Discovering a 500-year-old mummy of a newborn baby still intact from skin to hair, the autopsy expert discovered the heartbreaking truth.
The mummy of a newborn baby from 500 years ago surprised and saddened the scientific community when it was brought back for research.
In 1972, two hunter brothers Hans and Jokum Grønvold were working in the Qilakitsoq region, Greenland (Denmark), when they accidentally discovered a series of mummies that would later resonate in the archaeological world. . Those are two mass graves containing 8 remains of an indigenous Inuit family.
Initially, when the mummies were first discovered, hunters thought that these were the remains of people who had been dead for decades, or even just a few years. The reason is because these mummies are still in a very intact state, not yet completely decomposed. Their bodies were covered with many costumes made from skins such as reindeer skin and seal skin found in two tombs.
The most astonishing among them is the mummy of a newborn baby just a few months old. The unlucky boy’s startled eyes and haunting face made everyone both scared and surprised.
All 8 mummies including 6 adults and 2 children were so well preserved that their skin, nails and hair were intact. When archaeological experts brought the mummies to the laboratory for research, they were all surprised to learn that these Inuit people had passed away and were buried 500 years ago. They are the most intact mummies ever found and are extremely rare.
After many years of research and many hypotheses and debates, up to now, the scientific community most agrees with the argument that the reason the mummies decompose slowly is because the weather in Greenland is too cold.
This is the largest island in the world located in the arctic climate zone with an average yearly temperature always below zero degrees Celsius. Thanks to the icy and extremely dry conditions, and being buried deep in the mountains, they are preserved. so good.
The mummy of the youngest child has received the most scientific attention. The boy was determined to have died when he was only about 6 months old. However, when researching and examining the reason for the mummy’s death, scientists discovered a heartbreaking truth: This baby had to die in a very tragic way, by being buried alive. Experts believe that this child was buried alive along with his mother because of customary practices. The Inuit believe that when the mother dies, the babies should be buried alive with the mother so that the family can be reunited on the other side of the world.
In addition, when the mother dies, the children have no one to care for them. To avoid the outcome of them being abandoned to starve or die of cold, the ancients chose the “solution” of letting them go with their mother. This scary custom makes the boy’s face bewildered, as if he doesn’t understand what is about to happen before he dies, making people even more haunted.