• From legendary finds in the depths of Egypt to important figures from the Soviet
Union mummified on display, we count 15 examples of well-preserved, important figures from
history 15 - Inca Children,
• They were composed of a boy, a girl and a maiden entombed on a 22,000 foot mountaintop
over 500 years ago • In 1999 they were unearthed near the Chilean
border, some of the best preserved bodies ever found - internal organs, skin, face,
heart, lungs and even blood were present in their corpses
• The reason they hadn't deteriorated is due to the cold and thin air atop the mountain,
apparently sacrificed as part of a religious ceremony or some such
14 - Ginger, • One of the oldest known mummies in existence,
ranging back to 3400 B.C alongside 5 others found in the late 19th century
• This one, Ginger, is the most famous, nicknamed for his red hair - it went on display
at the British Museum in 1901, another first since public corpse displays were widely rare
at the time • Since traditional mummification wasn't
a common practice, the only reason these bodies turned up more or less complete is because
the warm sand dried and preserved them in their shallow graves at Egypt
13 - Tollund Man, • This guy is known as a 'bog body', a body
naturally preserved in a bog who lived in the 4th century BC, round about the Iron Age
• In 1950 he was found buried in the Jutland Peninsula, Denmark, with a head and face so
well preserved that he was thought to be a recent murder victim
• Instead we find out he died over 1,500 years ago, hanged by a rope with marks still
visible around his neck • Though only the head was found, a replica
of the body was created and is now on display at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark
12 - Heartless Mummy, • This is one found not two months ago - usually
mummies have had their brains removed with a hook through their nose, but this is one
of the exceptions • Instead, she's had her organs, intestines,
stomach, liver and heart removed with spices and lichen spread over her head and abdomen
• It's believed she lived 1,700 years ago, and died between age 30 and 50
11 - Iceman Otzi, • Discovered in 1991 in the Italian Schnal
Valley glacier - a man who was alive around 3,300 BC, one of Europe's oldest known natural
mummies • It's so well preserved that we could even
see his last meals - chamois meat, red deer flanks and herb bread, along with grain, roots
and bits of fruit • Also found on his body were some ancient
clothes, as well as a flint knife and sheath, some intact blood cells known to be the oldest
blood cells ever identified 10 - Lady of Dai,
• A Chinese mummy from 2,100 years ago in the Western Han Dynasty, known to be the best
preserved ancient human ever found • The mummy is so complete that it's actually
baffled scientists around the world, dead around 50 years of age with heaps of precious
goods and fine fabrics inside her tomb • In 2003 a secret compound was discovered
injected into Xin Zhui's still existing blood vessels that apparently assured her preservation
- but still a mystery 9 - German Mummy,
• This one wasn't found underground, or atop some lonely mountain - it was found by
a 10 year old boy in his grandmother's attic • Inside the sarcophagus was a complete
death mask, a jar used to store organs and other artifacts
• Its authenticity has been called into question multiple times, but nobody can deny
it would've been the creepiest thing ever to know you've been sleeping underneath a
preserved dead person for god knows how long 8 - Vladimir Lenin,
• One of the more well-known figures from Russia, basically the founder of the Soviet
Union who, in 1918, survived two separate assassination attempts in the same year
• On the first, he got away unscathed but the second he was shot at least two times
-and though he survived, he suffered strokes the following years and ended up basically
paralysed • His body was embalmed and now on exhibit
in the Lenin Mausoleum in Moscow, though in a recent poll from 2012 48% of the population
believe he should be buried 7 - Tjayasetimu,
• Known to the ancient Egyptians as a star singer, this seven year old girl from 3,000
years ago was a member of the royal choir for the pharaohs on the Nile
• It is believed she might've died from a short illness, possibly cholera, and it
seems to be a rare example of elaborate mummification including a veil, golden mask and gilded sarcophagus
• It's not clear why it was not build for her size of 4 feet, but perhaps they simply
misjudged her height during construction 6 - Caucasian Chinese Man,
• A 2,000 year old mummy found in the Tarim basin of Western China, a man with blond hair
and a long nose - quite unlike typical mummies found in the region
• In 1993 we learned the DNA of this man came from European stock, and early Chinese
texts do mention far-east Caucasian nomads such as the Bau, Tocharians and Yeuzhi
• It's unknown how he ended up there though 5 - Hatshepsut,
• This is a long story of mystery - what happened to the mummified corpse of this once
prominent female pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt?
• Famous archaeologist Howard Carter discovered her royal tomb in 1902, but when he opened
the sarcophagus, it was empty • A hundred years later, a team of investigators
attempt to reveal the answer by looking inside a separate tomb to find a unknown female mummy
- by comparing the tooth with one they KNEW belonged to the famed pharaoh, they were able
to conclude it was indeed, her 3 - Rosalia Lombardo,
• This two year old girl was found in the Capuchin Catacombs in Italy, using a natural
preservative as well as chemicals in her bloodstream formalin, zinc salts, alcohol and others to
allow an almost unbelievable amount of mummified preservation
• Most of the details come from the hand-written memoir of the embalmer, Alfredo Salafia, who
recorded the exact process used to keep her from decomposing
• It's believed the use of zinc salts is what was most responsible for the level of
preservation 2 - Ramesses II,
• This guy is mega famous in the records of history, a pharaoh who ruled for six decades
and lived until he was 90, fathering almost a hundred kids
• Though he was initially buried in the fabled Valley of Kings, he was secretly moved
to avoid looters, and instead he was found in 1881 in a secret royal cache
• Because it had begun to deteriorate from a fungal infection, it was flown to Paris
for treatment - sadly, they couldn't resuscitate him
1 - King Tutankhamen • The boy king, who ruled Egypt at age 9
for a total of 10 years - he was basically unknown, a fleeting king barely recorded in
history • What made him famous was his discovery
- a tomb relatively untouched by looters, filled to the brim with ancient treasures,
important artifacts, shrines, masks and bits of invaluable history
• Howard Carter the same man who discovered the tomb of Hatshepsut found this particular
wealth of treasure, but his partner and financer Lord Carnarvon was killed by a mosquito bite,
prompting the "Curse of the Pharaohs"