The Morthouse

This is George Mallory. Alive, in 1912.

Usually when I do my “This is So and So” posts, I show you a picture of them dead. That’s not the case here (though Dead George is a sight to behold): I like Alive George much, much better.

Mallory disappeared in 1924, on his third expedition to Mount Everest, along with his climbing partner, Andrew “Sandy” Irvine. It wasn’t until 75 years later, however, that Mallory’s body was discovered. On May 1, 1999, mountaineer Conrad Anker found Mallory’s frozen (and pretty much perfectly preserved) body on Everest. Here’s a video about it. It’s re-enact-y and overly dramatic, but it gives you an idea of how he was found.

From Wikipedia:

Within hours of beginning the search on 1 May, a frozen body was found by Conrad Anker at 26,760 feet (8,160 m) on the north face of the mountain. As the body was below where Irvine’s axe was found in 1933, the team expected the body to be Irvine’s, and were hoping to recover the camera that he had reportedly carried with him. They were surprised to find that name tags on the body’s clothing bore the name of “G. Mallory.” The body was remarkably well preserved, due to the mountain’s climate. The team could not locate the camera. Experts from Kodak have said that if a camera is ever found, there is some chance that its film could be developed to produce printable images, if extraordinary measures are taken.

Anker’s team held an Anglican service for Mallory and covered his body with a cairn. 

Image: George Mallory photographed at 38 Brunswick Square, London, age 25 or 26. Via Front Free Endpaper, whose post on Mallory is super, though NSFW (if you consider a very attractive man’s full back-al nudity NSFW).

This is Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria. He had a way with the ladies. (Allegedly, he showed up at his own wedding with a lover as his date.)

No one’s exactly sure of the circumstances of his death, but it appears that on the night of January 29, 1889, he shot himself in the head after shooting and killing his mistress, a teenaged baroness named Mary Vetsera, in a hunting lodge. He was 30. The white bandage you see in that picture is there to cover up the gunshot wound. 

Mary’s body was smuggled away and buried hastily, to avoid a scandal. Rudolf, on the other hand, lies in the Habsburg Imperial Crypt in Vienna. His father pulled some strings to get him interred there: special arrangements were necessary because his death was a suicide.

His death left his parents—Franz Josef I, Austria’s emperor, and Elisabeth of Bavaria, cousin to King Ludwig—without an heir and likely caused their already shaky marriage to collapse. His mother—whose extreme fasting and exercise regimens, by the way, remind me of the the fads of a century later—also died a violent death. She was stabbed with a needle file by an anarchist in 1898.

You can read more about the (alleged) murder/suicide here and here.

Image source: Wikipedia.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science offers some background on this Tarim Basin mummy:

Beautiful “Baby Blue,” an 8 month old boy, was lovingly placed in a red-purple blanket and wrapped securely with red and blue twisted cord. The baby’s eyes were covered with rectangular blue stones. His blue felt cashmere cap with a red felt lining encircled a tiny face that was covered with paint.  A few strands of brown hair with red highlights escaped from under his bonnet. “Baby Blue” lived during the 8th century BCE.

Quigley’s Cabinet also notes that his nose was plugged with red wool and that he was buried with a baby bottle made of sheep’s udder.

Image: Infant Mummy, ca 8th century BC by Penn Museum on Flickr.

Infant mummy, ca 8th century BCE. Excavated from Zaghunluq, Charchan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. © Wang Da-Gang.

The Beauty of Xiaohe, ca 1800-1500 BCE by Penn Museum on Flickr.

“The Beauty of Xiaohe,” female mummy, ca 1800-1500 BCE. Excavated from Xiaohe (Little River) Cemetery 5, Charqilik (Ruoqiang) County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. © Wang Da-Gang.

The Beauty of Xiaohe by Penn Museum on Flickr.

“The Beauty of Xiaohe,” female mummy, ca 1800-1500 BCE. Excavated from Xiaohe (Little River) Cemetery 5, Charqilik (Ruoqiang) County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. © Wang Da-Gang.

This mummy has been preserved extremely well, with the entire body covered in an even layer of thick, milky white substance. The “beauty” has thick, flaxen hair that has grown long down to the chest. Except for the head, calves, and feet, the entire body was wrapped in a wide, white wool cloak. She was buried with three small pouches that contain broken pieces of ephedra, a kind of evergreen shrub with medicinal properties, and a wooden phallus was placed on her chest.

This is Cherchen Man. He stood about six feet tall, had light hair and fair skin, and he lived about 3,000 years ago in what is today the Xinjiang region of western China. He sports facial tattoos. And the world’s oldest surviving pair of pants.

He’s among a group of mummies found in the Tarim Basin dating from between about 1900 B.C. and 200 A.D. I’ve wanted to write about them for a while.

I recently watched China’s Secret Mummies, a National Geographic video available on the Penn Museum’s website. It’s about 45 minutes long; unfortunately, more than half of those 45 minutes are eaten up by bullshit reenactment footage and suspense-making editing. But it’s still a good overview of the mummies, and it reveals what researchers from National Geographic’s Genographic Project were able to learn from their DNA.

What they found was surprising. After the mummies were discovered, their Caucasian facial features and woolen (sometimes plaid) textiles led many to speculate that they came from Europe, or—more fancifully—were Celts.

Sidenote: As a former Celticist (air quotes), I find this conclusion funny. I refuse to think of “Celt” as anything more than a linguistic designation, or something denoting a discrete genetic or cultural group. (Interesting and surprising read: The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer.)

Anyway, like I said, the DNA results were surprising. Cherchen Man and his mummy-buddies showed east Asian genetic markers, leading the researchers to revise their understanding of the Tarim people. Likely, they were a mixed group—different cultures from east and west coexisting (and sleeping together) at a crossroads—rather than a western transplant culture hanging on in an unlikely eastern outpost, as had been previously thought. 

Hope to post about some of the other Tarim mummies in the near future.

Image Source: Uyghur American Association.

This is the head of Porsmose Man, a skeletonized bog body found in 1946 near the town of Næstved in Denmark.

As fucked up as that arrowhead through the nasal cavity looks, that’s not even what killed him. Rather, he was killed by an arrow through the breastbone that pierced his aorta. The arrows were likely fired from above, at a close distance. Archaeologists suspect he was either surprised by his attackers or was the victim of an execution. In either case, he was thrown in a lake.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

This is Röst Girl, a toddler who lived sometime between 200 B.C.E. and 80 C.E. in what is now Germany. She’s possibly the youngest bog body ever found.

Unfortunately, she no longer even exists. She was destroyed (along with so many other cultural artifacts and treasures) during the Second World War. Only the woolen cloak that was placed over her body in the bog remains, and this was used to date her.

Ria Munk was a wealthy young Viennese woman who shot herself after an unhappy love affair in 1911. Klimt painted this picture at the time of her suicide, and was later asked by her family to paint a few more portraits of her, living. She was the niece of another Klimt subject, Serena Lederer.

Image source: Gustav Klimt: Ria Munk On Her Deathbed by deflam on Flickr.

Rendswühren Man was found in 1871 near Kiel, Germany, and he lived sometime between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D. He was about 40-50 years old when he died.

As I’ve mentioned before, bog bodies haven’t always met with the best treatment by their handlers. From Discover’s great 1997 article on bog bodies:

Not surprisingly, few people who uncovered these corpses in the past recognized their true significance, and it was only by chance that a museum would learn of a fresh discovery. Tollund Man was preserved because one of the police officers summoned to the scene happened to be a board member of a local museum. But even when a museum did get hold of a body, researchers had no established protocol for preserving prehistoric corpses and often did a poor job. […] In truth, there was little incentive to do better, since researchers lacked the means of getting information out of corpses and were thus more interested in any vessels, jewelry, and other artifacts that might be found alongside them. Many of the early bog bodies were reburied in churchyards or shunted off into storage, where they soon dried out. Not until after World War II did researchers begin to preserve the bodies more carefully. Generally they used beeswax, rubbing the mummies’ leathery skin with the stuff to give them the look of a highly polished shoe. 

Of course, Rendswühren Man was no exception. P.V. Glob writes The Bog People (via):

This well preserved human body naturally aroused much interest and before being dispatched to Kiel it was exhibited on a farm cart in a nearby barn. During this period visitors helped themselves lavishly to souvenirs both from the body itself and from the clothing. The dead man became the first bog man to be photographed—being stood up on the tips of his toes for the purpose.

Because no better methods of preservation were known at the time, he was smoked at the local butcher’s. Like a ham. 

You’re welcome.

(Image Source: Nova’s Perfect Corpse slideshow. Note this other, less louche view. Did museum visitors complain?)

This is reputedly the body of Saint Catherine Labouré (1806-1876). From Wikipedia:

When her body was exhumed, after fifty-seven years of burial, it was found to be completely incorrupt and supple.

This ventures into Cap’n Obvious Territory, but I have my doubts about the Catholic Church’s “incorruptibles.” Many of them are clearly waxworks or sculptures, and most of the information on the internet about them — and, yes, internet “research” is about as far as I’m willing to take this blog, so forgive me if this fact seems less than scholarly or rigorous — comes from the Church or from sites with a clearly religious bent.

Still, the practice of exhumation and display of corpses fascinates me, even if the bodies aren’t legit, or are doctored or wax-masked to look less “corrupt” than they actually are. And when I find images or stories of saintly bodies that appear somewhat decomposed or desiccated, I’m extra-interested, because they’re clearly real mummies or preserved corpses. Not that I believe saintliness had anything to do with it.

This is the severed head of  Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) in the Basilica San Domenico in Siena. Her thumb, in a separate reliquary, hangs out nearby. Her foot, reportedly, is in Venice, and the remainder of her body is in Rome. From Wikipedia:

She was buried in the cemetery of Santa Maria sopra Minerva which lies near the Pantheon. After miracles were reported to take place at her grave, Raymond moved her inside the Basilica of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where she lies to this day. Her head however, was parted from her body and inserted in a gilt bust from bronze. This bust was later taken to Siena, and carried through that city in a procession to the Dominican church.

When she was young, she had a vision of Jesus placing a wedding ring on her finger, and for the rest of her life she claimed she could still see the ring.

The ring? It was made of foreskin. Jesus’, of course.

poisonwasthecure:

The mummified head of St. Catherine

(Source: cauldronandcross, via zooplancton)

Thought I’d get back to bog bodies again, folks.

This is Haraldskær Woman. She was found in Denmark in 1835 and was one of the first bog bodies studied by archaeologists. Found on her back, she was naked (though a leather cape and some woollen clothes were laid on top of her), and she was pinned down by branches and wooden poles. 

Some more gories from Wikipedia:

The complete skin envelope and the internal organs were both intact. The body had a lancing wound to the knee joint area, where some object (possibly one of the sharp poles) penetrated to some depth. Her skin was deeply bronzed with a robust skin tone due to tannins in the peat, and all the body joints were preserved with overlying skin in a state as if she had died only recently. Doctors determined she had been about 50 years old when she died and in good health without signs of degenerative diseases (such as arthritis) which are typically found in human remains of that age.

In 1979, doctors at Århus Hospital undertook a further forensic examination of the Haraldskær Woman. By this time, the body had desiccated, shrunken, and the skin was leathery, severely wrinkled and folded. A CT-scan of the cranium more accurately determined her age to be about 40 years old at the time of her death. The body height now measured only 1.33 m (4 ft 4 in) but doctors used the original 1835 descriptions to estimate she would have stood about 1.50 m (4 ft 11 in).

In 2000, Lone Hvass of the Elsinore Museum, Miranda Aldhouse-Green of Cardiff University, and the Department of Forensic Science at the University of Århus performed a re-examination of the Haraldskær Woman. Forensic analysis revealed stomach contents of unhusked millet and blackberries. Her neck had a faint groove as if someone applied a rope for torture or strangulation. The scientists concluded bog acids caused the swelling of the knee joint and that the woman was probably already dead before the branches pinned her down. Because of her careful placement, and since cremation was the prevailing mode of interment during that period in Jutland, the examiners determined the Haraldskær Woman was a victim of ritual sacrifice.

A case of mistaken identity was perhaps the best thing to ever happen to Haraldskær Woman (at least, in her postmortem life). When she was first discovered, she was believed to be the 10th-century Norwegian Queen Gunnhild, who (according to an Old Norse saga) was ordered bog-drowned by Danish King Harald Bluetooth. Soon after her discovery, Danish royalty had a sarcophagus crafted specifically to house her, and this V.I.P. treatment likely has contributed to her excellent state of preservation (minus some drying and shrinking) today, nearly 200 years after her discovery. (Later research revealed that Haraldskær Woman was not Gunnhild, but actually much older, living during the Iron Age in about 490 B.C.) 

Not all bog bodies have been as lucky in their conservation. For instance, Tollund Man: he’s pretty much gone now, except for his head. Alas, poor Tollund Man.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons.

This is Christian Friedrich von Kahlbutz, a naturally mummified 17th-century German knight with a questionable past (if legend is to be believed). From Wikipedia:

According to local legend, “Knight Kalebuz,” as he was known, frequently exercised the right of droit de seigneur. He had eleven children of his own and at least thirty other illegitimate children. While exercising this “right” in July 1690, he chose the bride of a shepherd from Bückwitz. She refused him and because of the laws governing the right of first night, he murdered the shepherd. Although there were no witnesses, the shepherd’s bride, Maria Leppin, accused Kahlbutz of the murder and took him to court in Dreetz (Brandenburg). As an aristocrat he had special rights and could swear an oath of innocence before the court in order to free himself. Kahlbutz did this and was immediately acquitted.

Kahlbutz died at the age of 52 and was laid to rest in a double coffin in the family tomb. In 1783 the last of the von Kahlbutz line died. While the church of Kampehl was being renovated in 1794 the coffins in the church were going to be buried in the cemetery like all the other coffins. When the coffins were opened it was discovered that all of the corpses except that of the Knight Kahlbutz had decayed.

It’s questionable whether droit du seigneur ever really existed, but it sure makes for some scandalous legends.

Image Source: B. Schroeren on Wikipedia.

When I was a teenager I read a book I found in the bargain bin about Lindow Man, and that’s what first got me interested in bog bodies, ancient Britain, and Celtic languages. Good old Lindow Man. Years later, I even got to see him at the British Museum.

lovelybalnunsharink:

The body of this man was discovered in August 1984 when workmen were cutting peat at Lindow Moss bog in north west England.

It was carefully transported to the British Museum and thoroughly examined by a team of scientists. Their research has allowed us to learn more about this person – his health, his appearance and how he might have died – than any other prehistoric person found in Britain.

The conditions in the peat bog meant that the man’s skin, hair and many of his internal organs are well preserved. Radiocarbon dating shows that he died between 2 BC and AD 119. He was about 25 years of age, around 168 cm tall and weighed 60-65 kg. He had probably done very little hard, manual work, because his finger nails were well manicured. His beard and moustache had been cut by a pair of shears. There is no evidence that he was unwell when he died, but he was suffering from parasitic worms. His last meal probably included unleavened bread made from wheat and barley, cooked over a fire on which heather had been burnt.

The man met a horrific death. He was struck on the top of his head twice with a heavy object, perhaps a narrow bladed axe. He also received a vicious blow in the back – perhaps from someone’s knee – which broke one of his ribs. He had a thin cord tied around his neck which may have been used to strangle him and break his neck. By now he was dead, but then his throat was cut. Finally, he was placed face down in a pool in the bog. This elaborate sequence of events suggests that his death may have been ritual killing. Some people have argued that he was the victim of a human sacrifice possibly carried out by Druids.

Pretty creepy that we can know this much about a murder that happened 2000 years ago. I also believe he’s the inspiration for The Triffid’s Jerdacuttup Man.

(via alphacaeli)