10.The Hidden Baby
In 1679, Peder Winstrup was buried in the Swedish cathedral in Lund. In life, he had been an important bishop. Dead, his body remains one of the best preserved corpses of the seventeenth century. When the researchers decided to study the bishop more closely, they were surprised to find a baby hidden behind his legs. The practice of burying babies with adults was not uncommon at the time. But for a long time, the question begged: why was the boy placed with this particular bishop? All the investigators knew was that the child was a boy and that he was stillborn. In 2021, DNA testing revealed that the two shared 25 percent of their genes. After looking at Winstrup’s family records, it became clear that the boy was not his nephew, cousin, or half-brother. The bishop had a son, and although there was no trace of the son’s children, a grandson was the only option that Winstrup’s genealogical records had not removed. This family connection could explain why the couple was buried together.
9.The Mummified Nests
A unique discovery in Panama City started with a fire. In 1875, a fire destroyed the Cathedral Basilica Santa María la Antigua. During the restoration process, the altarpiece was repaired with gold leaf. Unbeknownst to the people who placed the gold, they sealed several bees’ nests. After 150 years, another restoration team discovered the now mummified nests. Incredibly, the bees were perfectly preserved. This was a unique opportunity for scientists to study a very shy species. Called Eufriesea surinamensis, the bees are known for their rainbow-shaped faces and their females that live in incredibly well-hidden nests. The bees also collected enough pollen to show what the ecosystem looked like 150 years ago. The insects grazed on 48 different plants and flowers and, interestingly, a tea mangrove that no longer grows near Panama City.
8.Alex Wasn’t On Keto
About 2,200 years ago, a man died in ancient Egypt. His name did not survive but thanks to the inscriptions on his coffin, his work survived. The mummy, who was nicknamed Alex, appeared to have been a priest. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem scanned Alex and made a surprising discovery. The priest ate a lot of carbohydrates, sat too much, and avoided going out in the sunlight. A sedentary lifestyle is considered a modern problem, but Alex showed that ancient people also acted like television addicts within their homes. His lifestyle cost her dearly. Alex developed heart disease and osteoporosis that was so severe that it reduced her height to 1.5 meters (5 feet). At the time of her death, Alex was roughly between 30 and 40 years old, a young age for someone of high status in the ancient world.
7.Mysterious Age Progression
From the 1st to the 3rd century AD, some Egyptians added a touch of love to mummies. After wrapping the body, they painted a portrait of the deceased on the outside (where the person’s head would be). Researchers always wondered if these portraits were accurate images of the dead or random art. In 2020, a mummy portrait was chosen for facial reconstruction. The remains belonged to a boy who died when he was 3 or 4 years old, most likely from pneumonia. The software scanned his skull and digitally reconstructed his face. The child was then compared to his portrait. The digital child and the portrait matched, except for one curious detail. For whatever reason, the artist made him look much older in painting. Since this was the first reconstruction of a portrait of a mummy, it is unknown whether it was a common practice, a special request from the family, or an artist taking creative liberties with the facts.
6.The Hawk That Was Something Else
In 2018, the Maidstone Museum in England scanned one of his human mummies. Subsequently, an impulsive decision changed everything about another mummy. The team thought that while they were busy with the scanner, why not take a look at some of the museum’s mummified animals for the first time? One of the creatures they chose was a hawk. The museum always thought that the bird was once a treasured pet. The body was carefully mummified and the carcass was beautifully decorated with images of falcons. But when the mummy was scanned, the skeleton was not that of a bird. At first, the bones resembled those of a monkey, but then he realized the truth. It was a human baby with malformations, the child was anencephalic, a condition that probably killed him at birth. The brain was almost nonexistent. The boy also lacked most of his skull and his spine never closed. He also had a cleft lip and palate. In ancient Egypt, children were buried in jars. The burial of the child broke with this tradition. It was clearly valued and treated with care. But it is not clear why he was not given a normal burial in a pot which, at the moment, was very unusual.
5.Takabuti’s Death Solved
The first Egyptian mummy to arrive in Ireland was Takabuti. She arrived in 1834 and the hieroglyphs on the coffin explained that her Takabuti was the daughter of a priest. She was also married and in her 20s when she died around 660 BC. But the question remained. Why did she die so young? In modern times, Takabuti had a DNA test and she got scanned. Both revealed surprises. DNA tests showed that she was more related to Europeans than to modern day Egyptians. The scans resolved how she died herself: Takabuti was attacked from behind and violently stabbed to death. In addition to this tragic discovery, another unexpected finding was that she had two rare diseases. She takabuti had an extra vertebrate and also an extra tooth.
4.More Clues About A Pharaoh’s Death
Much is known about Pharaoh Seqenenre Taa II. In the center of his reign there was a deadly war with the Hyksos who occupied Egypt. His son and his heir died on the battlefield, but no one knew how Pharaoh himself died. The mummy of Seqenenre Taa II was discovered in 1886. His skull had a terrible open wound on his forehead and his body also smelled fatal. This suggested that he died during a deliberate attack and was hastily embalmed. In 2021, a new study found more injuries. Apart from the 7-centimeter (2.75-inch) cut on his forehead, Seqenenre Taa II also suffered trauma to his nose, cheeks and the upper part of his right eye. The pharaoh had also been stabbed at the base of his neck. Since he had no defensive wounds on his arms, he could have been tied up. The angle of the injuries also showed that he was kneeling when he was surrounded and killed with weapons such as axes, swords and blunt objects. The manner of his death suggested that Seqenenre Taa II was captured and executed on the battlefield. If so, then the “legends” of the pharaohs fighting in the trenches with their soldiers were true in the case of Seqenenre Taa II.
3.The Unexpected Head Shot
The Oxford Natural Museum houses a famous dodo. The bird is the only one of its extinct species that still has soft tissues. Hoping to learn more about the evolution of the dodo, the researchers scanned the bird’s mummified head and found lead pellets lodged in the skull. The bird was swaying during the 17th century when a hunter approached from behind and shot the dodo in the head. Dodos were mercilessly hunted in their native Mauritius. For this reason, the discovery may not sound strange at all. But what made the shot so surprising was the alleged story of the Oxford specimen. According to an eyewitness, the bird lived in London. It remained a popular curiosity, so why shoot it? Perhaps the eyewitness account was false and the bird was already dead when it arrived in Britain. But if the dodo was shot and killed in Mauritius, that leaves another mystery. How was the corpse preserved for the long journey back to Britain when no one had the skills to mummify it?
2.The Pregnant Mummy
In the 19th century, the University of Warsaw welcomed a new Egyptian mummy. They were delighted to know that the individual was important. According to the writing on the elaborate coffin, she contained a priest named Hor-Djehuty. But the “mummy trade” was once rife with dishonesty. Sellers often made a change. They would get a mummy, any mummy, and put it inside a coffin to sell. Recent scans and research have eliminated many of these scams. In 2016, Hor-Djehuty’s remains were X-rayed and the University’s worst fears were confirmed. The body did not belong to the priest but to an unknown woman. Any disappointment quickly faded when someone noticed the baby. The scan showed that the woman was 6 or 7 months pregnant and, for some inexplicable reason, she did not remove the baby during mummification. In fact, the woman remains the only pregnant mummy in the world.
1.The Broken Body
In 2000, Pakistani police arrested several people who tried to sell a mummy. The confiscated artifact was sent to the Karachi National Museum and soon, a press conference announced that the body belonged to a Persian princess who died around 600 BC. The find was so rare that Iran and Pakistan fought over which country was the owner of the royal mummy, so the discovery of the fairy tale began to unravel. The writing on her breastplate, which revealed her name and her family, had grammatical errors. Her name was also a red flag. She was known as Rhodugune, who was more Greek than Persian. The reed mat under her body was also only 50 years old. Experts feared it was another random ancient mummy adorned with fake royal material for a higher price. The truth was weirder. The woman was not old. She died around 1996 from a broken neck. A blow from a blunt object had also fractured his spine. There are many unanswered questions. Who was she? What happened to her the day she died and who mummified her body?
