Ancient Brits had a way with mummies
03 September 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition.


BRONZE-AGE Britons practised the art of mummification at the same time as the Egyptians. And it appears that the ancient Britons invented the skill for themselves.

Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons of a man, a woman, and a 3-year-old girl under the floor of a prehistoric house at Cladh Hallan on the Scottish island of South Uist. Although no mummified body tissue remained, other evidence was found. The adults' corpses were locked with their knees close to their chests, similar to Peruvian "mummy bundles". "The bodies must have been trussed up that way because you can't bend a body like that normally," says Jen Hiller, a biophysicist at the University of Cardiff, UK, who examined the skeletons.

Hiller thinks that the bodies were immersed in an acid peat bog for a few months - long enough to remove some of the soft tissue but keep the tendons and ligaments intact. The acid would also slowly demineralise the bones, an effect that could be tested. Hiller's analysis showed a breakdown of minerals in the outer 3 millimetres of the bones (Antiquity, vol 79, p 529).

This is the only example of mummification in Europe, she says. "It's nothing like the techniques used in Egypt. People used the natural resources available to them to carry out this incredibly sophisticated process."

From issue 2515 of New Scientist magazine, 03 September 2005, page 15

there is a very good article on these mummies in the magizine "Archaeology" (I don't remember which issue, but it was this year), and as I dimly remember the magizine "British Archaeology" has also addressed these mummies in some past issure.

A few years ago I remember reading that someone found a body in a peat bog and the police (Constable?) thought they had a murder on their hands till they realised that the "victim" was 400-500 years old.

"Bog Bodies" are relatively common in the Scandinavian countries. I used to have a book on them, a lot of them date back to Before the Current Era.

I remember reading about that. I think someone confessed to the murder of the woman found, but it turned out to be an old body, so he confessed for nothing.
I think.

I think I remember hearing something to that effect also.

It is a shame the Brits did not realize the true damage they where doing to the mummy's they found at the turn of the century. So much of egypt's history was destroyed during that time. There is no real telling who the mummy's they destroyed where or what history was lost during that time.