Scientists reveal the secrets of the enigmatic mummy of the « dried monk » of the Alps

The local tradition wants the mummified body, believed to belong to an 18th -century clergyman who succumbed to an infectious disease, to have been recovered from a grave a few years after his death and moved to the crypt of St. St. Thomas am Blasenstein, in a village north of the Danube in Austria.

Miraculous maintenance of the body – with skin and tissues intact – attracted early pilgrims who believed that the relics had therapeutic properties.

Centuries later, an capsule -shaped object found in a mummy radiography revealed that the clergyman may have found a more macabre end, suggesting that he may have been poisoned.

New information

Now, According to CNN, A team of scientists offers new information about many of the unanswered questions surrounding the mysterious mummy, which has taken the nickname « The Dried Priest ».

The revelations come after a recent renovation caused by a leak of water in the crypt, which created an unexpected opportunity to carry out a state -of -the -art scientific analysis of the corpse.

« We took the mummy for a few months for examination by our specialized groups, CT scans and more, » said Andreas Nerlich, a professor of medical at Ludwig-Munich University in Germany, who led the research.

« It was a situation that benefited everyone. We had the mummy for enough time to do a perfect resolution. « 

Through computed tomography, dating with radioactive carbon and chemical analysis of bone and tissue samples, Nerlich and Associate

The exterior appearance of the mummy from the front (A) and from behind (b) did not show incisions in the body.

Courtesy concession: Andreas Nerlich

It was able to confirm the identity of the mummy and determine the unique way the body had been maintained for such a long time.

The researchers published their findings in an article published Friday in Frontiers in Medicine.

A hitherto unknown method of embarrassment

The biggest surprise of the study came from CT scan: Scientists discovered that the abdominal and pelvic cavity of the mummy were filled with materials such as wooden chips of firs, cannabis and linen fabrics, some of which were embroidered.

Additional toxicological analysis revealed traces of zinc chloride and other elements.

« It was really unexpected, because the walls of the body were completely intact, » he said.

To explain this obvious contradiction, the team put the assumption that the material was probably introduced through the anus. And researchers believe it is the mixture of materials that has maintained the mummy in the obvious state of drying.

« The chips and the fabric would have bound water. Zinc chloride would have been drying and reduced the number of bacteria in the gut, « Nerlich said.

This method of embarrassment differs from the most well -known methods used in ancient Egypt, where the body was needed.

The technique observed in the clergyman has never been mentioned before in scientific literature, Nerlich added.

He said that he believes that the method, although not recorded in any manual of the time, may have been widely used in the 18th century to maintain corpses for transport or report.

Mummification practices were probably much more widespread and varied in the past, he said

Although it is clear that the « dried priest » is not a natural mummy, a more detailed analysis is required to determine if the relics was used to maintain the maintenance of the relics, said Marco Samadelli, a senior researcher at the Institute of Mummy Research, of ice.

Samadelli noted that small amounts of male, a well -known conservative were also detected in the mummy.

Decrypting mummy identity

The team concluded that the mummified body was by Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, an aristocrat who was a monk before becoming a pastor in the parish of St. Thomas am blasenstein for about six years.

He died while he was in this position in 1746 at the age of 37. According to the study, there were rumors among the locals that the mummy was by Sidler, though there were no written evidence of it.

The sample radio dated set the year of his death between 1734 and 1780, while the body’s analyzes indicate the age of death between 30 and 50, with the most likely range being between 35 and 45 years.

In both cases, dates match what is known for the end of Sidler, according to the study.

In addition, the study of chemical isotopes – carbon variants and nitrogen reflecting the vegetable or animal proteins consumed – from a sample of bone obtained from the mummy spine revealed a high quality diet based on cereals and large amounts of meat.

« This is in line with the expected diet of a local priest, » the authors of the study wrote in their work, adding that the absence of stress in the skeleton fits the life of a priest who did not exercise harsh physical activity.

However, the study found that by the end of his life, the clergyman may have faced a shortage of food, probably due to the war of the Austrian succession that was raging at that time.

What killed the « dried priest »?

The pastor, who had a long -term smoking habit, was not poisoned, according to the study. On the contrary, researchers believe that he was suffering from chronic tuberculosis, which could kill him causing acute pulmonary bleeding.

Inside the mummy, the researchers found a small glass ball with holes in both ends – perhaps part of a rosary that had been accidentally trapped in the fitting material. This object, according to Nerlich, was the ball -shaped object that had been found in an radiography that had been made in the early 2000s and created suspicions of a poisonous capsule.

The team also found no evidence to indicate that the body had ever been buried and explored, Nerlich added.

It is more likely that the body was prepared to be transferred to the « maternal monastery » of the Epiphany, 15 kilometers away, but for reasons lost in time, the corpse was left in the crypt of the church, without ever starting its last journey.