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Science

Mystery Mummy - Investigating in a Museum

July 13, 2014

For 30 years a mummy was exhibited in the Bavarian State Archaeology Collection in Munich, presumed to be what is called a "bog body," a body preserved in marshland. It was an attraction, both for museumgoers and experts - until somebody was struck by the fact that the body was so very well preserved.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Cc0j

An interdisciplinary mystery investigation began. Radiologists, forensic scientists, pathologists and specialists in unidentified corpses and unexplained causes of death studied the mummy. Using high tech procedures such as isotope analysis and computed tomography, they were able to determine that the young woman was an Inca, was ill and had died a violent death - not in a local peat bog, but 500 years ago in South America.