Researchers Unearth Prehistoric Mummies That Were Made of Body Parts From Several Different People
Researchers were shocked to uncover prehistoric mummies from Scotland that were made to look like one person. Archaeologists spotted the arrangement in 2001 at South Uist, stated BBC. Researchers sent the remains for DNA analysis, where it was uncovered that they belonged to different individuals. The discovery was extremely valuable for experts as it was the oldest evidence of deliberate mummification ever found in Britain. The arrangement was named Cladh Hallan mummies, after the ancient village where the dead humans were speculated to be from. The manner in which the bones were arranged, seemed like a person had been buried in the fetal position. Archaeologists were curious as to how past workers managed to get the remains joined together in such tight positions.
Experts speculated that the body parts could have been of people from the same family, but examinations couldn't conclusively prove it. Sheffield University's Professor, Mike Parker Pearson, further claimed that the mummies were not buried immediately after preservation. Initially, researchers thought that the remains belonged to a three-month-old child, a possible young female adult, a female in her 40s, and a male. Subsequent analysis proved this assertion to be wrong. Later tests on the remains, conducted by experts from the University of Manchester show that the pelvis bones which had been attributed to be of one of the females, actually were composite. Further examinations like Radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis also indicated that the parts associated with the male were also composite.
The condition in which the human remains were found in the ground indicated that some sort of soft tissue preservation technique had been applied to them. Examinations unveiled that the bodies were placed in an acidic environment for about a year, to demineralize their bones and mummify them before burial. Experts think that the acidic environment, people used in this case was a peat bog.
Professor Parker Pearson, an expert in the Bronze Age and burial rituals, believes that these remains must have been used for certain purposes by the ancient civilization."These could be kinship components, they are putting lineages together, the mixing up of different people's body parts seems to be a deliberate act," he said. "I don't believe these 'mummies' were buried immediately, but played an active part in society, as they do in some tribal societies in other parts of the world." One of the theories cited by him claimed that the mummies were part of ancestral worship. Humans possibly prayed to these skeletons to guide them toward the right call for their community. Seeing the site, experts have begun speculating that there could be more older examples of deliberate mummifications in ancient Britain that have been missed by archaeologists.
The mummies were found buried in the foundation of a Bronze Age terraced roundhouse. As per radiocarbon dating the individuals whose remains were located by researchers, had died 300 to 500 years before these houses were built. This made researchers believe that the mummies were kept above ground rather than in any shelter by the community. The complex where the mummies were found was composed of seven houses, stated Daily Mail. They were dated back to 1,000 B.C. Excavations in some of the houses revealed that they did not only serve as dwellings but also hosted rituals.