Female infidelity is a rather complex phenomenon. First, with the social ...
On July 27, 1941, Lenin's body was removed from the capital. The operation was kept in the strictest confidence. Then the body was returned to the Mausoleum again. It is curious that these are far from the only adventures of Ilyich after his death. Mummification became a special burial ritual many thousands of years ago, but somehow it has survived to this day. At the same time, mummies have always surrounded and are surrounded by many secrets that excite the minds of both scientists and ordinary people. At the same time, some of the long-dead continue to "travel" around the world, the origin and mystery of the death of others have not yet been solved by scientists, curses are on the third, and the fourth have not undergone decomposition at all without outside interference. We present you the most famous mummies in the world and their mysterious stories.
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Vladimir Lenin. Now Lenin's body is in the same place where crowds of tourists still come to see it. But the embalmed ashes, and unlike the Egyptian mummies, require constant care, for which, at the end of 1939, a research laboratory at the Mausoleum was created as part of the USSR Ministry of Health.
The laboratory monitors the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere of the sarcophagus and the body, changes the composition of the impregnating solutions, checks the color of the mummy's skin, as well as the volume of the face and hands, and its employees help Ilyich "take a bath."
The work of unusual specialists was shown in the unique film of the NTV television company "Mausoleum".
Tutankhamun. Perhaps the pharaoh is the most famous mummy. Although, according to historians, during his lifetime, Tutankhamun did not stand out among other rulers, it is with his tomb that the story of a terrible curse is connected.
In 1922, the British Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon found the tomb of Tutankhamun, untouched by robbers. Archaeologists opened a double coffin, revealing a golden sarcophagus inside. Even the flowers were well preserved inside, so their discovery was truly unique.
However, the joy quickly passed when a series of accidents hit the research team. Carnarvon died suddenly of pneumonia, followed one by one by Carter's assistants.
Screaming mummies from the Guanajuato Museum. The Mexican Museum of Mummies is perhaps one of the most chilling places on earth: it houses 111 mummies, which are naturally preserved mummified bodies of people, most of them who died in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century
In the period from 1865 to 1958, there was a law according to which relatives paid a tax so that the bodies of their relatives lay in the graves in the cemetery. If the amount was not paid, the dead bodies were simply taken out of the stone tombs - and this is how the museum appeared.
Screaming mummies are unusual in that their distorted faces indicate that the person was buried alive.
The man from Grauballe. In the 50s of the last century, archaeologists discovered several mummies in peat bogs. Among the rather well-preserved bodies of scientists, the mummified body of a young man was especially surprised.
Even the facial features, framed by a shock of red hair, could be easily discerned on it.
According to the results of the radiocarbon analysis, it became known that the young man lived in the very first years of our era, and they killed him, sacrificing to the gods.
The mummy of a boy from Greenland. Not far from the northern settlement of Kilakitsok on the west coast of the island, in 1972, scientists stitched a family of mummified Eskimo ancestors, whose bodies survived due to low temperatures.
Nine people died in Greenland during the Middle Ages. One of the mummies aroused particular interest of scientists and curiosity, seasoned with fear, of ordinary lovers of such finds.
The body belonged to a one-year-old child who, as anthropologists concluded, suffered from Down syndrome. The creepy doll-like mummy makes a lasting impression on visitors to the Greenland National Museum in Nuuk.
Rosalia Lombardo. A glass coffin with the incorruptible body of a two-year-old girl is in a small temple in Palermo.
Rosalia died of influenza in 1918. After her death, with the consent of her parents, the doctor gave her an injection, the content of which is still unknown. Thanks to this, the body did not decompose.
Locals the strikingly preserved mummy is even called "sleeping beauty", it seems so "alive".
Around the church where Rosalia rests, according to the assurances of parishioners and tourists, inexplicable things began to happen forty years ago.
One of the tourists even claimed that he saw the eyes of the "sleeping beauty" open for a moment and then close back. After that, the clergymen refused to be alone near the incorruptible body.
Princess Ukok... Although the body of this mummy itself has not been preserved in the best way, the curiosity of scientists and enthusiasts is aroused by the intricately delineated tattoos, which are perfectly preserved, despite the fact that the princess died more than 2,500 years ago.
According to researchers, Ukoka was 25 years old at the time of his death. On her tattoo, you can easily distinguish the outline of a mythical deer with ibex horns and a griffin's beak.
Archaeologists believe that Princess Ukok was a member of the Pazyryk tribe from the mountains of Siberia, whose representatives were convinced that it was tattoos that helped people find each other in the afterlife.
Ice Man Ötzi... The find became the oldest European mummy, dating back about 5200 years. The body, named Oetzi, was discovered on September 19, 1991 by a couple of German tourists while walking through the Tyrolean Alps.
Like Tutankhamun, the Iceman is credited with the deaths of six people. The first of them was the German tourist Helmut Simon, who decided to spend the $ 100 thousand received for the find on a second trip to the place of the find, where he was overtaken by death in the form of a blizzard.
Tutankhamun Torquay... Nowadays, few people want to have a mummy made of his body after death, but there are exceptions.
Allan Billis voluntarily decided to have his body mummified, and also approved in advance the broadcast of the process itself on television.
The 61-year-old taxi driver who died of lung cancer in 2011 was nicknamed "Tutankhamun of Torquay" from journalists.
Dr. Stephen Buckley mummified Billis' corpse using the same technique used to embalm Tut. Thus, Allan became the first body in over 1000 years to be processed in this way.
Tarim mummies... In the desert places of the Tarim Basin in China at the beginning of the 20th century, human remains were found, notable for the fact that they belonged to Europeans.
Presumably, these people passed away in the 17th century BC. It is surprising that almost all of them had long blond or red hair, which was braided into braids, and they were wearing felt cloaks and leggings with a checkered pattern.
One of the famous Tarim mummies is the so-called Loulan beauty - a young woman about 180 cm tall with light brown hair. According to scientists, a woman lived 3800 years ago.
The woman's mummy can be seen in the museum of the city of Urumqi. Next to her was the burial of a 50-year-old man with hair braided in two braids and a three-month-old baby with a bottle made from a cow's horn and a teat made from a sheep's udder.
Xin Zhui... In 1971, the mummy of a wealthy Chinese woman of the Han dynasty was found in Changsha, China, who died in 168 BC. at the age of 50.
The body was put into four sarcophagi according to the principle of "nesting dolls", and the body itself was in 80 liters of yellowish liquid, which immediately evaporated.
Thanks to the mysterious filler, the joints of the body retained their mobility, and the muscles were elastic. Many were found near the deceased various subjects, including recipes for her favorite dishes.
Franklin Expedition Mummies... In 1845, an expedition led by John Franklin of more than 100 people went in search of the legendary route to Asia, but two ships simply went missing.
In 1850, the graves of three members of the missing crew were found on Beachy Island, after which the search was stopped.
Only in 1984 a group of anthropologists went to the island. Oddly enough, all three bodies were perfectly preserved without any external interference.
The researchers found traces of pneumonia and tuberculosis, as well as a very large amount of lead, which could have killed the sailors.
Donsella. The amazingly preserved body of a 15-year-old Inca tribe was found on the top of the Argentine volcano Llullayllako, located at an altitude of 6700 m above sea level.
Together with two other children, the girl was most likely sacrificed, leaving at the top. Scientists have found that during her lifetime, Donsella suffered from a disease similar to tuberculosis.
In those days, such ailments could well lead to death, but hypothermia became the cause of the girl's death.
It's amazing how well the body is preserved without any special treatments.
Eva Peron. The wife of Argentine President Juan Peron was simply idolized by the inhabitants of the country, but on July 26, 1952, at the age of 33, Evita died of cancer.
It is not surprising that doctors were instructed to embalm the body of the deceased, so that those who wish could contemplate the darling after her death.
In 1955, Evita's body was kidnapped by her husband's opponents and disappeared for 15 years.
When Peron managed to remarry, Evita's body was returned to him. True, traces made with a blunt object were found on the mummy's face, and there was no finger on the hand.
Oddly enough, Peron and his new wife decided to keep Eva's mummy at home. It is even known that the president's second wife brushed Eve's hair every day and seated the corpse at the dining table. It was even rumored that the woman lay in the coffin next to the deceased, "hoping to absorb some of Evita's magical energy." Today, the body of the first wife is buried in the family crypt.
Hambo Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov... The Buryat monk died in 1927, and on September 11, 2002, his body was exhumed.
The body was buried in a cedar box, covered with salt. Eyewitnesses claim that Itigelov had soft skin without any signs of decay, his nose, ears and eyes were preserved.
When the metropolitan scientists received parts of his body for research, they were forced to state that the body of the Buddhist lama is still alive ... Science cannot yet explain this phenomenon.
Each of us has ever heard of mummies, at least in school history lessons of ancient Egypt, there are many more interesting stories about them than you can imagine.
The legendary wife of Argentine President Juan Perona died on July 26, 1952, when she was only 33 years old due to cancer. After her death, her remains were preserved so that they could be displayed during the funeral procession.
Three years later, anti-Peronist fighters stole her mummified body, which was subsequently unknown for 15 years. later her body, already in a very bad condition, was returned to her ex-husband, who put her on display in his own home, and his second wife allegedly combed her hair and even lay down next to her in a coffin to soak up her greatness. Later, her body was interred and she now rests in her family's crypt.
La doncella
This impeccably preserved mummy of a 15-year-old Inca girl was probably sacrificed over 500 years ago. She was discovered in 1999 with two other children on the Llullaillaco volcano at 6,700 meters above sea level in Argentina. While the girl looks like the victim of a tragedy, there is evidence that she suffered from a terminal illness similar to tuberculosis, or a chronic lung infection. Her family did everything possible to make the girl die less painfully, grain liqueur was found in her body, and coca leaves in her mouth.
Wet mummy
In 2011, Chinese builders were digging the foundation for a new road and found in the ground a perfectly preserved mummy of a woman who lived about 600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. It got its name due to the fact that long time was in damp ground, and despite the high humidity it was very well preserved. Her skin was practically not damaged, hair and even eyebrows were preserved on her body.
She was also found wearing precious accessories such as a jade ring and a silver hairpin that still held her hair together. Mummification has rarely been used in China, which makes this discovery more unique. Archaeologists believe that the mummification of the "wet mummy" was part of a natural process associated with a lack of oxygen in the moisture surrounding the woman's body, for this reason there were no bacteria in the water that could contribute to the destruction of her body.
Grauballe Man
In 1952, several mummified bodies were found in a bog of peat in Denmark, but the best preserved guy, who was named "The Man from Grauballe". He was about 30 years old when he died more than 2,000 years ago, most likely his death was associated with a sacrificial ritual, judging by the deep wound on his neck. He retained red hair and facial features.
Ramses III
Unlike other mummies made in the era of Ramses in Egypt, his remains are evidence that he did not die of natural causes, but fell victim to murder. His throat was cut deeply and many historians believe that he was killed by his own sons.
Princess Ukok
Princess Ukok's body proves once again that tattoos are forever. Despite the fact that she died almost 2,500 years ago, the tattoos on her withered body are perfectly preserved. She was about 25 years old when she died, scientists believe that she was a member of the Pazyryk tribe, which lived in the mountains of Siberia. Members of this tribe believed that tattoos would help them find each other in the afterlife.
Tutankhamun Torqueya
After dying of lung cancer, 61-year-old English taxi driver Allan Billis bequeathed his body to science. The body of the Englishman was mummified and he was nicknamed "Tutankhamun Torquay". Thanks to Dr. Stephen Buckley, Allan Billis' body became the first mummified body in over 1000 years, for which he used the methods of the ancient Egyptians to mummify. Allan's wife commented on this situation saying: "I am the only woman in the country who has a husband's mummy."
Dashi-Dorzho Itigelov
Itigelov spent his life as a Buryat Buddhist Lama in the best traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. He began his spiritual journey at the age of 16 in 1927. Once he told his disciples that his time for the transition to another world had come, he also asked them to join him in meditation. He died peacefully in the middle of meditation and was soon buried in a pine box, sitting in the lotus position. Since then, he has been exhumed twice, and despite the absence of an act of mummification, analysis of his body showed that he died within about 36 hours, and not the actual 100 years.
Franklin Expedition Mummies
Hoping to find the Northwest Passage, an expedition of over 100 men sailed in 1845 to New World... No one else heard of this expedition, but five years later, a separate expedition stumbled upon the graves of three men, John Torrington, John Hartnell and William Brain, who were buried on Beachy Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago of Nunavut. In 1984, a group of anthropologists went to the ice island to exhume the bodies of men, which are very well preserved thanks to the frosty tundra climate. They were able to determine the cause of death of men 138 years ago, which despite the wild cold was pneumonia and tuberculosis, and scientists were able to find out that each of them had a lethal amount of lead in their bodies, probably from the ship's water distillation system.
Woman with fossilized fruit
In 1955, a Moroccan woman named Zahra Abutalib was brought to the hospital to deliver her first child. When she was told that she would need to have a caesarean section, she was very scared of the procedure and ran away from the hospital. Later, the unborn child died in her womb, and despite this she refused to remove the dead fetus from her abdomen. Nearly 50 years later, she was admitted to the hospital again, complaining of excruciating abdominal pain. The doctors discovered that what they believed to be a tumor turned out to be calcified by the remains of her deceased. born child... This happens extremely rarely, in history there are only about 300 such officially registered cases.
Probably all of you have watched horror films about revived mummies attacking people. These sinister dead have always excited the human imagination. However, in reality, mummies do not carry anything terrible, representing an incredible archaeological value. In this issue you will find 13 real mummies that have survived to our time and are among the most significant archaeological finds of our time.
A mummy is a body of a dead creature specially treated with a chemical substance, in which the process of tissue decomposition is slowed down. Mummies are stored for hundreds and even thousands of years, becoming a "window" to the ancient world. On the one hand, mummies look creepy, some have goosebumps from one glance at these wrinkled bodies, but on the other hand, they are of incredible historical value, storing interesting information about life. the ancient world, customs, health and diet of our ancestors.
1. Screaming mummy from the Guanajuato Museum
The Guanajuato Museum of Mummies in Mexico is one of the strangest and most horrible in the world; 111 mummies are collected here, which are naturally preserved mummified bodies of people, most of whom died in the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century and were buried in the local cemetery " Pantheon of Saint Paula ".
The exhibits of the museum were exhumed between 1865 and 1958, when a law was in force that obliged relatives to pay a tax so that the bodies of their relatives were in the cemetery. If the tax was not paid on time, the relatives lost the right to the burial place and the dead bodies were removed from the stone tombs. As it turned out, some of them were naturally mummified, and they were kept in a special building near the cemetery. Distorted facial expressions on some of the mummies indicate that they were buried alive.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these mummies began to attract tourists, and cemetery workers began to charge fees to visit the premises where they were kept. The official date for the establishment of the Museum of Mummies in Guanajuato is 1969, when the mummies were exhibited in glass shelves. Now the museum is visited annually by hundreds of thousands of tourists.
2. The mummy of a boy from Greenland (Kilakitsok market town)
Near the Greenlandic settlement of Kilakitsok, located on the west coast of the largest island in the world, an entire family was discovered in 1972, mummified by low temperatures... Nine perfectly preserved bodies of the ancestors of the Eskimos, who died on the territory of Greenland during the Middle Ages reigned in Europe, aroused a keen interest of scientists, but one of them became famous throughout the world and outside the scientific framework.
Belonging to a one-year-old child (as established by anthropologists who suffered from Down syndrome), it looks more like some kind of doll and makes an indelible impression on visitors to the National Museum of Greenland in Nuuk.
3. Two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo
The Catacombs of the Capuchins in Palermo, Italy are an eerie place, a necropolis that attracts tourists from all over the world with many mummified bodies of varying degrees of preservation. But the symbol of this place is the baby face of Rosalia Lombardo, a two-year-old girl who died of pneumonia in 1920. Her father, unable to cope with his grief, turned to the famous physician Alfredo Salafia with a request to save his daughter's body.
Now it makes the hair on the head of all visitors to the Palermo dungeons, without exception, move - amazingly preserved, peaceful and so alive that it seems as if Rosalia only dozed for a short time, it makes an indelible impression.
4. Juanita from the Peruvian Andes
Either still a girl, or already a girl (the age of death from 11 to 15 years is called), named by Juanita, gained worldwide fame, getting into the ranking of the best scientific discoveries according to Time magazine, thanks to its preservation and terrible history, which scientists told after finding the mummy in an ancient Inca settlement in the Peruvian Andes in 1995. Sacrificed to the gods in the 15th century, it has survived to this day in almost perfect condition thanks to the ice of the Andean peaks.
As part of the exposition of the Museum of the Andean Sanctuaries in the city of Arequipa, the mummy often goes on tour, exhibiting, for example, at the headquarters of the National Geographic Society in Washington, or at many sites in the Land of the Rising Sun, which is generally distinguished by a strange love for mummified bodies.
5. Knight Christian Friedrich von Kalbutz, Germany
This German knight lived from 1651 to 1702. After his death, his body turned into a mummy in a natural way and is now on public display.
According to legend, the knight Kalbutz was a big fan of using the "right of the first night". The loving Christian had 11 children of his own and about three dozen bastards. In July 1690, he claimed his "first night right" regarding the young bride of a shepherd from the town of Buckwitz, but the girl refused him, after which the knight killed her newly-made husband. Imprisoned, he swore before the judges that he was not guilty, otherwise "after death his body will not crumble to dust."
Since Kalbutz was an aristocrat, his word of honor was enough for him to be acquitted and released. The knight died in 1702 at the age of 52 and was buried in the von Kalbutz family tomb. In 1783, the last representative of this dynasty died, and in 1794 a restoration was started in the local church, during which the tomb was opened to reburial all the dead of the von Kalbutz family in an ordinary cemetery. It turned out that all of them, except for Christian Frederick, had decayed. The latter turned into a mummy, which proved the fact that the loving knight was still an oath-breaker.
6. The mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh - Ramses the Great
The mummy shown in the photo belongs to Pharaoh Ramses II (Ramses the Great), who died in 1213 BC. NS. and is one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs. It is believed that he was the ruler of Egypt during the campaign of Moses. One of distinctive features This mummy is the presence of red hair, symbolizing the connection with the god Set - the patron saint of royal power.
In 1974, Egyptologists discovered that the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II was rapidly deteriorating. It was decided to immediately take her by plane to France for examination and restoration, for which the mummies were issued a modern Egyptian passport, and in the column "occupation" they wrote "king (deceased)". At the Paris airport, the mummy was greeted with all the military honors due to the visit of the head of state.
7.Mummy of a girl 18-19 years old from the Danish city of Skrydstrup
Mummy of a girl aged 18-19, buried in Denmark in 1300 BC. NS. The deceased was a tall, slender girl with long blond hair styled in an intricate hairstyle reminiscent of a 1960s Babette. Her expensive clothes and jewelry suggests that she belonged to a local elite family.
The girl was buried in a herb-lined oak coffin, so her body and clothing are surprisingly well preserved. The preservation would have been even better if the layer of soil above the grave had not been damaged several years before this mummy was discovered.
The Similaun man, whose age at the time of discovery was about 5300 years, which made him the oldest European mummy, received the nickname Ötzi from scientists. Discovered on September 19, 1991 by a couple of German tourists walking through the Tyrolean Alps, stumbling upon the remains of a Chalcolithic resident, perfectly preserved thanks to the natural ice mummification, he made a splash in the scientific world- still nowhere in Europe have the bodies of our distant ancestors ideally survived to this day been found.
Now this tattooed mummy can be seen in the archaeological museum of Bolzano, Italy. Like many other mummies, Ötzi is allegedly shrouded in a halo of curse: over the course of several years, under various circumstances, several people died, one way or another connected with the study of the Iceman.
Girl from Ide (Dutch. Meisje van Yde) - this is the name given to the well-preserved body of a teenage girl, found in a peat bog near the village of Ide in the Netherlands. This mummy was found on May 12, 1897. The body was wrapped in a woolen cape.
Around the girl's neck was a loop of woven wool, indicating that she was executed for some crime or sacrificed. In the area of the collarbone, a trail of injury was preserved. Skin were not touched by the decay that is characteristic of swamp bodies.
The results of a radiocarbon analysis carried out in 1992 showed that she died at the age of about 16 between 54 BC. NS. and 128 A.D. NS. The head of the corpse was half shaved shortly before death. The preserved hair is long and has a reddish tint. However, it should be noted that the hair of all corpses that got into the swampy environment acquires a reddish color as a result of the denaturalization of the coloring pigment under the influence of acids in the swampy soil.
Computed tomography determined that during her lifetime she had a curvature of the spine. Further research led to the conclusion that the cause of this, most likely, was the defeat of the vertebrae with bone tuberculosis.
10. Bog Man Rendsvuren
A man from Rendswühren, who also belongs to the so-called swamp people, was found near the German city of Kiel in 1871. At the time of his death, the man was between 40 and 50 years old, and body studies showed that he died of a blow to the head.
11. Networks I - egyptian pharaoh in the tomb
The magnificently preserved mummy of Seti I and the remains of the original wooden coffin were discovered in the Deir el-Bahri cache in 1881. Seti I ruled Egypt from 1290 to 1279. BC NS. The mummy of this pharaoh was buried in a specially prepared tomb.
Seti is a minor character in the science fiction films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, where he is depicted as a pharaoh who fell victim to the conspiracy of his high priest Imhotep.
12. Mummy of Princess Ukok
The mummy of this woman, nicknamed the Altai princess, was found by archaeologists in 1993 on the Ukok plateau and is one of the most significant discoveries of archeology at the end of the 20th century. Researchers believe that the burial was made in V-III centuries BC and belongs to the period of the Pazyryk culture of Altai.
During excavations, archaeologists found that the deck in which the body of the buried woman was placed was filled with ice. That is why the woman's mummy is well preserved. The burial was walled up in a layer of ice. This caused great interest archaeologists, since in such conditions very ancient things could be well preserved. In the cell, they found six horses under saddles and with harness, as well as a wooden block of larch, nailed down with bronze nails. The contents of the burial clearly indicated the nobility of the buried person.
The mummy was lying on its side with slightly tucked legs. She had numerous tattoos on her arms. The mummies were wearing a silk shirt, a woolen skirt, felt socks, a fur coat and a wig. All these clothes were made of very high quality and testifies to the high status of the buried woman. She died at a young age (about 25 years old) and belonged to the elite of the Pazyryk society.
13. Ice Maiden from the Inca tribe
This is the famous mummy of a girl aged 14-15 years, which the Incas sacrificed more than 500 years ago. It was discovered in 1999 on the slope of the Nevado-Sabankaya volcano. Next to this mummy, several more children's bodies were also found, also subjected to mummification. Researchers suggest that these children were chosen among others for their beauty, after which they walked many hundreds of kilometers across the country, were specially prepared and sacrificed to the gods at the top of the volcano.
A mummy is a body of a living being specially treated with a chemical substance, which slows down the process of tissue decomposition. Mummies have been stored for hundreds and even thousands of years, carrying the history of our ancestors, their customs and appearance. On the one hand, mummies look terribly scary, sometimes goosebumps run from one glance, on the other hand, they keep in themselves interesting story the ancient world. We have compiled a list of 13 of the creepiest and most interesting mummies ever discovered in the world:
13. Mummies Museum Guanajuato, Mexico
Photo 13. Museum of Guanajuato Mummies - 59 mummies that died in 1850-1950 are on display [blogspot.ru]The Guanajuato Museum of Mummies in Mexico is one of the strangest and most terrible in the world, with about 111 mummies (59 of which are on display) that died between 1850 and 1950 are collected here. Distorted facial expressions on some of the mummies indicate that they were buried alive. Hundreds of thousands of tourists visit the museum every year.
12. Baby mummy in Qilakitsoq, Greenland
Photo 12. Mummy of a 6-month-old boy in Greenland (Qilakitsoq market town) [Choffa] Another example of a live burial is a 6-month-old boy found in Greenland. Nearby, 3 more mummies of women were found, perhaps one of them is the boy's mother, with whom he was buried alive (according to the Eskimo customs of that time). The mummies are dated 1460. Thanks to the icy climate of Greenland, the clothes of that time are well preserved. In total, 78 items of clothing were found, made from the skins of animals, for example, seals and deer. There were small tattoos on the faces of the adults, but the face of a child is just awful!
11. Rosalia Lombardo, Italy
Photo 11.2-x summer girl who died of pneumonia in 1920 [Maria lo sposo] Little Rosalia was only 2 years old when she died of pneumonia in 1920 in Palermo, Sicily. The saddened father instructed the famous embalmer Alfred Salafia to mummify the body of Rosalia Lombardo.
10. Mummy with a painted face, Egypt
Photo 10. Mummy from Egypt on display in the British Museum [Klafubra] When we think about mummies, the first thing that comes to mind is Egypt. Many films have been made with the participation of these surviving corpses, which, bandaged in bandages, come back to life, attacking civilians. The photo shows one of the typical representatives of mummies (the exhibit is on display at the British Museum).
9. Christian Friedrich von Kalbutz, Germany
Photo 9. Christian Knight, Germany [B. Schroeren] The photo shows the German knight Christian, a halo of mystery surrounds this terrible gaze of the mummy.
8. Ramses II, Egypt
Photo 8. Mummy of the Egyptian Pharaoh - Ramses the Great [ThutmoseIII] The mummy shown in the photo belongs to Pharaoh Ramses II (Ramses the Great), who died in 1213 BC. and is one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs. It is believed that he was the ruler of Egypt during the campaign of Moses and is represented as such in many works of art. One of the distinctive features of the mummy is the presence of red hair, symbolizing the connection with the god Set, the patron saint of royal power.
7. Woman of Skrydstrup, Denmark
Photo 7. Mummy of a girl of 18-19 years old, Denmark [Sven Rosborn] Mummy of a woman 18-19 years old, buried in Denmark in 1300 BC. From her clothes and jewelry, it can be assumed that she belonged to the family of the leader. The girl was buried in an oak coffin, so her body and clothes are surprisingly well preserved.
6. Ginger, Egypt
Photo 6. Mummy of an Egyptian Adult [Jack1956] Mummy Ginger “Ginger” is an Egyptian mummy of an adult man who died more than 5000 years ago and was buried in the sand in the desert (at that time the Egyptians had not yet begun mummification of corpses).
5. Man Gaul, Ireland
Photo 5. Gallagh man buried in the swamp [Mark J Healey] This strange type of mummy, known as the Gallagh Man, was discovered in a swamp in Ireland in 1821. The man was buried in a swamp in a cloak with a fragment of a willow branch around his neck. Some researchers believe he may have been strangled.
4. Man Rendsvuren, Germany
Photo 4. Bog Man Rendsvuren [Bullenwächter] The Rendswühren bog man, like the bog man Gallach, was found in a swamp, this time in Germany in 1871. The man was 40-50 years old, it is believed that he was beaten to death, the body was found in the 19th century.
3. Seti I - Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt
Photo 3. Seti I - Egyptian pharaoh in the tomb. [Underwood and Underwood] Seti I ruled from 1290 to 1279 BC. Pharaoh's mummy was buried in an Egyptian tomb. The Egyptians were skilled embalmers, so we can see them at work in our time.
2. Princess Ukoka, Altai
Photo 2. Mummy of Princess Ukok [ When it comes to mummies, many first of all remember ancient Egypt, the pharaohs, whose bodies have survived to this day, and the Hollywood blockbuster "The Mummy". But in fact, mummies are not only Ancient Egypt and Hollywood. In our review, little-known, and sometimes just incredible facts about mummies.
1. What is a mummy
A mummy is a human or animal body that is protected from decay by removing the internal organs, treating it with soda (sodium carbonate decahydrate) and resin, and then wrapping it in bandages.
2. Mum means wax
The word "mummy" comes from the medieval Latin word "mumia", borrowed from the medieval Arabic "mūmiya" and from the Persian "mum" (wax), which meant an embalmed body, as well as an embalming substance based on bitumen.
3. Variety of mummies
Archaeologists have discovered many animal mummies including jackals, cats, baboons, horses, birds, gerbils, fish, snakes, crocodiles, hippos and even a lion.4. Anubis
Some people wonder why so many jackal mummies have been found. The explanation for this is quite simple - the god of mummification was Anubis, the Egyptian god with the head of a jackal.
5. The art of mummification
The ancient Egyptians started making mummies around 3400 BC, but it took them almost eight hundred years to figure out that if you take out internal organs, the mummy will persist and not rot. Over time, mummification became a very complex and lengthy process that lasted up to seventy days.
6. Herodotus - the first person to describe mummification
The first person to write in great detail about the mummification process was the Greek historian Herodotus. This happened after he visited Egypt around 450 BC.
7. Chinchorro tribe
Despite the fact that mummies are almost exclusively associated only with Egypt, the South American Chinchorro tribe was the first to start making mummies. According to the latest archaeological evidence, the oldest Chinchorro mummies date back to the seventh millennium BC, which is twice the age of the first Egyptian mummies.
8. X-ray of the mummy
The first modern scientific examinations of mummies began in 1901, carried out by professors of English language at the government school of medicine in Cairo. The first X-ray of the mummy was taken in 1903, when Professors Grafton Elliot Smith and Howard Carter used the only X-ray machine in Cairo at the time to study the mummy of Thutmose IV.
9. Classics
Not all mummies were wrapped in the same position. For example, the vast majority of the pharaohs were located in a prone position with their arms crossed over their chest. It is this position that is most often shown in films and popular media.
10. Osiris
According to Egyptian mythology, the god Osiris was the first mummy in history. However, his remains have not been found.
11. Afterlife hospitality
For this reason, after the mummy was all wrapped in bandages, it was covered with a special cloth with a painted image of Osiris. This was done so that the Egyptian god of the underworld was kind and hospitable to the dead.
12. There would be money
Many people mistakenly believe that only the pharaohs were mummified. In reality, those who could afford it were mummified.
13. I will take everything with me
The ancient Egyptians believed that the things that were buried in the tomb along with the mummy would help the deceased in life after death. Thus, everything valuable to the deceased was buried with them. These were objects of art, artifacts, treasures and jewelry.
14. Protection from thieves
Protection from thieves was also provided - ancient Egyptian myths warned that a curse was imposed on the tombs and their contents, which would strike all who entered them. It has been argued that a number of archaeologists who discovered some of these burials were struck by total bad luck, and some even died under unusual circumstances.
However, these curses could not prevent the plundering of many graves and the theft of precious jewelry and other expensive items who "accompanied" the mummies to the afterlife.
15. Doubtful entertainment
In addition, during the Victorian era, unwrapping mummies became a popular pastime at parties. The hosts who hosted the dinner party bought the mummy, and the guests could unfold it during the party.
16. An irreplaceable medicinal component
During Victorian times, mummies were considered an essential ingredient in many medicines. Most eminent doctors assured their patients that mummy powder or crushed mummies had amazing healing properties.
17. Ramses III was afraid of reptiles
Ramses III was afraid of reptiles. It is for this reason that his mummy was found wearing an amulet that was supposed to protect him from snakes in the afterlife.
18. Repository of intellect and emotion
The only organ that the ancient Egyptians left inside the mummy was the heart. At that time, the heart was considered the center of the centers of intelligence and emotions - qualities that were needed by the dead and in the afterlife.
19. Profitable business
Mummies were a very lucrative business in ancient Egypt. In the process of preparing the mummy, many workers were used: from embalmers and surgeons to priests and scribes.
20. Average weight of a mummy
Modern sleeping bags are made wide at the shoulders and narrow at the legs, making the person lying inside look like a mummy. This is not just a coincidence, as their design was inspired by the way the mummies were wrapped to preserve them for millennia.
In continuation of the topic, we decided to remember about.
