The legend of the "Curse of the Pharaohs" is linked to a long-held belief that the death of Lord Carnarvon, the principal financier of the expedition to discover Tutankhamun's tomb in 1923, was a punishment for his audacity and tampering with the pharaonic tombs.
Although archaeologists have worked hard to deny this myth and confirm that the man died naturally, recent reports have linked his death to a disease that may have been transmitted to him from the tomb. This does not confirm the myth, which is sufficiently refuted by the fact that the discoverer himself, Howard Carter, died naturally years after the discovery. On the other hand, it means that dealing with tombs and mummies must be done with extreme caution, as confirmed by a study recently published in the International Journal of Cultural Property, issued by Cambridge University Press.
The study confirmed that the real curse of the mummy lies in the health risks inherent in it, which can be easily transmitted through the sale and trade of mummy remains, which have become widespread on the internet and go to whoever pays more.
According to researchers, smuggling networks have expanded in recent years through social media platforms, personal websites, online stores, e-commerce platforms, and auction houses.
This process involves serious health risks that threaten all parties involved, from buyers and sellers to shipping workers who handle these shipments.
A scientist at the European Academy (Eurac) in Bolzano, northern Italy, examines the Iceman mummy in this November 5, 2012 picture. A 5,300 year-old mummy corpse known as the Iceman, or Oetzi, is offering scientists new clues about a stomach infection. Scientists at the EURAC Institute of Mummies and the Iceman in northern Italy removed the bacteria Helicobacter pylori from the mummy and conducted a DNA analysis. It showed the Iceman had an unmixed strain of the bacteria not seen in modern humans.
The mummified human remains being traded show clear signs of biological decomposition (Reuters)
Clear signs of decomposition
During the study, researchers examined 128 online advertisements and auctions, only to be surprised that the mummified human remains being traded showed clear signs of biological decomposition, and the sellers provided no instructions on how to handle or store them safely. Even more strangely, many of those remains were being shipped via regular mail services.
More than half of the pieces traded (specifically 51.6%) were complete mummified heads or parts thereof, and skulls that still had soft tissue or hair on them.
The study indicated that the mummification process of these parts, whether artificial or natural, depends on complex chemical processes that slow down the decomposition of organic tissues, and over the centuries various toxic materials have been used to preserve them, including heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead, which threatens the transfer of the danger of those metals during the handling process.
Although these remains may have dried out hundreds of years ago, researchers do not rule out the possibility that they contain a large number of latent microorganisms. Among these organisms, latent fungal spores are of particular concern, as they can be released into the air when the remains are moved.
Historical examples of danger
Kirsty Squires, a professor of human bioarchaeology at Staffordshire University in Britain and a researcher involved in the study, expressed her astonishment in press statements at documented scenes of severely decomposed remains placed exposed on display platforms, without a glass cover, without any visible temperature control, and without any of the appropriate precautionary measures necessary for the safe storage of human remains.
This careless and uncautious handling of these remains comes at a time when studies have linked the inhalation of Aspergillus fungus spores to the deaths of ten out of twelve scientists who opened the tomb of King Casimir IV of Krakow in present-day Poland during the 1970s.
Tags:
science
Old
ReplyDelete