Natural Mummies

Various environmental factors can contribute to the natural mummification of a body. Sometimes extreme cold will preserve a body, as was the case with a Stone Age man discovered in 1991 high in the Alps along the border between Austria and Italy. Soon after death, about 3300 B.C the Ice man, as he came to be known, was discovered with snow and preserved in ice. Often when a body freezes, the tissues’ moisture leaves in the form of a gas, a process called sublimation.

Because of this process, the Iceman’s mummy weighed only about 28 pounds when it was discovered. Cold temperature was also responsible for many Inca mummies discovered high in the Andes Mountains of South America, where the Inca regularly made human sacrifices to their Gods. In 1999, thousands of Inca mummies were found in a Peruvian cemetery dating back to the late 1400’s. The area’s dry environment even preserved the colorful feathered headdresses adoring some of the bodies.