Researchers lately used CT scans to peer inside three mummies from South America , and they discovered evidence suggesting that two of the individuals were murdered . Warning : This article contains photos of one of the bodies that may be disturbing .
The mummy date to between 900 CE and 1300 CE and are from Peru and Chile ; two are male and one is female . Though the female seem to have died from innate causes , CT scan of the male mummies revealed that they were belike fatally club and stabbed . The squad ’s enquiry describing the work ispublishedtoday in Frontiers .
“ Violent trauma rates in South American populations seem to have been even high than previous studies on skulls or mere skeletons had indicate , ” said study co - author Andreas Nerlich , a pathologist at the Academic Clinic Munich - Bogenhausen in Germany , in an email to Gizmodo .
A CT scan image of the skull of one of the apparently murdered individuals, showing healed defects and lesions.Image:Begerock et al., Frontiers 2022
The mummies were brought to Europe sometime in the mid- or late-19th century , Nerlich said . Until now , they had n’t been investigated with comprehensive forward-looking imaging . In the recent work , the researchers CT - scan the mummies ’ bodies to investigate their ages , state of preservation , and their possible causa of expiry .
The squad first found that one mummy , now at the University of Marburg in Germany , was male person — contradicting the original belief that the torso was distaff .
But the more tantalizing point : In the paper , the researchers write , “ There is no doubtfulness that the individual of the Marburg mummy was a victim of a severe and finally deadly interpersonal violence . ” The squad documents a heavy puff to the victim ’s face and evidence of a stab wounding that lacerated an aorta and punctured a lung . The squad thinks the ultimate lawsuit of demise was blood loss from the stab lesion .
The “Marburg mummy,” buried in a position similar to many mummies from the area.Image:Begerock et al., Frontiers 2022
They believe the other male mummy suffered from recurrent trauma , based on legion skull fractures that had heal in living . Dislocated parts of the cervical sticker indicated a massive blow to the back of the head , which may have been the fatal hurt .
Nerlich told Gizmodo that previous studies on skulls from Northern Chile and Peru show a trauma rate of between 5 % and 35%—a broad range , but one that Nerlich remember could be higher ground on the scathe to the recently read mortal . “ We trust that similar investigations of further mamma from museums / collection may furnish more information about trauma types and rates , ” he add .
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