The oldest known mummy in the world was not found in Egypt but in Portugal.
This is revealed today by photographs taken in the south of his country in the 1960s by the Portuguese archaeologist Manuel Farinha dos Santos.
The specialist had photographed bodies found in tombs dating back 8,000 years.
A number of undeveloped negatives have shed light on the richness of this tomb.
It emerged after careful analysis that one of the bodies there had been mummified,
Futura
reports .
New research suggests that a set of 8,000-year-old human skeletons buried in Portugal's Sado Valley could be the world's oldest known mummies: https://t.co/2zDxlwjFop pic.twitter.com/cujIVkGVMi
— Artnet (@artnet) March 9, 2022
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Archaeologists believe that the mummification technique must have been applied to other bodies in this area.
Mummification would have made it possible to transport these bodies before their burial.
The specialists have the assurance that the body present in the photographs was mummified by noting that the bones which were not in a usual configuration.
It appears that the limbs of the deceased were forcibly held down.
The absence of decomposition is authenticated thanks in particular to the examination of small bones of the feet.
They remained in anatomical configuration even after 8,000 years.
Mummies need optimal conditions to be preserved
It is surprising to have discovered a mummy in this region of the world.
Mummies are usually linked to Egyptian and Inca cultures.
There are few traces of it in Europe, point out our colleagues.
But that may be due to the weather.
Indeed, the preservation of bodies is made easier in environments that have remained desert and dry over the past millennia.
This is not the case for a large part of Europe.
Finally, this 8,000-year-old Portuguese mummy is much older than its Egyptian counterparts.
These date back approximately 4,500 years.
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