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