In Austria there is a mummy from the 18th century that is exceptionally well preserved. For centuries, scientists have been puzzling who the dead man was and how he was embalmed. Now researchers have revealed the secret. Accordingly, the mummy is actually a local chaplain. The special preservation of his body goes back to a previously unknown embalming method, as the autopsy showed. This technology differs significantly from other cultures, but could have been common in Europe.
Many cultures worldwide have embalmed their dead to preserve their bodies. However, the methods for embalming differ significantly depending on faith and cultural context. For example, the Egyptians used salts to dry the body, as well as fragrant and antimicrobial essences and oils. The residents of the Andes, on the other hand, dried their dead with fire and hot ashes and filled them with clay, wool, straw and ash. However, less is known about mummification techniques from Europe.
Feature of a 300 -year -old mummy from Austria
A team led by Andreas Nerlich from the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich has now examined a 300-year-old mummy, which was kept in a small village in Austria and is unusually well preserved. Although the arms and legs and the head are partly decayed after death, the upper body of the mummy is completely intact. She has been scientifically examined several times since 1967, but only incompletely. So far it was unclear who the dead person was, when he died and how he was mumified. In order to find out, the pathologists now carried out extensive analyzes, including CT scans, an autopsy of the body inside, toxicological tests, isotope analyzes and radiocarbond dates.
These analyzes made it possible for the first time to identify the dead: “The unusually well -preserved mummy in the church crypt of St. Thomas am Bladderstein is the body of the parish vicar Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, who died in 1746,” confirms Nerlich. According to the tests, the clergymen most likely died at the age of 35 to 45, between 1734 and 1780. Towards the end of his life, he could have starved, probably during the Austrian War of Succession. His skeleton has no major signs of stress. In addition, the dead man was a long -time pipe smoker and had a lung tuberculosis towards the end of his life, which he could also die. All of this data go with Sidler and the monastic life of an aristocratic priest without hard physical activity, as the researchers report.
Fabrics in the abdomen led to mummification
During the autopsy of the chaplain, the researchers found several foreign substances in his abdominal and pelvic cavity: wood chips from fir and spruce, fragments of branches as well as various fabrics, including linen, hemp and flax, but also silk. They also found traces of zinc chloride and copper as well as a single glass ball with holes at both ends. They considered former researchers who had already discovered this “ball” in the abdomen in scans. Nerlich and his colleagues, however, now identified them as a harmless pearl that presumably adorned a substance of monastic origin or a rosary and accidentally ended up in the mummy during the preparation.
The substances used for preservation apparently reached the abdomen of the dead through the buttocks and a cut in the intestinal wall, as the team stated. “Our investigation showed that the excellent preserving state from an unusual type of embalming, which was achieved by stuffing the abdomen through the rectal canal with wood shavings, twigs and fabric and the addition of zinc chloride for internal drying,” said Nerich. It was probably this special material mix that dried the mummy from the inside and put it into such good condition. “Obviously, the wood shavings, branches and the dry fabric recorded a large part of the liquid in the abdominal cavity.” Zinc chloride also has a heavily drying effect.
Usual embalming method in Europe?
The fact that the bodies of the chaplain was stuffed by the rectum instead of bringing the materials into the abdominal ceiling, as usual, makes it the first case of this previously unknown mummification technology. However, this does not necessarily mean that this method was unusual in Europe at the time. So far, it may not have been recognized only in mummies in poor condition due to the disintegration of the body wall.
But why was the dead mummified? “It may have been planned to transport the chaplain to his home tape, which failed for unknown reasons,” the team suspects. Because Sidler had only been temporarily delegated from his mother monastery Waldhausen in the Strudengau in Upper Austria to the parish of St. Thomas. The fact that corpses were made for such returns by means of wood chips could have been customary in the 18th century Europe. “We have some written evidence that corpses for transport or the attitude of the dead have been ‘prepared’ – although no report provides a precise description,” reports Nerlich.
Source: Frontiers in Medicine, DOI: 10.3389/FMed.2025.1560050