Mummies have an uncanny way of pulling us into the past, and the world of mystifying mummies offers some of the most bizarre, beautiful, and baffling examples ever uncovered. From monks frozen in lotus pose to bodies that seem to scream from the afterlife, each case tells a story that challenges what we think we know about death, preservation, and culture.

Why Mystifying Mummies Captivate Us

Beyond the obvious “cool factor,” these preserved bodies act as time capsules, holding clues about ancient diets, rituals, and even the politics of their eras. They also serve as stark reminders that, one day, we might join their ranks—making every discovery a little personal.

10 Everlasting Lama

In 2015, the mummified corpse of Buddhist lama Dashi‑Dorzho Itigilov was unearthed deep within a Mongolian monastery. The 90‑year‑old remains were discovered seated in perfect lotus position, wrapped snugly in calfskin. Born in 1842, Lama Dashi‑Dorzho was a devoted practitioner of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.

Back in 1927, at age 75, he gathered his disciples, announced his imminent death, and instructed them to revisit his body thirty years later. He entered the lotus pose, whispered a prayer for the dead, and passed away. When exhumed three decades on, his body remained in the same pose, virtually intact. To protect the sacred remains from Stalinist forces, he was reburied in a secret grave. Decades later, Amgalan Dabayev, then 88, helped researchers locate the unmarked site. Today, the monk’s preserved form is on display at the Ivolginsk monastery, drawing curious visitors from around the globe.

9 Lemon Grove Mummies

In 1980, a housewife in Lemon Grove, California, was rummaging through her garage when she stumbled upon a chilling pair: a mummified young girl and an infant. The discovery immediately sparked a police murder investigation, but the forensic work soon revealed that both children had died centuries ago.

The backstory is stranger than fiction. The house had previously been occupied by two teenagers obsessed with mummies. They learned that tribes in northern Mexico often left their dead in arid caves, where the environment naturally mummified the corpses. After a month of spelunking in Chihuahua, the teens found the two remains. Fearing legal trouble, they smuggled the mummies back to California, boxed them, and kept the secret for years. Both teens were later drafted into Vietnam, and a trusted friend guarded the box for over a decade before the remains finally surfaced.

8 Gospel Mummy

Scientists think they’ve uncovered the oldest known gospel fragment tucked inside a mummy’s mask. The tiny papyrus scrap appears to contain a passage from the Gospel of Mark, potentially dating to before AD 90—decades older than any previously known gospel text. Carbon dating, handwriting analysis, and comparative studies all point to this astonishing early date.

The find relied on a delicate technique that dissolves glue from papyrus while preserving any inked text. Though the method is controversial—because it can damage delicate mummy masks—it opened a window into how ordinary people repurposed expensive papyrus. While pharaohs received lavish gold masks, common folk used papyrus, linen, glue, and paint. Researchers have already recovered Greek letters, business records, and personal letters from similar masks, making this gospel fragment a thrilling addition to the archaeological record.

7 The Salt Men

Deep within Iran’s Chehrabad Salt Mine, six naturally preserved bodies—dubbed the “salt men”—have been discovered, spanning from 539 BC to AD 640. The mine’s briny environment has kept beards, hair, clothing, and even stomach contents astonishingly intact.

The latest find, unearthed in 2007, appears to be a Roman‑era miner who likely perished in a rockfall or earthquake. While the first five salt men were handed over to researchers for study, the newest corpse will remain underground due to concerns over Iran’s preservation capabilities. Intriguingly, a Stanford folklorist suggests the salt men’s protruding jaws and snub noses echo ancient satyr depictions, linking them to mythic tales like St. Jerome’s satyr head displayed in Antioch.

6 Siberian Child Mummy

Archaeologists excavating the Zeleny Yar necropolis in northern Siberia in 2015 uncovered a remarkable child mummy dating to the 13th century. The boy, estimated to be six or seven years old, was wrapped in birch bark and copper, a combination that, together with the permafrost, preserved his remains remarkably well.

Buried alongside a bronze axe, the youngster likely held a higher social status than his contemporaries. Tissue samples of his internal organs remain intact, offering the tantalizing possibility of extracting viable DNA. Researchers have already begun comparing his genetic material with modern Siberian populations to locate living relatives. South Korean scientists are also working on a facial reconstruction, confident that the pristine preservation will yield a striking likeness.

5 Secret Of The Statue

A Dutch collector bought a centuries‑old Buddha statue from China, only to discover a 1,000‑year‑old mummified monk hidden inside its hollow core. The fragile corpse could not be removed without damage. CT scans suggest the monk had been displayed openly for two centuries before being sealed within the statue in the 14th century.

Inside the statue’s cavity, thousands of paper scraps bearing Chinese characters filled the void. The monk, identified as Liuquan, was seated on a cloth inscribed with his name. Remarkably, his organs were missing—consistent with the practice of self‑mummification, which required a strict diet and a toxic tea to render the body poisonous to decay agents. This arduous ritual, known in Thailand, China, and Japan, was reserved for a select few revered monks.

4 Tuli Mummy

In 2008, a game‑lodge patrol in Botswana chanced upon the country’s first ever mummy: the over‑200‑year‑old Tuli Mummy. Wrapped in calfskin, the remains initially fooled the officer into thinking they were the remains of a poacher, but the dry environment had naturally mummified the body.CT scans revealed the man was over 50 at death and suffered from a degenerative spinal condition. No internal organs were visible—either they dried out completely or were removed post‑mortem, though the latter is unlikely given the region’s lack of mummification traditions. DNA analysis linked the Tuli individual to modern Khoesan and Sotho‑Tswana peoples, bridging a remarkable genetic gap across centuries.

3 Dirty Thoughts

Researchers recently examined a 3,200‑year‑old Egyptian mummy whose skull was completely filled with dirt. CT imaging showed sediment occupying the cranial cavity while the brain remained intact—a rare combination that points to a New Kingdom origin (16th–11th centuries BC), when brain removal was not yet standard practice.

The mummy, named Hatason, arrived in San Francisco in the late 1800s and now resides at the Legion of Honor Museum. Her modest coffin, lacking amulets, suggests a commoner status. While her pelvis was crushed—obscuring gender identification—researchers suspect she was female based on skull morphology. The dirt‑filled skull hints at an experimental embalmer experimenting with burial techniques.

2 Guanajuato Mummies

Between 1865 and 1958, the Mexican city of Guanajuato enforced a strict grave‑tax. Families who couldn’t pay saw their loved ones “evicted” from burial plots. The arid local conditions naturally mummified many exhumed bodies, which were then stored in an ossuary that morphed into a museum in 1894.

The collection boasts a macabre variety, including a pregnant mummy and the world’s smallest preserved human. Among them, Ignacia Aguilar stands out. Misdiagnosed with a heart condition during a cholera outbreak, she was buried alive. When exhumed years later, her corpse was found face‑down, scratch‑marked, and with a mouth full of blood from gnawing on her own arm—an unsettling tableau that still haunts visitors.

1 The Screaming Mummy

In 1881, archaeologists uncovered a mysterious tomb cavern south of Cairo. When the body was finally unwrapped five years later, its face was frozen in a silent scream—a striking sight that earned it the moniker “the screaming mummy.” Initially cataloged as “Unknown Man E,” the mummy’s identity remains debated.

One theory suggests he was an Egyptian official serving in far‑flung provinces, embalmed by inexperienced workers who used quicklime and covered him with goat and sheep skins—animals considered unclean, which would have barred him from the afterlife. Another hypothesis points to a foreign prince or disgraced royal, possibly Prince Pentewere, accused of plotting against his father, Ramesses III. The macabre combination of quicklime, animal pelts, and the terrified expression continues to intrigue scholars and visitors alike.

The world of modern mummification is as bizarre as it is unsettling, and the phrase “10 mysterious modern” perfectly captures the strange circumstances that turn ordinary deaths into eerie, desiccated relics. From forgotten yachts to abandoned closets, these ten cases reveal how isolation, neglect, and sometimes sheer weirdness can create modern mummies that most of us never even imagined.

10 mysterious modern Discoveries

10 Adrift Adventurer

In the waning days of February 2016, a Filipino fisherman happened upon a ghostly tableau: the mummified remains of a German explorer slumped over the radio console of a drifting yacht far off the Philippine coast. Documents salvaged from the vessel identified the deceased as Manfred Fritz Bajorat, a 59‑year‑old who had spent two decades sailing the globe aboard his ship, the Sayo. Investigators noted that Bajorat appeared to be asleep, yet the cause of his death remains an unresolved mystery, though authorities see no evidence of foul play.

The yacht itself was discovered about 100 kilometres (roughly 60 miles) from the town of Barobo, bobbing in the Philippine Sea. The briny air and relentless, dry ocean breezes acted like nature’s own desiccator, turning Bajorat’s body into a mummified relic. Friends of the adventurer confirmed that he had been cruising the world on the Sayo for the past twenty years, making the find all the more astonishing.

Initial reports indicated that Bajorat had not been heard from since 2009. While his wallet was nowhere to be found, his radio, GPS unit, and other personal effects remained intact on board. There was no sign of a second individual aboard the vessel at the time of his demise, reinforcing the notion that he met his end alone, adrift on the open sea.

9 Trash, Rats, And 300 Bottles Of Urine

In 2015, a team of firefighters in San Francisco was forced to don respirators and climb through a window to reach the interior of a house that had become an ecological nightmare. The residence was choked with rats, littered floor‑to‑ceiling with trash, and, bizarrely, stocked with over three hundred bottles of urine. After painstakingly clearing layers of filth, they uncovered the mummified remains of 90‑year‑old Anna Ragin.

Investigators estimate that Ragin had been dead for roughly five years before the discovery, though the exact cause of death remains unknown and no criminal activity is suspected. The unsettling situation was compounded by the fact that her 65‑year‑old daughter, Carolyn, had been living in the same home alongside the corpse for years, displaying delusional behavior and ignoring any attempts at social interaction.

The hidden tragedy only came to light when Carolyn, in a casual conversation with a tax consultant, mentioned her mother’s corpse. She has a history of extreme hoarding and has been hospitalized at least once for her condition, shedding light on how the body could remain unnoticed for so long.

8 Mummified Baby Misconduct

January 2015 brought a chilling rediscovery at the McHenry County morgue: the mummified remains of a baby, carefully wrapped in a plastic bag and labeled “Baby Boy Doe 03-12-92,” were found inside a cooler. The infant’s story began back in 1992, when the baby was first discovered in the bathroom of Wag’s Restaurant in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

The original 1992 autopsy, performed by Coroner Marlene Lantz, concluded the infant had been stillborn. However, a second autopsy in February 2015 revealed a different truth: the baby had been born alive and later asphyxiated. Lantz faced two decades of legal trouble, including charges of official misconduct and forgery for allegedly mishandling the remains and providing false information about the baby’s burial.

Although authorities were able to identify the mother’s name back in 1992, she has never been charged. In December 2016, a court dismissed all charges against Lantz, effectively clearing her of any wrongdoing in the case.

7 Jeep Mummy

In March 2014, a pair of repairmen working on a Michigan vehicle made a macabre discovery: the mummified remains of Pia Farrenkopf, a 54‑year‑old woman, slumped in the front seat of her own Jeep. Investigators believe she met her end in 2009, and her body remained unnoticed for years until her house entered foreclosure.

The grim scene included an array of unopened mail piled around the driver’s seat and a solitary wine bottle. The desiccated state of the remains made a definitive autopsy impossible, and while the cause of death remains a mystery, the fact that the car’s key was half‑turned in the ignition and the vehicle still held fuel suggests suicide by carbon monoxide was unlikely.

Farrenkopf had previously resigned from a software firm in 2008, leaving behind $87,000 in savings. She set up automatic bill payments and deliberately cut off most social contacts. It wasn’t until her finances ran dry and her home faced foreclosure that anyone realized she had been dead for years.

6 Not So Abandoned House

June 2014 turned a typical summer day in Dayton, Ohio, into a nightmare for a 12‑year‑old boy who, while playing in a seemingly abandoned house, opened a closet and uncovered the mummified body of Edward Brunton, a 53‑year‑old man, hanging from a belt. The discovery sent shockwaves through the neighborhood.

Investigators learned that Brunton, estranged from his family, had taken his own life months after buying the house in 2009. Initial identification came from paperwork found within the home, and his brother later confirmed the identity. The boy, initially believing the figure to be a mannequin, alerted his mother, who immediately sensed a foul odor upon entering the residence.

Coroner officials described the remains as “leathery and skeletal,” noting that the closet’s relatively climate‑controlled environment—low humidity and protection from direct sunlight—had facilitated the natural mummification process.

5 Holy Water, Prayers, And Spells

August 2016 saw Russian authorities confronting a bizarre case in Volgograd: a retired physician, aged 76, had been using holy water, fervent prayers, and various spells for over four months in a desperate attempt to resurrect her 87‑year‑old husband’s mummified corpse. The breakthrough came when neighbors reported a flooding faucet, prompting responders to investigate the apartment.

The apartment, though impeccably tidy, reeked of death. The desiccated body of the elderly man was discovered seated on a living‑room sofa, surrounded by an overwhelming stench. Authorities have not released the doctor’s name, but have confirmed her identity as a retired medical professional who managed to convince friends, family, and neighbors that her husband was still alive.

Strangely, the doctor had no documented history of mental illness. Friends noted an unusual obsession: she was “addicted” to a television program called The Battle of Extrasensory, which focused on communicating with the dead.

4 Detached Garage Surprise

December 2016 turned a routine home‑buying tour in Detroit into a chilling experience when prospective buyers opened a detached garage and found a mummified corpse lying face‑down in the back seat of a 1990s Plymouth Acclaim. The dark, leathery body was dressed in a sweater, pants, and shoes, though authorities could not determine the individual’s sex or age.

The landlord had barred entry to the garage, leaving the current tenants unaware of the hidden tragedy. Experts estimate the body had been inside the vehicle for well over a year. Due to the advanced state of desiccation, officials called in a University of Michigan anthropologist rather than pursuing a conventional autopsy, hoping to glean any remaining clues about the victim’s identity and cause of death.

Neighbors reported never seeing the garage opened and noted no unusual odors, underscoring how the body remained concealed for months without detection.

3 Siberian Stiff

On July 1, 2016, Russian authorities uncovered a startling sight in Tomsk: the mummified remains of a man perched 15 metres (about 50 feet) up in a Siberian pine, his hands wrapped tightly around the trunk. Initial assessments suggest the man had been dead for roughly eight months.

The victim was found seated, clad in a navy vest, sweatshirt, trousers, and felt boots. He was located between Chekistsky Road and Mostovaya Street, an area that leads to Seversk—a “closed city” omitted from Soviet maps and known for its uranium and plutonium production facilities.

Investigators are still working to confirm the deceased’s identity. The location’s history is grim: a 2015 incident saw a container of depleted uranium explode at the Siberian Chemical Industrial Complex, and back in 1993, the Tomsk‑7 Reprocessing Complex suffered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters, releasing a massive cloud of radioactive gas.

2 St. Louis Hoarder

When Gladys Bergmeier passed away on February 7, 2011, relatives anticipated a home cluttered with newspapers, plastic bags, and general hoarding. What they never imagined was the discovery of her mother, Gladys Stansbury’s, mummified remains, wrapped in a multicolored shower curtain and dressed only in a pajama top and a single sock.

Three weeks after Bergmeier’s death, family members uncovered the body, noting no signs of trauma and no suspicion of foul play. Stansbury had moved into Bergmeier’s residence in 1993, and neighbors recalled never seeing her after that point. When questioned, Bergmeier offered vague excuses about her mother’s whereabouts, eventually leading neighbors to stop inquiring.

Authorities remain uncertain about how long Stansbury lay dead in the home. An orange‑juice bottle with a 2003 expiration date was found among the plastic wrappings, though given the home’s chaotic state, the bottle could have been placed there later, adding to the mystery.

1 Miracle Child

For nearly half a century, pilgrims have trekked to Banda Florida, Argentina, to seek miracles from a tiny, mummified infant known as Miguel Angel Gaitan. The boy, just one year old when he died of meningitis in 1967, was buried, but seven years later his grave and coffin were discovered open.

Initially, locals blamed the repeated stone deposits around the burial site on severe storms, but when the deposits persisted even after the weather cleared, the family decided to protect the coffin with a glass cover. From that moment, Miguel’s remains appeared naturally mummified, preserving his tiny, wrinkled form.

Thousands now flock to La Rioja’s northwestern province, leaving flowers and toys on the grave of “El Angelito Milagroso”—the Miracle Child. Some believers claim that simply holding their hands over the infant’s forehead can bring healing. One visitor, Daniel Saavedra, swears the pilgrimage cured his pancreatic cancer within weeks.

When it comes to ancient dead bodies, mummies are far more than spooky museum props or the source of jump‑scares in horror flicks. In fact, these preserved time capsules often hand us clues that solve age‑old riddles—or, just as often, launch brand‑new mysteries. The top 10 remarkable finds we’re about to explore illustrate how silent bodies and wrapped animals can reveal everything from forgotten rituals to bizarre scandals, and even the earliest hints of modern technology.

Why These Top 10 Remarkable Finds Matter

Each of the moments below showcases a different way that scientists, historians, or even opportunistic ancient vendors turned a simple bundle of linen and bone into a story worth millions of dollars of research, a fresh perspective on ancient daily life, or a glimpse into the minds of people who lived millennia before us.

10 The Tebtunis Portraits

Egyptian blue, the world’s first synthetic pigment, was prized by ancient artists across the Mediterranean. When a team examined eleven mummy portraits from the site of Tebtunis, they were stunned to discover that this coveted hue was hidden beneath the surface rather than flaunted on the canvas.

These portraits—painted over the faces of the deceased—were unearthed at Tebtunis between 1899 and 1900, reflecting a popular second‑century custom of using only the four colors favored by the Greeks: white, black, yellow, and red. Careful analysis, however, revealed a secret: the artists had woven Egyptian blue into the underdrawings, giving the four‑color scheme a subtle depth that had never been documented before.

Typically, Egyptian blue occupied a place of honor in grand paintings and sculptures, but here it served as a hidden base layer, enriching the visual texture without ever being visible. Even today, researchers admit that the full range of ways this pigment was employed remains a mystery.

9 Sacred Scandal

What might seem like a minor academic footnote actually reads like a plot twist worthy of a blockbuster. When scientists at the Manchester Museum scanned eight hundred animal mummies, they discovered that roughly a third were completely empty of skeletal remains.

In ancient Egypt, worshippers bought wrapped animals—cats, birds, and the like—as offerings to the gods they revered. Buyers expected a genuine corpse inside the linen bundle, but the market demand outstripped the supply of actual animals. To keep the trade flowing, craftsmen began stuffing the wrappings with materials related to the intended animal, such as nest debris for birds or eggshell fragments.

Rather than a calculated forgery, researchers believe this shortcut was a pragmatic solution to a booming religious economy, allowing devotees to experience the ritual without the logistics of sourcing countless fresh creatures.

8 The Sand Skull

A 3,200‑year‑old Egyptian mummy named Hatason sparked intense curiosity after a modern scan revealed an unexpected interior. Dying sometime between 1700 and 1000 BC—a period when brains were typically left intact—Hatason’s skull cavity was found to be packed with dark sand.

Scholars suspect the individual was a citizen who became the subject of an experimental embalming technique. With few mummies surviving from that era, it’s difficult to determine whether Hatason was truly female; her pelvis is crushed, though the skull’s morphology suggests a woman. The coffin, now housed in San Francisco, depicts a standard‑issue citizen’s attire, but there’s no definitive proof that it belonged to her.

7 Sobek Surprise

At the Dutch National Museum sits a massive three‑meter‑long “crocodile” mummy. A 2016 3‑D CT scan revealed that the apparent single reptile actually contains two adult crocodiles fused together, a phenomenon that dates back roughly 3,000 years.

Further inspection uncovered dozens of tiny, individually wrapped baby crocodiles tucked between the layers of linen. While similar composite mummies exist, this specimen is exceptionally well‑preserved. Its likely purpose was as an offering to Sobek, the crocodile god, and the assortment of ages may symbolize a ritual of renewal or rejuvenation after death.

6 Practical Prosthetics

Distinguishing between decorative burial accessories and functional medical devices can be tricky in the ancient world, and Egypt provides a fascinating case study.

Researchers at the University of Manchester recreated two ancient foot‑prosthetics—one made of cartonnage (pre‑600 BC) and another of wood and leather (950‑710 BC)—and fitted them onto volunteers missing a right big toe. The artifacts, originally found on a Luxor mummy, showed clear signs of long‑term wear, suggesting they were genuine prostheses rather than mere funerary props.

When the volunteers walked barefoot, then with the reconstructed toes (both with and without period‑accurate sandals), the devices proved highly effective, alleviating the painful pressure that traditional sandals would have caused. This experiment demonstrates that ancient Egyptians may have pioneered functional prosthetic technology centuries before modern medicine.

5 Rediscovery Of C1bi

In 1985, a group of hikers stumbled upon a mummified child high on Argentina’s Aconcagua peak. The seven‑year‑old Incan boy had been sacrificed, and the extreme altitude—5,300 meters—created a natural freezer that preserved his remains remarkably well.

Scientists extracted his complete mitochondrial genome, placing him in the ancient Paleo‑Indian lineage C1b, which dates back over 18,000 years. Yet his DNA didn’t match any known sub‑clusters, prompting researchers to define a new branch, C1bi. Only four modern individuals have been identified as belonging to this lineage—three from Peru and Bolivia, and one from the pre‑Inca Wari Empire of Peru.

The scarcity of C1bi today reflects the catastrophic loss of Indigenous populations during the Spanish conquest, which erased roughly 90 percent of native South Americans. The boy’s discovery thus reopened a hidden chapter of human genetic history.

4 The Hathor Tattoos

For decades, Egyptologists believed that priestesses were merely painted with symbolic motifs, not actually tattooed. That assumption shattered when a remarkably well‑preserved female mummy revealed a series of dark markings on her skin.

Canadian researcher Cedric Gobeil initially dismissed the marks as embalming residue, but advanced imaging software re‑exposed them as genuine tattoos. The 3,300‑year‑old skin bears around thirty distinct designs—lotus flowers, cows, snakes, and other symbols—all clearly identifiable, making this the only known dynastic Egyptian mummy with recognizable tattoo imagery.

Although her head and legs remain missing, Gobeil argues that the tattoo program identifies the woman as a priestess of Hathor, given the strong association of several motifs with that goddess. This find also provides the first concrete evidence that ancient Egyptian murals depicting people with body decorations were based on real tattooed individuals.

3 The Age Of Smallpox

Inside a Lithuanian church crypt, researchers uncovered the remains of a toddler whose bones carried the oldest known traces of the smallpox virus. While the disease is famously the first to be eradicated by vaccination, its precise origins have long been debated.

Genetic analysis of the 360‑year‑old strain showed it shared a single ancestor that emerged between 1588 and 1645. If smallpox had existed for millennia, we would expect a far greater diversity of viral lineages. This discovery suggests that the disease is far younger than previously thought, and that earlier pockmarked Egyptian mummies may have suffered from measles or chickenpox instead.

2 The Cladh Hallan Burials

About ten years ago, archaeologists excavating a prehistoric Scottish settlement at Cladh Hallan uncovered a pair of 3,000‑year‑old human remains. The female mummy’s jaw appeared oddly mismatched, prompting further investigation.

DNA testing revealed a macabre collage: the woman’s body was assembled from the remains of three unrelated individuals, while the male counterpart was a composite of three other people who died at different times, some separated by centuries. The bodies were first laid in a peat bog, later mummified, and finally re‑buried in the village many centuries later, all in a fetal position. The soft tissue has since dissolved, leaving only bone.

1 Otzi Speaks

The most famous mummy on the planet is undoubtedly Ötzi, the 5,300‑year‑old “Iceman” discovered by German tourists in Italy’s South Tyrol region. Decades of research have revealed his diet, possible murder, DNA, tattoos, and health conditions. In 2016, scientists finally managed to simulate his voice.

Recreating his speech was no easy feat. One arm is draped across his throat, and his hyoid bone—a key component of the vocal tract—is fragmented. While an MRI would have offered higher resolution, the fragile nature of the body prevented it from being moved. Researchers settled for a high‑resolution CT scan, reconstructed the missing tongue bone virtually, and fed the data into sophisticated acoustic modeling software.

The resulting sound falls between 100 and 150 Hz, typical for an adult male. Because we still lack precise data on his vocal‑cord tension and soft‑tissue condition, the exact timbre of his voice remains uncertain, but the vowel tones suggest a voice that might have sounded like a heavy smoker.

While most of us picture the glamorous, purpose‑built mummies of ancient Egypt, the archetypal King Tut, we often overlook the accidental preservations that dot the globe. From the deserts of Egypt to the jungles of South America and the far‑east of China, the classic mummy image dominates, but the bog‑preserved bodies of Iron Age Europe tell a very different, equally fascinating story.

10 They Were Vain About Their Hair

Whether we admire the jaunty Suebian knot worn by the Osterby Man, the meticulously braided, one‑meter‑long (3.3 ft) mane of Elling Woman, or the pine‑resin‑gelled pompadour of Clonycavan Man, it’s clear that Iron Age folks weren’t shy about styling their locks.

We can’t say for sure whether these hair‑dos were everyday wear or reserved for special rites—perhaps even the very rituals that consigned them to the bogs. One thing’s certain: they weren’t the wild‑haired savages we sometimes picture.

9 They Rocked Plaids

Popular media loves to paint the ancient world in drab, earthy tones, assuming nobody bathed, brushed, or dressed in anything beyond gray, black, or brown.

That’s a myth when it comes to the Iron Age. Most bog bodies were found with little to no clothing—Tollund Man had only a belt, Elling Woman a cloak and belt, and Yde Girl just a cape.

Huldremose Woman breaks the mold. The bog preserved her patterned woolen skirt, scarf, and two leather capes, all dyed in vivid reds and blues. Microscopic traces show she also wore flax undergarments. Strontium isotope analysis indicates her garments originated beyond her local area, hinting at travel or imported fashion.

8 They Didn’t Eat A Low‑Carb Diet

The impeccably preserved visage of Tollund Man, discovered in May 1950, sparked a murder investigation. Thanks to his superb preservation, scientists examined his stomach contents and uncovered his final feast.

He’d been feasting on a porridge packed with over forty different grains and seeds. So the next time you brag about your wholesome seven‑grain cereal, remember Tollund Man was already out‑doing you around 300 BC.

7 They Weren’t Eating A Low‑Fat Diet, Either

The Iron Age inhabitants of what is now Ireland were serious butter enthusiasts. How serious? Picture a private stash of ten kilograms (22 lb) of butter, just in case.

In 2016, Jack Conway uncovered a ten‑kilogram lump of butter preserved in the Emlagh peat bog, County Meath. This wasn’t an isolated find—bogs regularly yield butter and rendered animal fats. Before modern, mass‑produced oils, such fats were valuable commodities, even used to pay taxes. This explains the 35‑kilogram chunk from County Kildare and the astonishing 45‑kilogram piece from County Offaly, dating back 5,000 years.

Ben Reade, the self‑styled mad scientist heading Culinary Research and Development at Nordic Food Lab, recreated bog butter for a 2012 taste test. The verdict? Mixed feelings.

6 Some Suffered From Malnutrition

Despite the grain‑filled porridge and massive butter hoards, not everyone was well‑fed. Moora, the girl from Uchter Moor, displayed clear signs of chronic malnutrition in her bone growth lines.

While Clonycavan Man flaunted imported hair gel and Huldremose Woman sported colorful garb, Moora was a 17‑ to 19‑year‑old who endured starvation, heavy labor, and at least two skull fractures during her short life.

5 Their Heights Varied As Greatly As Ours

Don’t let the modest statures of Tollund Man (160 cm, 5′3″) or Clonycavan Man (157 cm, 5′2″) fool you into thinking Iron Age men were dwarfs.

Partial remains of Old Croghan Man, discovered just 40 km (25 mi) from Clonycavan Man, suggest he would have stood around 198 cm (6′6″) tall—an impressive height even by today’s standards.

4 They Performed Brain Surgery (And Lived Through It)

The skull of Gadevang Man, who died circa 480 BC, bears a circular opening about 1.2 cm (0.5 in) wide, alongside an elongated scar likely caused by an axe strike.

These marks indicate he survived a serious head wound and underwent emergency cranial surgery—a remarkable feat thousands of years before microscopes, CT scans, or antibiotics existed.

3 They Would Have Probably Won Most Of The Events At Your Local Rodeo

Modern Westerners often view equestrian pursuits as a pricey hobby, relegated to bleacher‑filled stadiums under scorching sun. Yet the Iron Age rider Red Franz would have trounced any contemporary cowboy.

Constant horseback riding left him with distinctive “rider’s facets”—bony protrusions on his thigh—by the time of his death, indicating a lifetime of skilled horsemanship.

2 They Tripped On Shrooms

Humans have dabbled with psychoactive plants since the dawn of civilization—opium poppies were domesticated by the sixth millennium BC, and black henbane and cannabis likely followed suit.

In ancient Europe, potent fungi seemed to be the drug of choice. Ötzi, the Copper‑Age iceman, carried two mushroom strains, and some Bronze‑Age art may hint at fungal reverence.

By the time Grauballe Man met his fate, he had slurped a soup infused with hallucinogenic mushrooms before his throat was slit. Whether the fungi served medicinal, recreational, or ritual purposes remains debated, but he was certainly high as a kite when he died.

1 They Were Absolutely Brutal

Even though the rope still hanging from Tollund Man’s neck is startling, he likely got off relatively easy. Lindow Man suffered a blow to the head, strangulation, and a throat slit. Clonycavan Man endured an axe strike to the chest, three blows to the head, and was subsequently disemboweled.

But the Iron Age didn’t stop at overkill. Old Croghan Man bore arm‑piercing holes for trussing ropes, sliced nipples, stab wounds, and finally a torso‑splitting cut—clear evidence of extreme torture.

If the phrase “ancient Egypt” pops up, what images flash in your head? Maybe the towering Great Pyramid of Giza with the Sphinx looming nearby, Tutankhamun’s famed golden mask, or the myriad animal‑headed gods. Or perhaps you’re already picturing those iconic wrapped bodies—perfect, because we’ve gathered 10 facts about mummies you probably haven’t heard before.

1 The Curse Of The Mummy

The notion of cursed tombs never actually sprang from Egyptian belief; it was a product of sensationalist storytelling. Ancient tombs sometimes bore warnings promising divine retribution for anyone daring to disturb the dead—essentially a deterrent against grave‑robbers. Modern scientists have examined the mold that occasionally grows on ancient remains and found nothing more dangerous than ordinary household fungi.

Popular culture, however, seized on the idea. The most famous example is the alleged “curse of the Pharaoh” attached to King Tutankhamun’s tomb. The financier of the excavation died of a mosquito‑borne illness, and Howard Carter, who opened the tomb, passed away sixteen years later. Fiction writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle helped spread the legend, and even Shakespeare once inscribed a warning on his own grave to fend off would‑be looters.

10 facts about cursed mummies

2 Canopic Jars

When the ancient Egyptians began preserving bodies, they quickly realized that the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines accelerated decay. To slow the process, they removed these organs and stored them in specially crafted containers called canopic jars. Each jar bore the head of one of the four sons of Horus—baboon, jackal, human, and falcon—who were believed to guard the respective organ on the journey to the afterlife.

Over time, the practice evolved from a pragmatic preservation technique into a deeply religious ritual. The jars became sacred vessels, symbolizing the divine protection the deceased would need for a successful passage into the next world.

3 Cheaper Options

For the vast majority of ordinary Egyptians, full‑blown royal mummification was out of reach. Instead, they could afford a stripped‑down version that generally omitted a coffin, a sarcophagus, and elaborate funeral furnishings. The core of the process often consisted of simply drying the body—sometimes leaving the brain intact, as the ancient Egyptians considered it the least important organ. An intact nose on a mummy is a tell‑tale sign that the brain was never removed.

In the poorest cases, families would wrap the deceased in a modest shroud, let the desert sand desiccate the remains for a few weeks, then wash the cavities with a solvent before interring the body in a communal cemetery. By contrast, the elite enjoyed lavish tombs adorned with spells from the Book of the Dead, Pyramid Texts, or Coffin Texts, highlighting the stark socioeconomic divide in burial customs.

4 Arm Placement

The way a mummy’s arms are arranged isn’t random; it conveys status and period. The classic image of crossed arms over the chest was actually reserved for royalty during the New Kingdom. Earlier eras displayed different poses: predynastic mummies often covered their faces with bent elbows, while Old and Middle Kingdom specimens typically rested their hands at their sides or occasionally crossed over the pelvis.

During Ramses II’s reign, mummies were sometimes positioned with arms crossed over the lower torso. Later periods show arms folded with hands on the shoulders. Thus, the seemingly simple gesture of arm placement provides archaeologists with valuable clues about a mummy’s age and social rank.

5 Natural Mummies

Before the Egyptians perfected elaborate embalming, nature did a part of the work. Bodies buried directly in the arid desert sand dried out quickly, creating what we now call “natural mummies.” Anthropologists believe that early explorers stumbled upon such naturally preserved corpses, inspiring the more sophisticated mummification rituals that followed.

It took roughly eight centuries for the Egyptians to move beyond simple desiccation, begin organ removal, and wrap bodies in linen. By about 3400 BC they were experimenting with linen wrappings, and by 2600 BC organ extraction became routine. Natural mummification still occurs today in other extreme environments—such as frozen high‑altitude sites, tundras, and peat bogs—preserving bodies for centuries without human intervention.

6 Mummy Cosmetology

Ancient Egyptian embalmers didn’t just preserve flesh; they turned mummies into works of art. During the Third Intermediate Period, men’s bodies were painted a vivid red, while women received a golden‑yellow hue. Early mummies even sported glass or stone eyes; before that, onions were placed over the sockets to simulate a stare.

Wigs, yarn‑woven hair, and even gold leaf applied directly to the skin were common in later periods. The ancient practice of painting nails with henna or similar dyes is echoed today in modern cosmetics, such as the iconic kohl eyeliner. Beauticians held a revered place in Egyptian society, closely linked to the goddess Hathor, and their expertise extended far beyond the living to the dead.

7 Providing For The Afterlife

Mummification was arguably the centerpiece of Egyptian religion. The ancient Egyptians believed that a properly preserved body was essential for navigating the afterlife. Once mummified, the soul could retain a physical form, enabling it to partake in the journey overseen by Osiris and his 42 judges.

Anubis, the jackal‑headed god, guided the deceased, while Thoth weighed the heart against the feather of truth. Ra also accompanied souls on their celestial voyage. The elaborate process spurred an entire industry—hairdressers, beauticians, carpenters, and stone‑cutters—all working to ensure a smooth passage for the departed.

8 Animal Mummies

While many think of pet cats, the Egyptians actually bred whole herds of animals solely for mummification. These animal mummies served as offerings to deities—cats for Bastet, baboons for Thoth, crocodiles for Sobek, and so forth. Pilgrims would purchase a creature, pay a priest, and have the animal interred in the temple’s necropolis as a sign of devotion.

Although the care given to animal mummies was respectable, it never reached the complexity of human embalming. Nevertheless, the sheer volume of animal remains—ranging from cats and bulls to fish and birds—highlights the deep religious significance Egyptians placed on the animal kingdom.

9 Medicinal Mummies

From the 5th century AD through the 19th century, powdered mummy remains were marketed as panaceas. Europeans mistakenly believed the ancient Egyptians used bitumen—a sticky, carcinogenic substance—in embalming, and they thought ingesting ground‑up mummies would confer health benefits. In reality, Egyptian embalmers used resin, which lacks any medicinal properties, though it may have been less harmful than bitumen.

Wealthy patrons purchased mummy powder for its supposed curative powers, while, when authentic mummies were scarce, the bodies of executed criminals were sometimes processed in the same way. A particularly bizarre practice, “mellification,” involved encasing bodies in honey, producing a sweet‑tasting concoction believed to cure any ailment.

10 The Price Of Mummification

Ancient Greek traveler accounts from 60–57 BC record that the most lavish Egyptian mummification cost a talent of silver—roughly 30 kg (66 lb). This price spike coincided with the Ptolemaic era’s political instability, which likely drove inflation in burial expenses.

In today’s market, the raw materials—linen, natron, resin, and incense—run about $3,600, but a full commercial mummification service can approach $70,000. Pet mummification ranges from $7,000 to over $100,000. By comparison, a 2017 U.S. funeral averaged $7,000–$10,000, while cremation hovered near $1,000.

11 Non‑Egyptian Mummies

Contrary to popular belief, Egypt didn’t invent mummification. Cultures worldwide practiced body preservation long before the Nile civilization. In South America, for instance, people began mummifying their dead as early as 6000 BC. The famous painting “The Scream” is even rumored to have been inspired by a Peruvian mummy displayed in a museum.

High‑altitude Inca sacrificial victims were left to freeze on mountaintops, creating natural “ice mummies.” Similar frozen remains have been discovered across Europe and North America, dating to the Iron Age. These global examples remind us that the art of mummification is a human story, not an Egyptian exclusive.

When most people picture ancient Egypt, Tutankhamun steals the limelight. Yet a handful of other preserved bodies conceal astonishing narratives that rival any royal saga. From a boy masquerading as a hawk to a priest whose diet would make a modern nutritionist cringe, these top 10 mummies reveal mysteries, murders, and marvels that have long been buried in silence.

Top 10 Mummies Revealed

10 The Hidden Baby

In 1679, the eminent bishop Peder Winstrup was laid to rest within the hallowed walls of Lund Cathedral in Sweden. Though already celebrated for his ecclesiastical influence, his post‑mortem fame rose when researchers, while closely examining his remarkably intact 17th‑century corpse, discovered a tiny infant concealed behind his legs.

Interring infants alongside adults was not an unheard‑of practice in that era, but the lingering question was why this particular bishop shared his tomb with a newborn boy. Initial examinations confirmed the child was stillborn, yet the motive for this intimate burial remained a puzzle.

DNA testing carried out in 2021 showed the two shared roughly 25 percent of their genetic material. Delving into Winstrup’s genealogical records revealed that the child could not be a nephew, cousin, or half‑brother. The bishop did have a son, and while no descendants of that son were documented, a grandchild emerged as the only plausible link. This familial connection likely explains the joint interment.

9 The Mummified Nests

A fiery blaze in 1875 ripped through Panama City’s historic Catedral Basílica Santa María la Antigua. During the subsequent restoration, artisans applied gold leaf to the altarpiece, inadvertently sealing several bee nests within the structure.

Fast forward 150 years, a new restoration crew uncovered the now‑mummified nests, finding the bees astonishingly preserved. This rare circumstance offered scientists a glimpse into the shy species Eufriesea surinamensis, famed for its iridescent, rainbow‑tinged faces and exceptionally concealed colonies.

The preserved insects also contained pollen from 48 distinct plant species, even revealing the presence of a tea mangrove that no longer thrives near modern Panama City, thereby painting a vivid picture of the ancient ecosystem.

8 Alex Wasn’t On Keto

Roughly 2,200 years ago, an unnamed Egyptian man met his end, his identity lost to time but his occupation preserved on his coffin: he was a priest. Modern researchers at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem nicknamed the specimen “Alex” and subjected him to high‑resolution scanning.

The scans painted a picture of a sedentary lifestyle: a carbohydrate‑heavy diet, prolonged periods of inactivity, and a chronic avoidance of sunlight. While today we blame such habits for modern health woes, Alex proved that ancient peoples could be couch‑potatoes too.

This lifestyle took a severe toll. Alex suffered from advanced heart disease and crippling osteoporosis that compressed his stature to a mere 1.5 metres (about five feet). He died in his early thirties to early forties—a surprisingly young age for someone of high status in antiquity.

7 Mysterious Age Progression

Between the first and third centuries AD, Egyptian embalmers sometimes added a personalized portrait to the exterior of a mummy, positioning it where the head would sit. Scholars have long debated whether these portraits were faithful likenesses or artistic flourishes.

In 2020, a team selected one such portrait mummy for a digital facial reconstruction. The remains belonged to a toddler, likely three or four years old, who probably succumbed to pneumonia. Using sophisticated software, researchers recreated his facial features from the skull.

When the digital reconstruction was compared to the ancient portrait, the two aligned closely—except the artist had rendered the child looking considerably older. Whether this was a cultural convention, a family request, or simply the painter’s imagination remains a mystery, as this was the first time a portrait mummy underwent such analysis.

6 The Hawk That Was Something Else

In 2018, the Maidstone Museum in England scanned one of its human mummies. While the scanner hummed, an impulsive idea sparked: why not also scan the museum’s collection of mummified animals?

One specimen, long thought to be a cherished hawk, was selected. The bird’s outer casing was adorned with intricate hawk motifs, reinforcing the assumption. However, the CT scan revealed a startling truth: the skeletal structure did not belong to a bird at all. Initially resembling a monkey’s bones, the remains were ultimately identified as those of a malformed human infant.

The child suffered from anencephaly, a severe condition that likely caused death at birth. The disorder left him with an almost absent brain, a largely missing skull, an unclosed spine, and a cleft palate and lip. In ancient Egypt, such infants were typically placed in small pots, yet this boy received a unique, carefully crafted burial—a testament to the value placed upon him, though the exact reasons for deviating from tradition remain unknown.

5 Takabuti’s Death Solved

The first Egyptian mummy to set foot in Ireland, Takabuti arrived in 1834. Hieroglyphs on her sarcophagus identified her as a priest’s daughter, married, and in her twenties at the time of death around 660 BC. Yet the cause of her premature demise remained a mystery.

Modern DNA testing and CT scanning shed light on her story. Genetic analysis revealed unexpected ties to European ancestry rather than contemporary Egyptian populations. The scans uncovered a violent end: Takabuti was stabbed from behind, a fatal wound that explained her early death.

Further surprises emerged: she possessed two rare anatomical anomalies—an extra vertebra and an additional tooth—adding layers of intrigue to an already compelling case.

4 More Clues About A Pharaoh’s Death

Pharaoh Seqenenre Taa II is known for his fierce clash with the Hyksos invaders who occupied Egypt. While his son perished on the battlefield, the exact circumstances of the pharaoh’s own death had long eluded scholars.

Discovered in 1886, his mummy displayed a gruesome, seven‑centimetre gash across the forehead and emitted a foul odor, suggesting a brutal, hurried killing and rapid embalming. A 2021 study expanded on these injuries, documenting additional trauma to the nose, cheeks, and above the right eye, as well as a stab wound at the base of the neck.

The pattern of injuries—absent defensive wounds on the arms and the angles of the blows—implies the pharaoh was likely bound and kneeling when assailants struck him with axes, swords, and blunt instruments. This evidence supports the theory that Seqenenre Taa II was captured and executed on the battlefield, lending credence to legendary accounts of pharaohs fighting shoulder‑to‑shoulder with their soldiers.

3 The Unexpected Head Shot

Oxford’s Natural History Museum houses a famed dodo specimen whose soft tissue remains remarkably intact. Researchers, eager to learn more about the extinct bird’s evolution, scanned its mummified head—only to discover lead pellets lodged within the skull.

The pellets indicated that the dodo had been shot in the head during the 1600s, a period when the species was heavily hunted on its native Mauritius. What made this find puzzling was the museum’s provenance claim: the bird was said to have lived in London as a popular curiosity, raising the question of why anyone would shoot it.

One possibility is that the eyewitness account was fabricated and the dodo was already deceased when it arrived in Britain. If the bird was indeed felled in Mauritius, the mystery deepens: how was its carcass preserved for the long voyage back to England when no known mummification techniques existed there at the time?

2 The Pregnant Mummy

In the 19th century, the University of Warsaw acquired an Egyptian mummy believed to belong to an important priest named Hor‑Djehuty, as indicated by the elaborate coffin inscriptions.

However, the 19th‑century “mummy trade” was riddled with deception: sellers often swapped any mummy into a prestigious coffin to fetch higher prices. Modern X‑ray scans in 2016 exposed the truth—the remains were not those of the priest but an unknown woman.

The revelation became even more astonishing when scans showed the woman was six or seven months pregnant, and the unborn infant had not been removed during the embalming process. This makes her the world’s only known pregnant mummy, a singular find that reshapes our understanding of ancient Egyptian burial customs.

1 The Broken Body

In 2000, Pakistani police intercepted a group attempting to sell a mummy. The artifact was transferred to the National Museum in Karachi, where officials announced it belonged to a Persian princess who had died around 600 BC. The discovery sparked a diplomatic tug‑of‑war between Iran and Pakistan over ownership of the royal remains.

Soon, inconsistencies surfaced. The inscription on the breastplate—purportedly revealing the princess’s name and lineage—contained grammatical errors and referenced a name, Rhodugune, that sounded more Greek than Persian. Moreover, the reed mat beneath the body dated to merely 50 years old.

Experts began to suspect the mummy was a modern fabrication, dressed in counterfeit royal regalia to increase its market value. The truth proved even stranger: the woman actually died in 1996, not antiquity, from a broken neck caused by a blunt‑force impact that also fractured her spine.

Numerous questions remain unanswered: Who was she? What circumstances led to her fatal injury? And who orchestrated the elaborate modern‑day mummification?

Mummies are media darlings. Even so, some slip through the cracks and don’t make it big. But these forgotten ancients, or the lesser-known tales about bandaged celebrities, can still be immensely intriguing. Discover why mummies with headlice make scientists smile, meet the luckiest body in Pompeii, and marvel at the bizarre behavior of the living who are involved with mummies, including looters, collectors, and inept museum staff.

Here are ten underreported stories about mummies.

Related: 10 Amazing Reconstructed Faces From History

10 The Empty Coffin Mystery

In 1860, an ancient Egyptian coffin arrived at the Nicholson Museum in Sydney. Unfortunately, someone mistakenly marked the coffin as “empty” except for unimportant mixed debris. This blooper caused the artifact to languish in the museum’s collection for almost 160 years. In 2017, the staff finally looked at the 2,500-year-old coffin.

Surprisingly, a CT scanner showed that the sarcophagus contained a mummy. The person’s skeleton was a mess and jumbled between bandages, beads, and other items. Hieroglyphics suggested that the bones belonged to a noblewoman called Mer-Neith-it-es. But since the coffin was purchased from an antiquities market in the 1850s, a time when it was common to fill a sarcophagus with any human remains, it remains debatable whether this is really Mer-Neith-it-es.^[1]

9 The Sick Murder Victim

In ancient times, South America had its perks. Great architects created advanced cities that still confound us today with their precision and beauty. But violence was also a part of everyday life. A new study, which concluded in 2022, found that not even those who were sick could expect mercy once someone had murder on their mind.

During the investigation, a CT scanner buzzed a pre-Columbian mummy dating between 996 and 1147. It revealed that he had been brutally murdered. The twenty-something had a severe case of tuberculosis, but despite being obviously ill, someone had bobbed him on the head (quite hard) and also stabbed him in the back.

Illness wasn’t the only thing stacked against the victim. Researchers believe that he was possibly cornered by two attackers on that fateful day.^[2]

8 Mummy Headlice Are Valuable

In 2021, headlice finally got their moment in the sun. Well, at least in the laboratory. Researchers discovered the glue that female lice use to fix their eggs to a person’s hair can sometimes preserve human skin cells. In this case, the lice gum was between 1,500 and 2,000 years old and was found on mummies from San Juan in Argentina, Chile, and Amazonian Ecuador.

The glue contained cells from the hosts’ scalps, and surprisingly, the cells were not only well-preserved but also yielded more DNA than other common methods of extraction. While the low position of the gum on the hair shaft showed that some of the people died in very cold conditions, the DNA revealed the gender of each mummy and, remarkably, some of their migration patterns.

Thanks to their nits, researchers discovered that San Juan’s first inhabitants originally came from the North Amazonian plains. As a bonus, the cells also contained the oldest example of Merkel cell Polyomavirus, a virus that sometimes causes skin cancer.^[3]

7 The Head in the Attic

When an unnamed man recently passed away, his brother inherited a house in Kent, England. While clearing out the property, the brother made a grisly find. There was a mummified head in the attic. The body was nowhere in sight (and was never found), but the noggin was turned over to scientists who identified it as belonging to an ancient Egyptian mummy.

But who was missing a head, and how did an Egyptian relic end up in a Kent attic? A CT scan provided a few clues about the deceased. The head belonged to an adult woman with worn teeth who died nearly 2,000 years ago.

Bizarrely, tubes made with unknown materials were discovered in her left nostril and spinal canal. It remains to be seen whether the tubes are ancient or modern additions. Even more mysterious, nobody knows who brought her to England except that the Kent homeowner got the woman’s head from someone called “Dr. Coates.”^[4]

6 The Sewage Floaters

Tomb robbing remains a problem in Egypt. One way the authorities protect the graves is to impose strict laws and punishment. But such measures can backfire. Nobody wants to be caught holding the mummy after looting a tomb. In 2015, news reached the police that a couple of mummies had appeared rather suspiciously near a village in Minya. The moment the cops laid eyes on the artifacts wasn’t pretty. The coffins were drifting in a sewage canal.

Unsurprisingly, nobody came forward. But it’s easy to imagine how the mummies ended up in such an unsavory condition. Tomb raiders probably found a grave, pocketed smaller valuable items, and tried to escape with the coffins. But after finding them too cumbersome, the bodies were dumped.

After the rescue, the mummies were found to be badly disintegrated due to water damage, but despite their deplorable condition, they weren’t thrown away a second time. Instead, the bodies were taken to a museum for restoration and research.^[5]

5 The Lucky Pompeii Guy

Marcus Secundio was a lucky man in life and death. Regarding the latter, he was a Pompeii resident spared the horrors of the famous eruption because he had passed away a few years earlier. So when archaeologists discovered his tomb—and stunningly preserved mummy—outside the city, they encountered a life that went from zero to hero.

Inscriptions revealed that Marcus was a former slave. Once freed, he climbed the social ladder and became a wealthy priest. The mention that he spoke both Latin and Greek became the first proof that Greek sermons were held in the Italian city of Pompeii. Marcus also married and eventually passed away in his 60s.

But a few mysteries remain. During his lifetime, cremation was the most popular way to give the dead a sendoff. Why was Marcus’s burial different? Researchers also hope to understand how he was mummified because nearly 2,000 years on, his body remains unusually preserved.^[6]

4 The Mummy with Four Feet

In 2000, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington, decided to restore its Egyptian mummy. Affectionately called “Nellie,” she dated between 305 and 34 BC. The first step was to gauge the degree of restoration necessary, which called for a CT scan.

The staff expected to see images of bones and tissues. But Nellie’s insides were a shocking mess of missing bones, chicken wire, sponge, and fake body parts. These additions were traced back to a disastrous attempt in the 1960s to give the mummy a better shape.

The previous researchers removed most of Nellie’s own bones and then rounded the upper body with wire and sponge, something that caused a lot of damage. But perhaps the most bizarre decision was to remove her feet (these were later found in the museum) and replace them with a foot that belonged to another mummy and a plaster cast of that same foot.^[7]

3 Ötzi Has Family

Ötzi is a mummified superstar. After he was discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991, the 5,300-year-old murder victim became more famous with each bit of information scientists teased from his body. Today, those who follow his story know all about his medical conditions, tattoos, what he ate last, what he wore, and the wounds that ultimately claimed his life.

In 2013, scientists decided to look for his living relatives. They turned to blood donors in Austria. However, these donors didn’t specifically submit their vein juice to discover if they were related to one of the most famous mummies in existence. They were just blood donors, and their DNA was readily available.

This blood bank produced 19 men with the same ancestors as Ötzi. They may not be the only ones, either. There is a chance that more living relatives might exist in regions near the Swiss and Italian Alps.^[8]

2 The Pickled Baby

In 2021, archaeologists discovered another first—a pregnant mummy. Nicknamed the “Mysterious Lady,” she died about 2,000 years ago in Egypt. Tragically, the woman was also between six and seven months pregnant at the time of her death.

Despite the sad circumstances, the scientists were agog. Sure, an expecting mummy is rare, but that wasn’t the reason why jaws dropped. The surprising part was how the fetus had been preserved. For the lack of a better phrase, the researchers described the process as being similar to that of pickling an egg.

In short, when an egg is kept in an acidic liquid, the shell dissolves, but the rest is preserved. The baby was also exposed to an acidic environment. After death, the mother’s blood pH became more acidic, and the embalmers also used natron, a salt mixture that increased acid levels. This preserved the baby along with a mystery. Why were the fetus and womb left intact when the mummification procedure called for the removal of all organs?^[9]

1 An Embalmer’s Mistake

We’ve all heard the horror stories. A patient wakes up after surgery only to discover that the doctor has forgotten a scalpel or clamp inside them. Apparently, this type of medical mishap is not new. In 2008, a scanner detected a forgotten tool in someone’s skull, but this was not a modern individual. Instead, the body belonged to a 2,400-year-old woman from ancient Egypt.

The Croatian museum where she was kept didn’t know much about her, except that she died in her 40s. In 2008, a CT scan meant to discover more about her life instead found the embalming mishap. The scientists were delighted. It’s extremely difficult to identify embalming instruments, and finding one lodged inside a mummy’s skull was almost like a neon sign saying, “This is a brain removal tool!” The rare artifact measured 3 inches (8 centimeters) long, had a tubular shape, and was made of wood.

The embalmers might’ve been aware of the situation. Instead of not noticing that the tool was gone, the tube might’ve broken off during the procedure, and feeling that recovery would be too bothersome, they simply abandoned it. After all, who would ever find out…?^[10]

The word “mummy” was derived from the Persian/Arabic word mummiya, which means “tar,” as the ancient Arabs initially thought that the weirdly wrapped bodies uncovered from their ancient tombs were covered in the sticky black substance. However, the ancient Egyptians not only mummified their deceased human counterparts but also mummified animals—in the millions.

From sacrifices made to the gods to pets buried together with their owners, the eventual nationwide mania around the animal mummification industry came to require such large numbers of live animals that large-scale farms, resources, and extra staff to breed and look after an incredible range of animals almost became the norm. Over 70 million animals were mummified and buried in Egypt’s catacombs. We thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the most incredible mummified animals discovered so far.

10 The Crocodile Mummy

The ancient Egyptians revered crocodiles as the manifestation of the crocodile god Sobek, and hundreds were mummified after their death. The nationwide supply and demand for mummified crocodiles were significant in ancient Egypt. Tens of thousands were bred and held in captivity only to be put to death and expertly mummified as sacrifices to the gods. Archaeologists also recently confirmed what has been suspected for a long time, that crocodiles were stalked and hunted, a truly hazardous pastime, to help sustain the frenzy.

Researchers in France were genuinely shocked when they discovered a massive skull fracture during a virtual necropsy on one of the crocodile mummies currently in the Musée des Confluences in Lyon, France. It was, in fact, the first evidence ever uncovered to confirm the hunting of these wild animals to be sold and turned into animal mummies.^[1]

9 The Lion Mummies

Lions held a powerful status in ancient Egypt, as they were considered the most formidable hunter in the wild and an everlasting symbol of peril and protection. It is a well-known fact that Pharaohs took part in lion-hunting expeditions to display their own superiority, including Amenhotep III, who murdered at least 102 lions during the first decade of his reign. Until recently, Egyptologists have only uncovered one lion mummy, leading many to wonder if they were, in fact, very rare or whether we were looking for them in the wrong places.

Finally, during an archeological dig in Saqqara in November 2019, a team of archaeologists led by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities disclosed that they had discovered five more lion mummies, believed to be cubs, in the necropolis of Bubasteion—which is literally a cat mummy catacomb. The mummified cubs are believed to have been around eight months old at the time of their death and are about 3 feet (1 meter) in length. They were uncovered along with a wide assortment of timber and bronze sculptures of cats and other mummified animals, including snakes and reptiles. The artifacts have been dated to Egypt’s 26th Dynasty—around 664–525 BC.^[2]

8 The Millions of Ibis Mummies

The Ibis cult was widely observed during the Roman and Ptolemaic eras and was devoted to Thoth, the god of wisdom. Carbon dating research conducted in 2015 revealed that the Egyptian ibis mummies were all created in the period between 450 and 250 BC. The sheer amount of mummified ibises is incredible. Saqqara alone contains almost 500,000 of these mummies, and it is also believed to have obtained an additional 10,000 mummified sacrifices every year. If that figure is not staggering enough, we should all take a moment to think about the other four million ibis mummies discovered in the catacombs of Tuna el-Gebel.

Ibis mummification included evisceration and desiccation. Generally, the bird’s neck and head would be bent backward and pressed back onto the body. It would then be immersed in tar and finally tightly wrapped in linen. The substantial number of mummified ibises clearly shows that it was, in all probability, done during mass production, as several of the mummies recovered contained only partial mummies with certain body parts excluded or added to other mummies. After satisfying the ceremonial purposes, the mummified bodies were inserted in clay pots, wooden coffins, and sarcophagi.^[3]

7 The Numerous Cat Mummies

The Egyptians were definitely cat people. Or cat mummy people, depending on how you look at it. Domestic cats were often mummified as religious sacrifices in large amounts and were claimed to represent Bastet, the goddess of war. The cult of Bastet was located primarily around Beni Hasan and Thebes during the Ptolemaic period. Thousands of cat mummies have also been found throughout the Saqqara catacombs. Cats farmed for the sole reason of sacrifice typically died due to broken necks or strangulation. During mummification, their bodies would be left to dry and were then packed with soil, mud, or another kind of packing material. They were usually positioned in a sitting position with their limbs folded next to their bodies. The linen wrapped around their bodies was often decorated with elaborate, decorative designs.

In the earlier days of cat mummification, the mummies were often placed in small bronze or timber sarcophagi. The most pricey mummies were usually decorated with facial features that would be painted on with black paint and could have obsidian, rock crystal, or even colored pieces of glass for eyes. Archeologists have also found several cat mummies that included the bodies of small kittens or fetuses buried within the adult cat. However, as time went by, the mummies became less elaborate, and mummifications lost some of their consistency.^[4]

6 Saqqara’s Mummified Cobras

Times were hard if you happened to be a snake in Thebes from the late Egyptian period to Egypt’s Roman period when they were considered to be one of the sacred animals of the god Amun. They were also associated with regeneration and rebirth due to their ability to shed their skins. Many snake mummies were wrapped in linen; others were inserted into beautifully designed bronze containers and sacrificed to Atum in shrines and cemeteries. One specific cemetery, Amara West, contained a “shrine” with a string of snake burials connected to it. Although not mummified, this cemetery had hundreds of python skeletons that could possibly be linked to a Nubian snake cult.

Archaeological digs at Saqqara have also uncovered several mummies containing Egyptian cobras wrapped in tight bundles. From high-tech 3D scans, researchers have been able to see spinal fractures, which the group believes occurred in a “whipping” procedure where the cobras would be held by the tail and smashed to death by beating their heads to the ground. The cobras were so well preserved that researchers could even verify significant kidney damage, which indicates that these reptiles were probably dehydrated at the time of death, demonstrating the horrible conditions in which they were kept. Even the resin placed inside their jaws could be identified, believed to have been placed there to keep their mouths open in order to be able to speak, eat, and breathe in the afterlife.^[5]

5 Mummified Baboons

As god of the moon and the god of wisdom, it was probably a very high honor for baboons to represent the god Thoth. The depictions of baboons on the funerary jars that contained the significant organs of their human mummy counterparts are a testimony to the enormous religious and cultural significance of the mammals. Baboons were bred and reared in high volumes at temples, although the number of baboon mummies uncovered to date has yet to reach the figures we’ve seen with cats and ibises.

About 400 baboon mummies were unearthed at the catacombs of the now-almost notorious Saqqara. Virtually all the baboons were mummified by utilizing plaster and subsequent burial in wooden chests. The baboon mummies uncovered to date have further shown compelling evidence that they were bred for the sole purpose of mummification and religious sacrifice. None of the baboons died from natural causes, and almost all of them suffered from severe fractures, osteomyelitis, malnutrition, and severe vitamin D deficiency.^[6]

4 Scarab Beetles

In November 2018, archaeologists in Egypt came across an incredibly rare collection of scarab beetle mummies. Their find also included a perfectly breathtaking fifth-dynasty tomb (previously undiscovered) which they opened within the following months. The scarab beetle mummies were found with an assortment of other artifacts spread over seven tombs located on the boundary of King Userkaf’s pyramid complex in the south of Cairo.

According to Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry, the breakthrough discovery included two quite significant scarab beetle mummies in cloth discovered on the inside of a limestone sarcophagus with such a beautifully decorated and vaulted lid that the whole crew was astounded by its excellent condition. A further collection of incredibly well-preserved scarab beetle mummies was discovered inside another relatively small sarcophagus. The Ministry has revealed that the finding of mummified scarab beetles is absolutely remarkable. It’s an extremely rare discovery that most archaeologists may never discover throughout their entire lives.^[7]

3 Mummified Bulls

The Apis bull cult emerged as early as 800 BC and is the very first Egyptian cult that could be verified by archaeological finds. The first and most significant among all of ancient Egypt’s animal cults, the Apis bull cult, believed the bull to be a symbol of power, strength, and fertility, as it represented the creator gods Osiris and Ptah. Their ultimate mummification played a crucial part in the daily veneration of these animals. While alive, the bull was accommodated inside a distinctive shrine, luxuriously coddled during his lifetime. Priests presumed that the Apis bull was a means of interaction between the two different gods of creation, so much so that the bull’s activities and gestures were meticulously observed. It was often consulted as the cult’s oracle.

The Apis bulls were allowed to die a natural death unless they reached the age of 28 years—at which point they would be sacrificed. After the death of the Apis bull, the whole nation went into mourning. It was provided with an extravagant burial accompanied by complex funerary guidelines. Because of their size, the mummification process was complex and tedious.

Immense embalming tables have been discovered in Memphis, the cult’s center. These tables were beautifully engraved and even featured drainage channels. The bull’s body would have been dried through the use of natron salts and eventually crammed full of sand before being wrapped in several layers of cloth. Synthetic eyes and an aesthetic ceramic head would’ve been added as a final touch to ensure that the bull maintained its features.^[8]

2 An Egyptian Queen’s Pet Gazelle

One of the most intriguing animal mummies ever found was that of an Egyptian queen’s pet gazelle. The beautifully preserved gazelle was prepared for its eternal afterlife with about the same extravagant treatment as any other member of its ancient royal family. It followed its queen to its final resting place about 945 BC, protected and swathed with delicate blue-trimmed linen and a handcrafted wooden casket. Many historians believe the gazelle probably belonged to Isetemkheb D—an Egyptian queen who lived around 1070–945 BC and was buried in the royal cache only publicly known as “DB320.”

The mummy and its gazelle-shaped wooden casket (put together from multiple wooden planks, presumably sycamore, fastened with pivot bearings) can now be found in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Both the interior as well as the exterior of the exquisite casket are coated with a thick layer of alabaster plaster. The outside was covered with black paint, while the inside was painted entirely white. After its death, the gazelle’s internal organs were packed back into its body and filled with fine sand, which helped maintain its original shape.^[9]

1 A Pharaoh’s Hunting Dog

Affectionately preserved, one of the incredible discoveries found in the Valley of Kings was a Pharaoh’s hunting dog whose dressings had fallen off a long time ago. While alive, the dog would have been spoiled rotten, receiving the best scraps from the recent hunts and, quite possibly, sleeping in luxury. After his death, the dog received its carefully prepared tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

In ancient Egypt, dogs were treated very much the same as today. They could be found as pets, herders, guardians, and even employed as “police” dogs. Quite a few dog breeds ran around in ancient Egypt, with the most common (and very good for hunting) being the Basenji, Greyhound, and Saluki. From the earliest dynasties, the Egyptians worshiped numerous jackal gods, the most notable being Anubis. He was usually portrayed as a canine or a canine led by a human being.

Historically, the Anubis creature was identified as a jackal. However, its ordinarily black coloration, symbolic of rebirth and the afterlife, isn’t really common to jackals, and it may, in fact, represent a wild dog. Because jackals and dogs usually roamed the desert on the fringes of societies where the dead were traditionally buried, they were often viewed as the guardians of the dead.^[10]