Otzi, as he was eventually named, was determined to be more than 5,000 years old. In 1991, hikers in the Tyrol mountains on the Austrian-Italian border stumbled upon a preserved corpse, likely exposed by glacial melting. Similarly, harsh environments-extremely dry or cold-also foster mummification. The bogs, starved of oxygen, are perfect preservation media. Some found in Ireland have been determined to be sacrifices associated with prehistoric coronation ceremonies. That looks to be the case with more than a hundred bodies that have been found in peat bogs around northern Europe, many dating to the Iron Age (1,200-600 B.C.). Others may have been integral to ritual sacrifice.

Some were purposeful, elaborate burial customs. Mummification can also happen naturally, by happenstance.Įgypt is most often associated with mummies, but preserved human and animal bodies have been found worldwide from China to the Middle East, from Europe to South America. There’s a multitude of ways to mummify a body, as various cultures that have practiced mummification over the millennia can attest.

Natron salt change mummy hair color