Bloofer Lady Recommends: Mummies

MUMMIES

Bloofer Lady has enjoyed looking at mummies since she was a very small child, and in this edition of Bloofer Lady Recommends I am going to share some of my favorites with you.

THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO

These mummies all come from the same cemetery in Guanajuanto Mexico, where they were interred in 1833 during an outbreak of cholera. The bodies were disinterred, starting in 1865 and ending in 1958,because the relatives of the deceased could not afford to pay the tax that was required by law to keep the bodies in the cemetery during that time. Only 2% of the bodies removed ended up being mummified and all of these came from the above ground crypts, not from the cemetery plots in the ground. The oldest mummy is that of a French doctor and it is over 200 years old! They are all housed in a museum in the town and it is one of Mexico’s biggest tourist attractions.

OTZI THE ICEMAN

Otzi is a 5,300 year old mummy that was found in the Otzal Alps between the countries of Italy and Austria. When the Schnalstal glacier started to melt his body became exposed and he was found by some passing hikers. Otzi may be the oldest confirmed murder victim since his skull has a fracture and an arrowhead has been found in his shoulder. Some scientists believe that theory while others think that he may of fallen and hit his head. What is for certain is that he was around 45 years of age when he died, which was considered elderly for the time in which he lived.

TOLLUND MAN

Tollund Man is a natural mummy that was found in a bog in Denmark in 1950 when some men were cutting peat to put in their stove. He is thought to be 2,500 years old and as you can see from the rope that is still around his neck that he did not die a natural death. He was apparently hung and then thrown in the bog, and Bloofer Lady believes he was a criminal rather than a sacrificial victim. Scientists think that he was abut 40 years old and they can tell, from the well preserved contents of his stomach, that his last meal was porridge without any meat.

THE TARIM MUMMIES

These mummies are quite controversial because they are of caucasian people and were found in what is now Xinjiang China. They vary in age from 2,200 to about 4,000 years old. Scientists have found that these people originally came from Europe, Mesopotamia and India and quite possibly converged in this area. The Chinese government was very hesitant to let scientists examine these mummies mostly because their theory of China not getting any technology from the West would be directly challenged if the origins of these people were discovered by the outside world.