the Alexandrian museum
and library would lead men such as Herophilus of
Chalcedon and Eristratus of Chios to base their learning of human anatomy on human dissections there
during the third century BC. Tragically, the prohibition of human dissection by Rome in 150 BC arrested
this progress and few of their findings survived. By the
second century AD, Galen, the Greek physician who
practiced principally in Rome, popularized the
humoral theory of health and disease with the aid of
only two human skeletons and animal dissections but
without laboratory-based opportunities for human soft
(nonskeletal) tissue dissection to guide him (Long,
1965:911; Lyons & Petrucelli, 1987:399; Porter,
1996:60).

The Dark Ages

Romes fall initiated the Dark Ages, during which
Galenic concepts were perpetuated but not tested (Fig.
1.2). While during this period the Church did not
forbid human dissections in general, certain edicts
were directed at specific practices. These included the
Ecclesia Abhorret a Sanguine in 1163 by the Council of
Tours and Pope Boniface VlIIs command to terminate
the practice of dismemberment of slain crusaders
bodies and boiling the parts to enable defleshing for

Fig. 1.2. The medieval teaching of Galenic concepts.

This fourteenth century painting pictures Galen as a
feudal lord surrounded by his courtiers, reflecting the
dominance of his anatomical and medical ideas
during the Dark Ages. (Courtesy of Masters and
Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge (Trinity MS
0.2.48, f.65a). Porter, 1996: 64.)

return of their bones. Such proclamations were commonly misinterpreted as a ban on all dissection of
either living persons or cadavers (Rogers & Waldron,
1986), and progress in anatomical knowledge by
human dissection did not thrive in that intellectual
climate.

The Renaissance
The sweeping changes of the Renaissance involved not
only the arts but also the sciences, including the construction of European universities. The revival of
5

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.3. Reproduction of an illustration from the

sixteenth century anatomy text published by
Andreas Vesalius.
Vesalius 1543 text dethroned Galen by establishing
that the ultimate authority of anatomical knowledge
was the anatomical features of the human body itself
as revealed by dissection. (From illustration Primae
Muscolorum Tabulae, p. 170 of his 1543 book titled
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem. Published
by Johannes Oporinus, Basel. Courtesy of New York
Academy of Medicine Library.)

human dissection became part of this movement.

Soon, however, dissections were performed for reasons
much more proximate to those characterizing modern
mummy dissections. The aim of this practice gradually
6

shifted from expanding knowledge of normal anatomy

to the understanding of disease through study of pathological anatomy. One of the earliest postmortem dissections carried out for the specific purpose of
identifying the cause and mechanism of death was the
autopsy of a plague victim by Fra Salimbene di Adam
at an Italian monastery in Cremona in 1286 (Rogers &
Waldron, 1986). It was, however, the newly established
universities at Bologna and Padua that pioneered the
routine performance of autopsies. In 1302 Bartolome
da Varignana carried out medicolegal autopsies at
Bologna, while Gentile da Foligno held regular public
human dissections at Padua University by 1341. This
practice proved so popular that it was imitated and
institutionalized by most major universities during the
subsequent century (Garrison, 1929). It was the Padua
graduate Andreas Vesalius (15141564) (Fig. 1.3) who
maximized this trend, organized his dissections in a
focused manner and challenged the many anatomical
errors of Galenic anatomy when he published his
richly illustrated book, De Humani Corporis Fabrica in
1543 (Lyons & Petrucelli, 1987:416). Thereafter it
became clear that the final arbiter of an anatomical controversy would not be the opinion of a well-known
physician but the body itself as revealed by dissection.
Many hours of observing human dissections carried
out by anatomists enabled Michelangelo to paint the
muscled physiognomy of the Sistine Chapels figures,
while Leonardo da Vincis numerous personally conducted dissections of human bodies helped him to
execute his dramatic anatomical illustrations (Yesko,
1940) (Fig. 1.4). All of these dissections, coupled to
close observations in living humans and animals led to
the revolutionary definition of the circulation of blood
in William Harveys 1628 Exercitatio anatomica de
Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (Porter,
1996:159).

Scientific rustlings in the eighteenth century

With human anatomy now firmly rooted in human
dissections, interest became increasingly focused on
pathological anatomy: the morphological changes

The autopsy in the nineteenth century

Fig. 1.4. Da Vinci anatomical sketch.

This pencil drawing by Leonardo da Vinci was clearly
a sketch of a human anatomical dissection. (Photo
courtesy of The Royal Collection 2001, Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II.)

Joseph II, son of Maria Teresa, in 1784 rebuilt the

Allgemeine Krankenhaus [General Hospital] into a
1600 bed hospital to serve the health of the poor
(Porter, 1996:212) (Fig. 1.6). The eventual decision to
autopsy all deaths at that hospital had an enormous
impact on human dissection everywhere in the
Western world, together with stimulating an immense
increase in knowledge about both normal and pathological human anatomy (Long, 1965:102105).
Surely there were occasional examinations carried
out on mummified human bodies during the eighteenth century, most of which probably went unrecorded. Several that we know about include the
opening of several Egyptian mummy bundles by
Blumenbach (1794), some of which proved to be frauds
(see Chapter 10: Mummy as deceptions). Granville
(1825) lists a variety of sporadic studies dating back as
far as 1662. Few of these, however, were significantly
informative. One such study of the mummification
method performed on an Egyptian mummy was documented by John Hadley (Dr William Hunter was a participant as well) as early as 1763. In a letter to a friend,
Hadley lists his findings but notes that they probably
differ little from those of others who had done similar
examinations (Hadley, 1764).

The autopsy in the nineteenth century

caused by various diseases. Men such as Nicolaes Tulp,
a practicing Amsterdam physician, taught anatomy by
human cadaver dissection in the Dutch medical
schools and both described and illustrated many pathological entities that he encountered in such dissections in a 1641 text entitled Observationes Medicae (Fig.
1.5). Compilations of autopsy reports for teaching purposes began to appear in the latter part of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century,
culminating eventually in the 1761 publication of the
five-volume De Sedibus et Causis Morborum [Seats and
Causes of Disease] by Battista Morgagni (16821771).
As great as that contribution was, it was soon eclipsed
by events in Vienna. There the Austrian emperor

It was Karl Rokitansky who took over leadership of

the pathology department at Viennas Allgemeine
Krankenhaus in 1832 and turned it into an autopsy
machine. In addition to all the cases other members of
his staff performed, Rokitansky personally carried out
or immediately supervised about 30000 autopsies
during the subsequent 30 years, and created what is
still the worlds largest museum of pathological lesions
(Long, 1965:102106; Malkin, 1993:114). This
emphasis on the value of autopsies was still in practice
in 1947 when I had the privilege of studying pathology
there briefly under Dr Hermann Chiari. The information generated by these autopsies (much of it included
in Rokitanskys five volume Handbook of Pathological
Anatomy) catapulted Vienna into the position of being
7

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.5. A Lesson in Anatomy.

Rembrandt painted Nicolaes Tulp (15931674) of Amsterdam, demonstrating anatomical features by actual
dissection of a human cadaver in 1632. (Courtesy of Stichting Vrienden van Het Mauritshuis, den Haag [Royal
Cabinet of Paintings, Mauritshuis, The Hague, NL].)

the major medical teaching center of the Western

world. Within a few decades, however, medical leadership passed into German hands. Berlins Rudolf
Virchow, also using both the autopsy and surgical
specimens, shattered Rokitanskys adherence to remnants of Galens humoral physiology by eventually
placing pathological anatomy and the understanding of
human disease on the firm basis of cellular pathology,
where it remains today.
The serpentine path of the development of biomedical knowledge that had been initiated in the darkness
of human sacrifice was subsequently enlightened by
anatomical dissections and finally burst into efflores8

cence with the autopsy. These established methods, so

effective in generating knowledge of contemporary
disease, were now ready to be applied to ancient mummified remains in an effort to understand modern
disease even better by linking it to its prehistory.

Mummy dissections in the nineteenth

century
Oddly, it was a military commander, Napoleon
Bonaparte, who indirectly created the milieu that led to
mummy studies. In a precedent-setting action
Napoleon carried about a hundred scientists (from

Mummy dissections in the nineteenth century

Fig. 1.6: Viennas Allgemeine Krankenhaus (General Hospital).

Rebuilt by Joseph II in 1784, the pathological anatomical knowledge acquired by this hospitals autopsy program
propelled Vienna into world medical leadership. (Courtesy of Historiches Museum der Stadt Wien.)

what formerly had been called the French Academy of

Sciences and was so renamed a few years later) with his
army that invaded Egypt in 1798. These scientists were
charged with drawing and recording all aspects of
Egyptian society, technology and natural history.
During the next two decades they published their findings in nineteen volumes (Description de lgypte), filled
with fascinating hieroglyph-covered monuments,
tombs, portraits and even mummies (though no dissections were performed) (Denon, 1821:219220). These
enchanting folios, together with the cracking of the
hieroglyphic code by Young (Peacock, 1855) and
Champollion (Davies, 1987:4768) in 18191822, are
principally responsible for the wave of Egyptomania
that swept the Western world and generated intense
interest in all aspects of Egyptian culture, including
their mummies.

In such an atmosphere it was almost inevitable that

hucksters would exploit the opportunity. Extracting
the bodies of Egyptian mummies from European
pharmacies (leftovers from the earlier days of the production of medicinal mummy powder see Chapter
10: Mummy as a drug) or importing them directly
from Egypt, these promoters carried out pseudoscientific mummy unrollings for paying public admissions. These were little more than entrepreneurial
spectacles. Eventually, however, they evolved into
serious, educational studies. As early as 1833 the
Egyptologist John Davidson (cited in Sluglett, 1980)
formally reported his study and findings of Embalming
and Unrolling of a Mummy. Among others who
rescued mummy studies from the frauds was Dr
Thomas Pettigrew F.R.S., professor of anatomy at
Charing Cross Hospital in London (Fig. 1.7). His first
9

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.7. Thomas Pettigrew.

A British pioneer of mummy investigations, this
physicians 1834 book (A History of Egyptian
Mummies) was among the first to emphasize the
bioanthropological information that was resident in
ancient mummified remains. (From Dawson, 1934.
Drawing by Charles Baugniet. Courtesy of the Egypt
Exploration Society.)

unrolling of an Egyptian mummy at that hospital in

1833 was attended by many physicians as well as a few
nonmedical dignitaries. During the next 18 years he
examined 13 more. He established public courses of
six meetings length, in which the first five were lectures of two to three hours each on a wide variety of
Egyptological aspects, the final one devoted to the
unrolling of a mummy. Pettigrew did charge fees, but
at that time it was standard practice for professors to
charge students fees for each lecture as this was their
10

only remuneration; they were not paid by the institution. These courses were obviously of a high quality
and designed for educational purposes (Dawson,
1934). His 1834 book (A History of Egyptian
Mummies) includes much of the information incorporated into such lectures and, in spite of its title, does
include consideration of non-Egyptian mummies as
well, such as the Canary Islands Guanches, Palermos
Capuchin monks, etc.
Another popular nineteenth century academic
passion was craniometric analysis designed to differentiate the human races. In an attempt to identify the
native Egyptian populations founders, such studies
were also carried out early on, notably by the American
anthropologist Samuel George Morton in 1844 (he is
also author of Crania Americana published in 1839).
Influenced by the reigning concept that all the worlds
populations were Noahs descendants, he concluded
that Egyptians were Caucasian, of the branch of Ham.
Among the more medically oriented studies was the
dissection of an Egyptian mummy that had been purchased in Egypt, and investigated by the well-known
British gynecological surgeon Augustus Bozzi
Granville in 1825. His report includes a drawing (Fig.
1.8) of a large, cystic ovarian tumor he found in the
mummys abdomen (Granville, 1825). A Viennese
laryngologist, Johann Czermak, carried out what probably represents the first published microscopic examination of Egyptian mummy tissues in 1852. At about
this same time Samuel Birch (1850) reported on his
observations of a mummy from Egypts Late Period.
In Canada, Daniel Wilson (1865) compared prehistoric
American mortuary practices with those in Europe in
a treatise designed to emphasize that human progress
was not biologically defined for any given population
but depended, instead, on environment and social
learning. He described his findings when he
unwrapped (but did not dissect) several spontaneously
mummified bodies from the Atacama Desert near the
modern city of Arica that is now in Chile but was at
that time in Peru (Berger, 1990). In 1892 Germanys
R.W. Schufeldt described the scientific value of studying ancient human remains and introduced the term

The twentieth century

Fig. 1.8. Ovarian cyst in a mummy; AM, 15491069 BC.

Granville (1825) found this desiccated, large ovarian cyst in an Egyptian mummy. (Reproduced from Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London.)

paleopathology to define the field. This period also was

marked by the founding of the United States Army
Medical Museum (Fig. 1.9), stimulated by the desire
to understand better and improve results of limb
amputation for gunshot wound injuries and other military health concerns during the American Civil War.
The later collections of this institution (now the
National Museum of Health and Medicine) have made
major contributions to the study of mummified tissues
of globally distributed provenience (Sledzik & Ousley,
1991).
In an obscure pamphlet, W. Koenig (1896) published an X-ray of an Egyptian mummy bundle of a cat
about a year after Roentgen announced his discovery of
X-rays (Fig. 1.10).
These scattered, uncoordinated and largely unfocused efforts reflect the beginnings of studies on mummified human remains, at least some of which, like
Granvilles dissection, represent application of the
autopsy approach developed in the previous era as a
method of obtaining medically useful information.

The twentieth century

Egyptomania of the first quarter
This is a remarkably productive period for study of
mummified remains. The period began with a dermatohistological study on mummy skin (Wilder, 1904), followed by a pioneer effort by Grafton Elliot Smith
applying to mummies the newly discovered technique
using X-rays (see Chapter 6: Physical methods: radiographical methods), and a survey on brain mummification (Lamb, 1901). In addition, in Germany, Schmidt
(1908) tried to find hemoglobin by using chemical tests
on Egyptian mummy tissue. Lucas (1908) initiated the
chemical studies that later became his principal contribution to Egyptology by identifying and quantifying
the various salts that compose natron, the Egyptian
embalmers dehydrating agent. Shattock (1909)
reported finding calcified atherosclerosis in Pharaoh
Menephtahs aorta. In Munich, Meyer extracted
human mummified muscle tissue, injected it into
11

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.9. US Army Medical Museum.

This photo of the museum reveals its appearance when it was located for eight years beginning 1967 in what is
now Fords Theatre in downtown Washington, DC. It was later transferred to the campus of the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology and is now called the National Museum of Health and Medicine. (Courtesy of Paul Sledzik.)

rabbits and used an immunological precipitin technique in an effort to develop a test for human blood
identification (Meyer, 1904). But it was Marc Armand
Ruffer (18591917) who provided the major impetus.
Born in Lyons, France, of aristocratic parents he was
educated at Oxford, gained a medical degree at
University College London and became a clinical bacteriologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris under its
founder. While there, Ruffer came under the influence
of the French physician Daniel Fouquet, who had
become interested in the medical potential of studying
diseases in mummies. Fouquet had traveled to Egypt
and carried out an autopsy on a 1000-year-old mummy
in the Cairo Museum in 1891 (Fouquet, 1897).
Suffering from paralytic sequelae of diphtheria
(acquired during study of a vaccines effectiveness)
12

Ruffer moved to Egypt to recuperate. There he became

professor of bacteriology at the Cairo Medical School
in 1896. Extensive excavations in Nubia (salvage
archaeology in anticipation of flooding resulting from
raising the Aswan Dam in 1907) by the American
archaeologist George Andrew Reisner made prodigious numbers of mummies available for study. Ruffer
joined Grafton Elliot Smith (Australian anatomist), F.
Wood Jones, Douglas Derry and others in the investigations carried out on these bodies. Although Ruffer
(1911b) employed both gross and histological methods,
he is best remembered for his microscopic contributions. A flow of reports (some published posthumously) in scientific journals between 1910 and 1921
record his findings in these Nubian and Egyptian
mummies. Many of the diseases that he identified in

The twentieth century

Fig. 1.10. Early X-ray of Egyptian cat mummy bundle.

W. Koenig (1896) published this photo of an X-ray of
an unwrapped small Egyptian mummy bundle
revealing a mummified cat only about a year after
Roentgen had discovered the existence of X-rays.

these mummies reflect his training in infectious diseases: schistosomiasis (Ruffer, 1920), abscesses, tuberculosis, pyorrhea (Ruffer, 1921a) and splenomegaly
(malaria?), but he also recognized atherosclerosis
(Ruffer, 1911b), achondroplasia and rectal prolapse, as
well as a host of skeletal and dental pathological conditions (Ruffer, 1913). Ruffers career was terminated
tragically when the ship on which he was returning
from a Red Cross consultation in Greece was torpedoed and sank in 1917 (Garrison, 1917). His American
friend and colleague Roy Moodie collected his scattered reports and published them under Ruffers name
in book form in 1921: Studies in the Paleopathology of
Egypt.
Grafton Elliot Smith (18871937) was an Australian

neuroanatomist with an appointment at Cambridge

University who accepted a faculty position at the Cairo
Medical School 19001909. His skills were quickly
recruited to evaluate the many skeletons and mummies
that the archaeologists were excavating. Beginning
with the examination of a series of mummies ranging
from the Old Kingdom to the Coptic Period (The
Ancient Egyptians, 1911a) he responded to an invitation
to study all the recovered mummified bodies of the
pharaohs (The Royal Mummies, 1912b). During those
investigations he used Roentgens newly discovered Xrays to estimate the individuals age at death by the
degree of epiphyseal fusion in the mummy of
Tuthmosis IV. The Egyptologist W.M.F. Petrie was
among the first to use X-rays to study a human
mummy in 1897 (but published in 1898), within two
years after Roentgens scientific presentation of his discovery in December, 1895. Perhaps his largest project
involved the examination of Reisners Nubian
mummies (Reisner, 1910), a study carried out with F.
Wood Jones (Smith, 1910).
Smith probably dissected more Egyptian mummies
than any other worker had done before (and perhaps
even since) his time. It is unfortunate, therefore, that we
do not have the detailed record of each dissection.
Together with mummies excavated by other archaeologists, Dawson (1938) estimates that Grafton Elliot
Smith was responsible for the examination of 30000
mummies (obviously a number prohibitive of detailed
dissection and recording of findings (Dawson, 1938).
This number is rivalled only by the efforts of
Rokitansky, who achieved it with hospital autopsies at
Viennas Allgemeine Krankenhaus over a longer period
(30 years), with the help of his staff and with few conflicting other duties (Malkin, 1993:114). Instead, we are
left primarily with Smiths summary statements as
recorded in the books noted above, as well as a variety
of individual articles. Sadly, these do not permit reexamination nor restudy with the synthesis of new conclusions. We need, however, to consider the enormous
volume of mummies Smith examined while he carried
out his other responsibilities and activities simultaneously (medical teaching, continuing his personal
13

History of mummy studies

neuroanatomical research, buttressing his anthropological knowledge with self-study, lecturing unceasingly at international meetings and publishing a
continual flow of articles and books). Hence we probably should be more grateful for, than critical of, what
he has left us. Unfortunately he evolved a highly
improbable concept of the global diffusion of mummification practice that originated in Egypt. He proposed that such practices spread throughout the world
via marine travel by ancient populations indulging in
mummification rituals (The Migrations of Early
Culture, 1915). Defense of this concept, that was supported by only the most fragile evidence, occupied
much of his later years and eroded some of his scientific credibility among his contemporaries.
The scholar pursuing the history of mummy studies
inevitably will encounter Warren R. Dawson (Fig.
1.11). Born in Ealing (London) in 1888, the death of
his father when Dawson was 15 years old terminated
his education. Minor posts in the insurance industry
eventually led him to create his own agency. The acquisition of a partner resulted in time available for selfeducation. Wallis Budge, Keeper of Egyptian
antiquities of the British Museum, responded to
Dawsons thirst for knowledge. In 1914 (at age 30)
Dawson studied hieroglyph interpretation. Much of
the remainder of his subsequent life became devoted to
translations of papyri. These brought him into contact
with renowned scientists. By cataloging their collections and publications he received fellowship appointments in the Medical Society of London, the Linnaean
Society, Imperial College London and the Royal
Society of Edinburgh. He became particularly interested and knowledgeable in methods of Egyptian
mummification and medical practice in Egypt. He persuaded Grafton Elliot Smith to write Egyptian
Mummies (Smith & Dawson, 1924). Though he is listed
as a co-author, Dawson himself actually wrote that
entire book except for the last two chapters. He made
several other major contributions, and when he died in
1968 this unlettered, self-taught, amateur anthropologist left a profoundly impressive quantum of scholarly
publications behind him for which the field of
14

Fig. 1.11: Warren Royal Dawson.

This British insurance agent-turned scholar translated
many papyri, coauthored articles with Grafton Elliot
Smith and recorded biographies of many early
egyptologists. (Biography by James, 1969. Photo
courtesy of Egypt Exploration Society.)

Egyptology and mummy studies has been exceedingly

grateful (James, 1969).
Another major figure in the history of mummy
studies during this period was Alfred Lucas
(18671945). Among the physical sciences, chemistry
was developing as rapidly as was bacteriology in the
biological sciences. Lucas was a British chemist in
Egypts Department of Survey and, after 1923, served
in the Department of Antiquities there. His friend and
colleague John Wilson (1964:224) describes him as
highly informed in forensic chemistry including
poisons and even ballistics and handwriting. Lucas
1926 tome (Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries)

The twentieth century

Fig. 1.12. Margaret Murray and associates.

Murray and six colleagues studied two of the Manchester Museums Egyptian mummy collection in 1910.
(Courtesy of Dr Rosalie David and the Manchester Museum, Manchester, England.)

is filled with his chemical analytical applications to

materials encountered in Egyptian mummies, with an
entire chapter devoted to substances employed by
ancient Egyptian embalmers, including resins, Dead
Sea bitumen, natron, beeswax, spices, oils, gum,
henna, ointments, onions, palm wine, salt, sawdust,
fats, minerals and a host of packing materials. The
meticulous care he employed in his analyses and his
conservative interpretations of analytical results,
coupled to his knowledge of the ancient literature
dealing with these substances, are constant features of
his discussions. They are particularly prominent in his
review of analyses relating to the possible use of Dead
Sea bitumen as a substitute for resins in mummies. He
was preparing for retirement when Carter found
Tutankhamuns tomb in 1922, whereupon he offered
his services and made valuable contributions to studies
of that tombs materials. His 1926 text was so thorough
that it was reprinted in 1962 with additions and dele-

tions by J.R. Harris. This edition remains highly useful

today.
Contemporary with the early work in Egypt by
Ruffer was the initiation of what would eventually
evolve as an eminent research program at the
Manchester Museum. This museum curates a major
collection of Egyptian mummies and Margaret
Murray at that institution began a study of two
Egyptian mummies from a single tomb. It was unique
in that the examination was interdisciplinary, involving
the curator (Murray), a physician (John Cameron),
three chemists (Paul Haas, H.B. Dixon, E. Linder) and
two textile specialists (Thomas Fox, Julius Huebner)
(Fig. 1.12). While soft tissue preservation proved to be
less than desirable when the wrappings were removed,
a remarkable amount of information was generated by
the study (Murray, 1910). The next significant step in
the evolution of that program took place in the 1970s
(see below).
15

History of mummy studies

Finally, the discovery of the now well-known

mummies of the Chinchorro people on the coast of
northern Chile by the German archaeologist Max
Uhle (1917) needs to be noted, even though the bulk of
the studies on this group was carried out many years
later (see Chapter 4: Mummies from Chile).

The irresolution of the second quarter

Oddly, the auspicious momentum generated in the
field of mummy studies in the previous period by such
pioneers as Ruffer, Smith and other colleagues was not
maintained during the second quarter of the twentieth
century. Smith died in 1937, devoting much of his final
decade to defending his theory of the spread of mummification out of Egypt. Flinders Petrie transferred the
British School of Archaeology out of Egypt to
Palestine. The failing eyesight of Harvards George
Reisner (Fig. 1.13) restricted his field activities long
before he died in 1942, and Herbert Winlock of the
New York Metropolitan Museum of Art left the field
to become its director in 1932 (Wilson, 1964).
Termination of field work in Egypt by these giants of
Egyptian archaeology was paralleled by a decrease in
the scientific study of mummies. Although Ehrenberg
(1927) published a thoughtful article justifying the
place of paleobiology among the general biological sciences, his optimism was not realized during the two
and a half decades following 1925. The exuberant
1920s were soon eclipsed by the economic depression
of the 1930s, and these were succeeded immediately by
World War II, which dominated the 1940s. The social,
economic and military instability of this period was not
conducive to expansion of the academic field of
mummy studies.
Nevertheless, a few, substantive contributions from
this period merit citation. Warren Dawson published
Making a mummy in 1927, and his valuable
Bibliography of works relating to mummification in
Egypt, appeared in 1929. The American pathologist
H.U.Williams (1927) dissected several Peruvian
mummies early in this period, identifying, among
other conditions, a calcified thrombus in a leg artery.
Boyd & Boyd initiated their serological studies for
16

Fig. 1.13. Egyptologist George Reisner.

One of the well-known excavators of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he
established collections for Harvard and the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts. (Photo courtesy of John Larson
and the University of Chicagos Oriental Institute.
Photo by Leslie Thomson, Nov. 1935. Negative no.
P30077/N. 16329.)

blood typing on mummy tissues in 1934. In Germany,

Graf (1949) extracted a bioactive substance from
Egyptian mummified muscle whose action suggested it
was probably histamine. While the indefatigable Roy
Moodie poured many dozens of publications into the
literature before 1931, most of them deal with skeletal
pathology (Moodie, 1923). A notable exception is his
1931 landmark radiographical study of the large
mummy collection at Chicagos Field Museum
(Moodie, 1931). He found a number of them were
frauds whose external, wrapped, anthropoid shapes
suggested that they contained childrens bodies, but
whose X-rays indicated that their content consisted
only of an adult human leg, animal bones or sticks.

The twentieth century

Shaw (1938) reported a detailed microscopic study of

the mummified tissues of the Egyptian mummy
Harmose. Julio Tello, a Peruvian archaeologist, excavated many spontaneously mummified bodies during
this period, but was especially interested in the
Treponema-like skeletal changes (Tello, 1943). It was
also during the late 1920s and 1930s that Ales Hrdlicka
of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC,
acquired a group of Aleut mummies from Kagamil
Island, one of Alaskas Aleutian Islands. However, his
studies of them suggested that he was more interested
in their skeletal than their soft tissues (Hrdlicka, 1941).
It can truly be said that, with a few other isolated
exceptions such as Zuki & Iskanders (1943) study of
Amentefnekhts mummy, progress of the scientific
study of mummies was moderated during this
centurys second quarter prior to its subsequent
advance after 1950.

Reawakening of the third quarter

The extraordinary impetus to development of the
technological sciences generated during World War II
created a proliferation of new technical applications in
the nonmilitary disciplines. Following the first postwar
decade, a surge of articles and books gives evidence
that mummy investigators were participating in this
technological transfer. By 1959 electron microscopical
techniques were applied to mummified tissues
(Leeson, 1959). Beginning in mid 1950s, Sandison
reported his modification of Ruffers technique for
rehydration of desiccated mummified tissues prior to
preparation of histological sections (Sandison, 1955a).
Attempting to establish relationships between
Tutankhamun and his other family members,
Connolly & Harrison (1969) employed newer methods
of blood antigen serology.
A spate of books and monographs from this period
also reflect renewed interest in the study of ancient
human remains. Most of these focus on paleopathology, primarily the study of dry bones. Nevertheless,
many include at least certain soft tissue changes.
Recognizing the value of understanding postmortem
changes in mummified human remains by those who

study such tissues, Evans (1963) treatise The

Chemistry of Death represents a pioneering effort in
soft tissue taphonomy. A published symposium
chaired by Jarcho (1966) includes his lament concerning the apathy of paleopathologists for the past several
generations. While skeletal pathology is clearly the
primary area of interest in this publication, Jarcho
(1966) himself notes the potential contributions of
trace element analysis, paleoserology, immunodiffusion methodology, X-ray diffraction and serological
techniques when applied to mummified tissues.
Brothwell et al. (1963) produced an edited text (Science
in Archaeology) that addresses the value of a broad
range of both physical and chemical methods of value
in studying ancient remains. They included some biological areas such as hair studies and paleoserology
methods in a 14 page chapter on the study of mummified human remains written by Sandison. Four years
later Brothwell & Sandison (Diseases in Antiquity,
1967) published what may still represent the single
most comprehensive review of the state of knowledge
about diseases in ancient populations. It includes
descriptions of parasitic diseases and various types of
biological calculi. Janssens 1970 text Human
Paleopathology contains only a three page chapter on
diseases of the soft tissues.
These major publications, together with a scattering
of individual articles, permit us to characterize this
interval as a period of paleopathology renaissance.
Following several generations of relative inactivity, the
general field of paleopathology seemed to require an
inventory of existing knowledge in this field before it
could resume its progress. Though limited in degree,
we also can detect a willingness to apply new laboratory
technology to the study of mummified ancient
remains. These preliminary proceedings set the stage
for the explosion in both numbers and breadth in the
range of mummy study methods that began in the
1970s.

Dynamism of the fourth quarter

The symposia, seminars and books about general
paleopathology that took place in the previous period
17

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.14. A. Rosalie David and colleagues examining an Egyptian mummy.

Interdisciplinary studies on mummies of the Manchester Museum collection were reported in two seminars in
1979 and 1984. (Courtesy of A. Rosalie David and Manchester Museum, Manchester, England.)

rekindled interest in research on ancient human

remains and set the stage for the emerging field of
mummy studies. Three events in the early 1970s
proved to be epochal for this field of study. The first
was the report of Zimmermans doctoral studies in
which he compared the microscopic appearance of
synthetically mummified modern tissue specimens
with those of Egyptian mummies (Zimmerman, 1972).
This became the model for subsequent workers who
applied contemporary laboratory techniques within
the structure of scientific methodology. The second
involved Marvin Allison, Ph.D., of the Medical
College of Virginia in Richmond, who initiated a series
of summer research visits to Ica, Peru, for the anatomical dissections of Peruvian mummies. Joined soon by
18

the Argentinian physician Enrique Gerszten, M.D.,

from the same institution, they supplemented their
anatomical investigations first with studies of coprolites (dried feces), then radiography and subsequently
a host of other, morphological and nonanatomical
laboratory methods. By the middle of the decade they
had formed a study group, The Paleopathology Club,
that still meets concurrently with the annual meetings
of the International Academy of Pathology. It also distributes a quarterly newsletter, each issue of which
includes a color transparency of a paleopathological
lesion. Almost simultaneously Aidan Cockburn, a
British epidemiologist working in Detroit, Michigan,
and his wife, Eve, organized the dissection of several
Egyptian mummies by a multidisciplinary team that

The twentieth century

eventually included more than 75 scientists (Cockburn

et al., 1975; Cockburn, 1978). This, too, led to the formation of an organization, The Paleopathology
Association, that also meets annually (coordinated with
the meeting of the American Association of Physical
Anthropologists) and issues a quarterly newsletter.
These newsletters communicated results of their
mummy studies widely and quickly, and their organizations conferences provided face-to-face meetings of
interested workers. The consequence of these activities
was a rapid increase in interest in mummy studies, the
number of studies carried out, and the new instrumental applications to those studies. These activities soon
expanded to have international and even eventually
global scope.
Several spectacular mummies were studied during
this period. They include the spontaneously frozendried, sacrificed Inca bodies on Andean mountain tops
(Reinhard, 1998), the more than 5000-year-old alpine
hunter preserved in Tyrolean glacier ice (Spindler,
1994), the cache of hundreds of Chinchorro mummies
in Arica, Chile (Allison, 1984b; Arriaza, 1995a), and
Acha Man (Aufderheide et al., 1993) who at 9000 years
old may be not only the earliest Chinchorro mummy
but perhaps one of the oldest mummies discovered
anywhere.
During the decade of the 1970s the program of scientific study of the Manchester Museums mummy
collection in England, originated by Margaret Murray
in 1910 (see above), was reactivated under the direction
of A. Rosalie David (Fig. 1.14). Its initial results were
reported by Dr David at an international seminar in
1979, and further studies at a second one in 1984. In
addition, an extensive interdisciplinary study (the
Cronos Project) of Tenerifes Canary Islands aboriginal population, the Guanche mummies (Fig. 1.15), was
carried out in the late 1980s (Rodrguez-Martn, 1996).
The results of this project were reported at the First
World Congress on Mummy Studies held at Puerto de
la Cruz in Tenerife during February, 1992 (Fig. 1.16).
Among its goals was the opportunity for the widely
scattered mummy investigators to meet each other and
develop collaborative research projects. The manu-

Fig. 1.15. Head of a Guanche mummy, ca. twelfth

century.
Chiefs of the indigenous population of Tenerife,
Canary Islands, were mummified anthropogenically
and placed in caves. (Photo by ACA.)

scripts presented there were published three years later

by the Archaeological and Ethnographical Museum of
Tenerife (1995). The more than 300 attendees from 17
countries were so responsive that the Congress was
institutionalized, now meeting regularly every 3 years.
These organizations activities have continued to
recruit an ever-expanding range of investigators from
other disciplines. Zimmermans many studies (1977,
1979, 1980, 1985) have demonstrated the potential
contributions that both gross and microscopic anatomical studies can make. The elegant measurements of
lead and lead isotope ratios in the tissues of frozen
mummified bodies of the arctic Franklin expedition by
19

History of mummy studies

Fig. 1.16. Officials of the First World Congress on Mummy Studies, 1992.
From left to right: Rafael Gonzlez, Director of Archaeological Museum of Tenerife; Arthur C. Aufderheide,
President of Scientific Committee; Victoriano Rios, President of the Canarian Parliament; Adan Martn, President
of Tenerife Cabildo (government); Manuel Hermoso, Vice-President of the Canarian government; and Miguel
Zerolo, President of Museums and Centers of Tenerifes Cabildo. (Photo courtesy of Miguel Zerolo.)

archaeologist O.B. Beattie and colleagues (Kowal et al.,

1991) clearly demonstrate how mummy studies sometimes can resolve otherwise unfathomable archaeological problems. Although Flinders Petrie and Grafton
Elliot Smith had X-rayed Egyptian mummies shortly
after Roentgens great discovery of this form of radiation, it was not until the popularization of computed
tomography (CT scan) in the 1970s with its threedimensional and other software applications that it
became commonly employed in the study of mummified human remains. The ability to gain information
without unwrapping a mummy or even removing it
from its container was profoundly appealing to
museum curators. Some even became so enamored of
this procedure that they declared physical dissection
20

was no longer necessary, until it became obvious that

the application of this medical instrument to mummies
was generating far more information of anthropological interest than biomedical data. While postmortem
epithelial cell changes have limited some of electron
microscopys (EM) traditional types of information,
when coupled with an electron probe capable of
energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), it is able to
identify the elemental nature of crystals. In a study of
a diffusely fibrotic destructive lung disease in a
mummy, EDXA proved the condition to be due to silicate pneumoconiosis, predictive of dusty occupational
(farming) exposure (el-Najjar et al., 1985). Similarly by
demonstrating the characteristically deformed red
blood cells in mummified tissue, EM enabled diagno-

The twentieth century

sis of sickle cell disease in a prehistoric body (Maat &

Baig, 1990).
When Reinhard (1990) found the ova of fish tapeworm in coprolites from the intestines of South
Americas Chinchorro mummies, he not only confirmed the archaeological suggestion of their maritime
subsistence, but also that the Chinchorro people had
ingested uncooked fish. Coprolite analysis can also
suggest ingested dietary items but skeletal trace
element analysis and stable isotope ratio studies in soft
tissues can refine prediction of the diets principal food
classes (Aufderheide & Allison, 1995a,b; Tieszen et al.,
1995a, b; Aufderheide, 1996). While the ultimate position of immunological studies has not yet been defined,
optimism has been created by certain specific achievements such as the immunohistological demonstration
of smallpox virus and the trypanosome parasite of
Chagas disease in human mummified tissue
(Fornaciari & Marchetti, 1986; Fornaciari et al., 1992a).
The identification of cocaine in the hair of South
American mummies using techniques of radioimmunoassay and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry
permitted Cartmell et al. (1991) to supplement archaeological findings by defining the antiquity, geography
and demography of prehistoric coca-leaf chewing practices in western South America. Chromatographic
techniques also made it possible for Nissenbaum (1992)
to demonstrate that bitumen from the Dead Sea instead
of the usual resins was employed by some late Egyptian
embalmers. Another unique method used in mummy
studies involved application of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to black, radio-opaque material
from a mummys intervertebral disc space. This procedure identified it as resinous embalming material rather
than the previously suspected biological deposition of
homogentisic acid that would be present in an individual suffering from alkaptonuria (Wallgren et al., 1986).
The methods of molecular biology proved the presence
of recoverable DNA in human mummies (Pbo, 1985),
and enabled detection of an infectious agent (tubercle
bacillus) in a Pre-Columbian mummy by identifying

the presence of that bacteriums unique DNA structure

(Salo et al., 1994). Other infectious agents identified by
this technique in mummies include leprosy bacillus
(Rafi et al., 1994); Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of
Chagas disease (Guhl et al., 1999); a leukemialymphoma-associated virus HTLV-1 (Li et al.,
1999); Clostridium spp. in mummy coprolites (Ubaldi et
al., 1998); Bacillus species from amber-embedded
insects (Cano & Borucki, 1995) and others.
Mitochondrial DNA patterns in mummified human
remains have also helped to define trans-Beringeal
human migrations into the New World (Monsalve et
al., 1994).
Presently all the limitations for applications of most
of these methods to mummified tissues have not yet
been defined. Nevertheless, successes to date promise
the generation of a new biomedical and biophysical
database unimaginable even a generation ago. The
relevance and value of such a new body of data will,
however, need to be made unmistakably evident. The
expense of many of these procedures will place an
unprecedented strain on the budget that traditional
research funding agencies have made available in the
past for investigations of human mummified remains.
This review clearly discloses that the tap root of the
scientific discipline of mummy studies is inseparable
from the study of both normal and pathological human
anatomy. It is equally evident that the pursuit of understanding the human bodys structure and function
caused the initial, purely morphological methodology
to be supplemented by physical, biological, physiological and behavioral techniques. The secondary rootlets of mummy studies became entwined among these
methodologies as well. Nourishment from all these
sources is not only responsible for the current efflorescence of the scientific study of mummies but has also
shaped its present interdisciplinary nature. The future
of this discipline lies in the hands of training program
directors who recognize how it came to be what it is
today, and that its future indeed its survival will
depend on the nurturing of its interdisciplinary soul.

21