Mummies

Cadavers: dead bodies, corpses

Transgressions: violations of the law

Cryonics:the deep-freezing of human bodies at death for preservation and possible revival in the future

Mummy: any ancient cadaver whose soft tissue has partially or wholly resisted decay

1. In what parts of the world have mummies been found?

The oldest known mummies were found in northern Chile near Arica, at the edge of the Atacama Desert. Mummies have also been found in England and northern Europe, where thousands of mummies were recovered from mossy bogs. As well as that, hundreds of mummified Caucasian bodies were found in northwestern China.

2. In what types of places (physical geography and climate)have mummies been found?

Mummies have been found in mostly 3 different types of places - in bogs or swamps, where cadavers are naturally preserved, in ice climates, where they are frozen and in this way also naturally preserved, and then in other, mostly hot, places. An example of this could be Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians are very well known for their mummies (wrapped in linen), which they buried in huge pyramids - the pyramids of Giza.

3. How did Ancient Egyptians preserve their dead?

The Ancient Egyptians preserved their dead by wrapping them in linen, extracting their insides, and putting them in pyramids. These are what most people think of when they think of mummies.

4. Why do you think ancient Egyptians took such care to embalm their dead if the desert could do the job for them?

They believed that they dead had an afterlife. They buried the dead with their most important possessions so that they would have them in the afterlife, and they buried them in twisting pyramids so that no robbers would come and rob the mummies of their successful afterlife.

5. What features of the natural environment can cause bodies to be mummified unintentionally?

Any swamps, bogs, cold environments where the corpses would freeze, or deserts are places where corpses are preserved and mummified naturally.

6. According to current scientific beliefs, what are some reasons people were intentionally mummified?

Most scientists believe that the desire to mummify the dead was because of the primal urge to extend human life as best as possible. Today, there is a company called Summum Mummification, which offers human-preservation services. What they do is deep-freeze a person at death in the hope that the individual can someday be revived.

Questions I would ask in order to figure out whether there is a possibility of a mummy there:

1. Is the climate one that would easily preserve a corpse?

2. Is it a desert, a bog or swamp, or a freezing cold location?

3. Were there mummies there found before?

4. Did the earlier civilizations there believe in preserving their dead?

5. Did the culture and religion of the earlier civilization which existed there believe in those types of burials?