Pop quiz: Name a person who’s been frozen for years and lived to tell the tale. Captain America?
Elsa of Arendelle? What if I told you that there are actual people in real life who did just that?
If you think that’s cool, think again. Because most of them didn’t
exactly survive the ice-olation. Here are 10 People Who Were Frozen in Time!
What's up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the
most outrageous, outlandish, and out-of-this-world fun facts!
Stay tuned because our Top 1 will surely bring chills down your spine!
Now let’s break some ice! Ice, ice, baby, dundundundun…
#10. George Mallory
Conquering the world’s highest summit is every climber’s biggest dream,
but it turned into the biggest nightmare for these two daredevils.
On June 4, 1924, famed British mountaineer George Mallory and his climbing partner
Andrew Irvine embarked on a journey to conquer Mt. Everest. Unfortunately, the two climbers
disappeared that day, and their bodies were never recovered… not until 70 years later.
On May 1, 1999, while American rock climber Conrad Anker was doing research at Mt. Everest
together with a team of mountaineers, he noticed a large, flat, white rock on the northern slopes
of the mountain. Upon closer inspection, he realized he was not looking at a rock,
but the bare back of George Mallory! Time had degraded most of his clothing,
but the parts of his body that had been covered were still well preserved.
Anker chronicled his discovery of Mallory in a 1999 book titled “The Lost Explorer.”
Keep watching because our number 1 story played out like a twisted fairytale!
# 9. Mr. & Mrs. Dumoulin
Imagine passing away and only getting a proper funeral 75 years later. It’s the
bittersweet story of Swiss couple Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin.
On August 15, 1942, the couple left home to milk their cows
but never returned, leaving behind their seven children to tend to themselves.
However, in July 2017, a ski resort worker came across two mummified bodies buried near the
two-mile long glacier in the western alps. When he went closer, he saw two other boots, a hat,
and the blackened remains of the couple dressed in well-preserved clothes from the World War II era.
Their identities were confirmed by their youngest daughter, Marceline Udry-Dumoulin.
Their funeral was held in a church in southwestern Switzerland.
After 75 years, the couple were properly laid to rest.
#8. Cherchen Man
Our next story got a lot of historians and archaeologists thinking,
“What were ancient Europeans doing in China?”
Found in 1978 at the Tarim Basin located in the town of Cherchen in China, the Cherchen
Man is one of the most famous mummies every discovered in China. And it’s easy to see why.
Just look at his perfectly preserved remains which have been frozen for thousands of years!
The Cherchen Man, whose features look more European than Chinese,
is believed to have passed away around 1,000 BC. He stood around 6 feet, with reddish brown hair,
high cheekbones and an aquiline nose. Researchers believe the Cherchen Man
is proof of the descent of Afanasevan culture, which hailed from Siberia, around 3300 B.C.
#7. Ötzi the Iceman
Between 3400 and 3100 BC, this man is believed to have died from being
shot with an arrow which caused a fatal wound on his left shoulder.
The mummy of Ötzi the Iceman, which was found on September 1991 in the Ötzal Alps in Austria—hence
his nickname—had been sitting under ice for more than 5,000 years before it was finally unearthed.
At first glance, the Iceman seems like any ordinary archaeological find,
but what made him special is the mystery surrounding the aftermath of its discovery.
Influenced by the "Curse of the pharaohs" and the media theme of cursed mummies,
claims have been made that Ötzi is cursed, when several people connected to the discovery,
recovery, and subsequent examination of Ötzi eventually died.
Okay, I’m not going anywhere near him. I’m perfectly fine 5,000 miles away.
#6. Canadian Iceman
If you thought Ötzi’s name doesn’t really roll off the tongue,
try his Candian counterpart-- Kwäday Dän Ts’inchi, which means ‘Long Ago Person
Found’ in the ethnic language. Okay, we’re calling him Canadian Iceman from here on.
In July 1999, while three sheep hunters were out hunting near the Yukon border,
they discovered the Canadian Iceman’s body along a glacier. The partly mummified body
had been divided in two due to glacier movement. The torso and the lower part of
the body were separated by 2-3 meters. The head was missing, and the lower part of the legs,
including the feet, were skeletonized. The examination of the human remains
revealed that they belonged to a young man of about 18 years old.
Radiocarbon dating placed the age of the Canadian Iceman’s body at between
300 and 550 years, and he represents the oldest well-preseved human remains in North America.
#5. Mummy Family
So far, we’ve mostly seen mummified bodies of full-grown adults.
But have you seen a mummy of a six-month old baby?
In 1972, while two brothers were out hunting at Qilakitsoq in northwestern Greenland,
they chanced upon two pits covered in stones. Curious, the brothers turned over a few stones and
inadvertently discovered mummified bodies stacked on top of each other!
The approximately 500-year-old mummies included six women and two children,
one of whom is a six-month old baby boy. All of them are fully dressed in Inuit garb. The baby
is believed to have been buried alive after his mother died and no one else can look after him.
Four of the Inuit mummies are now displayed at the Greenland National Museum.
#4. FM-2030 Transhumanism, a movement that
aims to capitalize on sophisticated technology to break through the limits of the human condition,
sounds like a pretty recent concept. But the roots of this philosophy is actually
attributed to a self-proclaimed futurist in the 70s named Fereidoun M. Esfandiary.
The Iranian-American author and philosopher legally changed his name to FM-2030 to reflect his
desire to live and celebrate his 100th birthday in the year 2030. And also, he wasn’t a big fan
of the usual naming conventions. Elon Musk would be so proud.
On July 8, 2000, when FM-2030 died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 69,
his body was in cryonic suspension at the Alcor Life Extension facility in Arizona. Basically,
his body was frozen in the hopes of resurrecting him in the future.
Unfortunately, up until now, proof that this experiment is effective is yet to be seen because
cryonics is still generally considered a pseudoscience.
#3. The Tollund Man
This next mummified corpse was so well-reserved that he was
even mistaken for a recent murder victim! In fact, the stubble on his chain, eyelashes,
and the wrinkles in his skin can still be observed in minute detail.
But lo and behold, he is believed to have actually lived during the 4th BC!
The Tollund Man was found in 1950 on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark. His remains
were deliberately mummified in a peat bog or a wetland.
Because of the position of his body that looks like he’s sleeping,
along with the fact that the man’s eyes and mouth were closed, experts believe that he died
as a human sacrifice rather than by execution. Archaeologists believe that the Tollund Man was
ritually sacrificed as an offering to the gods during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Scandinavia.
#2. John Shaw Torrington
In 1845, the Sir John Franklin expedition set off from England to find the Northwest
Passage that will serve as a gateway to Asia from North America. However,
just 2 months after the voyage began, no one heard from the crew again.
One of the missing explorers in that expedition was John Shaw Torrington.
Fast forward to 1984, and a team of anthropologists was finally able to
unearth Torrington’s coffin which was buried 4 feet deep in permafrost.
Amazingly, his body didn’t look a lot different from when he was buried 140 years ago!
That year, People magazine named Torrington one of the world’s most interesting
personalities. And James Taylor even wrote a song inspired by him, titled “The Frozen Man.”
Talk about leaving a legacy!
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# 1. La Doncella
The La Doncella or ‘The Maiden’ is well-known as a mummified teenage girl
who died more than 500 years ago in a ritual sacrifice in the Andes Mountains.
La Doncella was found dressed in a ceremonial tunic
and adorned with a headpiece--tokens of her new status as a messenger to the heavens.
Scientists also said that she drank corn liquor, which likely to have put her to sleep.
Her body was among the best-preserved mummies ever found, with internal organs intact,
blood still present in the heart and lungs, and skin and facial features mostly unscathed. No
special effort was made to preserve her. The cold and the dry, thin air did all the work!
Children were sacrificed as part of a religious ritual. Only beautiful, healthy,
physically perfect children were chosen and based on Incan beliefs, the children
did not die, but joined their ancestors and watched over their villages like angels.
So, which of these stories made you freeze in terror…
or awe? Let us know in the comments section below!
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And if you’re craving for more historical wonders, then
don’t miss our countdown of the 10 Most Incredible Underwater Discoveries Ever!
‘Til then, stay chill, fact-natics! And see you in the next video!