ArcheologyFor example, a recent review of pre-Columbian remains found evidence of trauma due to violence in 21% of men. Until now, most studies of this type have focused on skulls and other skeletal parts, but a potentially richer source of information is mummies, with their preserved flank tissues.

Now, in a new study in Frontiers in Medicine, researchers are using 3D computed tomography (3D CT) to examine three mummies from pre-Columbian South America, preserved since the late 19th century in European museums.

“Here we show lethal trauma in two of the three South American mummies that we investigated with 3D CT. The types of trauma we found would not have been detectable if these human remains had been mere skeletons,” said Dr. Andreas G Nerlich, Professor at the Department of Pathology at the Bogenhausen Clinic in Munich in Germany, corresponding author of the study.

Nerlich and his colleagues studied a male mummy at the ‘Museuм Anatoмicuм’ of the Philipps University of MarƄurg, Germany, as well as a female and male mummy at the Delémont Museum of Art and History, Switzerland.

Mummies can form naturally when dry environments, for example in deserts, absorb fluids from a decomposing body faster than decomposition can take place, conditions common in southern parts of South America.

MarƄurgo’s mummy belonged to the Arica culture, in what is now northern Chile, and judging by the grave goods found next to it, it deƄid ʋiʋir in a community of fishermen. Buried in a squatting position, his teeth were well preserved but misaligned, with some abrasions as is typical of pre-Columbian peoples who used maize as their basic food.

His lungs show scars from a serious tuberculosis in the past. Due to the characteristics of the bones, the authors estimated that it was a joʋen between 20 and 25 years old, approximately 1.72 meters tall. He died between 996 and 1147 CE, as the radiocarbon results showed.

The results show that both male mummies died instantly due to extreme intentional violence. The authors reconstructed that the MarƄurg mummy was killed because “one assailant struck the victim with full force on the head and [a] second assailant stabbed the victim (who was still standing or kneeling) in the back.

Alternately, the same or another assailant standing on the victim’s right side struck the head and then “sniffed” at the victim’s back and stabbed him.”

Similarly, Delémont’s male mummy showed “massive trauma to the cervical spine which very proƄaƄlely represents the cause of death. Significant dislocation of the two cerʋical ʋertebral bodies is itself lethal and may cause immediate death”.

Only the female mummy had died of natural causes. It also showed extensive skeletal damage, but this occurred after death, most likely during burial, and not on purpose.

Nerlich said: “The availability of modern CT scans with the opportunity for 3D reconstructions offers a unique view of bodies that otherwise would not have been detected.

Earlier studies would have destroyed the mummy, while older X-rays or CT scans without three-dimensional reconstruction capabilities could not have detected the class diagnostic features we find here.”

“It is important to note that the study of mummified human material can reveal a much higher rate of trauma, especially intentional trauma, than the study of skeletons. There are dozens of South American mummies that could benefit from an investigation similar to the one we did here”.