mummy

Basis for mummy attribution

Record the evidence and classification convention used to identify the remains as mummified.

1. What observable or documented tissue preservation supports calling these remains a mummy? definition
2. Which alternative classification, such as skeletonised remains, another preserved-body category or a replica, remains plausible? boundary

Body composition and association

Record which anatomical regions and individuals are represented, including uncertainty about assembled or detached parts.

1. Which anatomical regions and tissue types are observed, concealed, missing or unresolved, and by what examination method? measurement
2. What evidence supports the human or animal attribution and the association of all included parts with one individual? provenance

Process attribution

Record supported explanations for preservation and competing explanations that remain open.

1. What evidence supports natural preservation, intentional preparation or a combination of the two? provenance
2. Which proposed preservation mechanisms are demonstrated by examination, and which remain hypotheses? definition

Preparation and treatment sequence

Distinguish original preparation, later conservation and unattributed alterations where evidence permits.

1. Where are wrappings, packing, coatings, incisions or removed structures documented relative to the body? measurement
2. Which additions or alterations can be attributed to preparation, later repair or conservation, and on what evidence? provenance

Active versus historical damage

Record condition observations against a dated baseline, separating old damage from demonstrated change.

1. Where are tissue fragmentation, cracking, detachment, covering failure or suspected biological activity observed? measurement
2. What dated comparison establishes whether each observed condition is changing, stable within the observation period or unassessed? measurement

Care and movement constraints

Capture case-specific environmental requirements and anatomical vulnerabilities relevant to handling.

1. What environmental history and conservation assessment support the proposed conditions for these particular tissues and treatment materials? provenance
2. Which body regions or coverings require support, restricted contact or specialist assessment before movement? action

Mortuary and custodial history

Identify supported contextual associations, gaps in custody and parties with relevant decision-making roles.

1. What records connect the remains to a find location, burial context, removal event and subsequent custodians? provenance
2. Whose authority or consultation is required for examination, display, sampling, transfer or reburial, and what establishes that requirement? action

Intervention justification

Make the research question, permitted action, expected loss and stopping conditions explicit before intervention.

1. What specific uncertainty would imaging, unwrapping or sampling address, and could existing records or a less intrusive examination resolve it? action
2. What tissue, covering relationship or contextual evidence could the intervention irreversibly change, and what permissions and stopping conditions apply? action

Kinds and varieties

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Artificially embalmed human mummies (e.g. pharaonic and later Egyptian practice)
• Naturally desiccated mummies from hot-arid settings (Predynastic Egypt, Tarim Basin, Atacama)
• Frozen or ice-patch mummies (e.g. Alpine glacier bodies, Andean high-altitude burials)
• Bog bodies preserved in acidic sphagnum peat (often named separately from 'mummy' in European practice)
• Animal and votive mummies (cats, ibises, crocodiles and other temple deposits)
• Chinchorro-type reconstructed mummies (skinned, modelled and re-assembled bodies of the Atacama coast)
• Salt-preserved mummies (e.g. Chehrabad salt-mine bodies)
• Religious self-mummified or 'incorrupt' bodies (e.g. Japanese sokushinbutsu, some Buddhist relic bodies)

1. Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Identifiers and schemes

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Wikidata - Q186228 - Item for mummy as a preserved corpse / archaeological object class, not the English kinship term 'mummy'.
• Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) - Mummies - Authorized subject heading for the preserved-body sense in library and museum cataloguing.
• MeSH - Mummies - Medical subject heading used for paleopathology and anatomical literature on preserved corpses.

1. Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Standards and regulation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Egypt Law No. 117 of 1983 on the Protection of Antiquities (as amended) - Egyptian state / Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities: mummies are national antiquities; export and unauthorised excavation are prohibited.
• UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property - UNESCO: governs illicit traffic in archaeological human remains treated as cultural property.
• ICOM Code of Ethics for Museums - International Council of Museums: storage, display, research and return of human remains, including mummies.
• Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums (2005) - UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (now DCMS/successor heritage bodies): care, access and claim procedures for museum-held remains.
• Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), 1990 - United States: inventory and repatriation duties where a mummified body is Native American or Native Hawaiian.
• CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) - CITES parties: applies when an animal mummy is a listed species or derivative.
• Vermillion Accord on Human Remains (1989) - World Archaeological Congress: professional ethic for respect, display and scientific study of dead bodies.

1. Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Real-world use

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Displayed as wrapped or partly unwrapped bodies in museums and site museums, often with coffins, cartonnage and grave goods.
• Studied non-destructively by radiography and CT to read wrapping layers, amulets, trauma and disease without unwrapping.
• Sampled, under permit, for radiocarbon, stable isotopes, aDNA, histology and parasites in paleopathology.
• Recovered archaeologically from tombs, desert cemeteries, bogs, glaciers and salt mines.
• In ancient Egypt, produced at industrial scale as votive animal mummies for temples.
• Used as taphonomic analogues in forensic discussion of soft-tissue survival.
• Subject of tourism, loan exhibitions, and repatriation or reburial claims.

1. Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Typical measurements

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Anatomical length (crown-heel or surviving bundle length) - about 0.4-1.8 for humans, depending on age and completeness - m
• Age at death (estimated) - perinatal to older adult, commonly 0-80 - years
• Radiocarbon / archaeological date of known traditions - Chinchorro from c. 5000 BCE; Egyptian anthropogenic mummies mainly c. 3500 BCE-400 CE; some historic and modern cases later - cal BCE/CE
• Museum storage relative humidity - typically targeted around 40-55 to limit mold and further desiccation - % RH
• Residual water in well-desiccated tissue - far below living soft tissue (~70); often on the order of a few percent up to ~20 in drier specimens - % mass
• Mass of an adult human mummy with wrappings - highly variable, often roughly 5-50 depending on completeness, resins and linen - kg

1. Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Failure modes and hazards

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Rehydration, bacterial decay and mold if ambient humidity rises above the dry envelope the body equilibrated to.
• Insect attack on skin, hair and linen (dermestid beetles, clothes moths).
• Salt crystallization and spalling of tissue and wrappings.
• Brittle fracture of desiccated organs and limbs during handling or transport.
• Light, heat and pollutant damage to resins, painted cartonnage and textiles.
• Irreversible anatomical loss from historic unwrapping, autopsy and souvenir-taking.
• Illicit excavation and market circulation, with destroyed context.
• Ethical and legal conflict over display, sampling and custody; possible residual infectivity is often alleged but rarely demonstrated.

1. Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Regional variation

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• In Egypt and Egyptology, 'mummy' is the default term for embalmed, wrapped bodies and is tightly controlled as state antiquity.
• In northern Europe, peat-preserved corpses are usually called bog bodies rather than mummies.
• Andean Spanish and archaeological practice often speak of fardos and capacocha offerings; English still labels many as ice or bundle mummies.
• Japanese sokushinbutsu and some Buddhist relic bodies are framed as religious auto-mummification, not funerary embalming.
• Chinese museum and forensic usage may prefer 'dried corpse' (gan shi) over the loan-word 'mummy'.
• Guanche remains of the Canary Islands and the salt men of Iran are locally named traditions brought under the English mummy label in international literature.
• The English word itself comes via medieval pharmacy (mūmiyā, bitumen/'mummy' as a medicine), which is a different historical sense from the corpse.

1. Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance

Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart

Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.

• Skeletonized human or animal remains - No identifiable preserved soft tissue (skin, muscle, viscera); only bone and teeth survive.
• Fossil - Soft tissue is not preserved as organic anatomy; hard parts are mineralized on a geological timescale, not a historical corpse.
• Bog body (when classified apart) - Preservation is by cold, anoxic, acidic peat and sphagnum tannins; bones are often demineralized, skin darkened and tanned - a different pathway from resin-and-linen embalming or desert drying.
• Modern anatomical wet specimen - Fixed in formalin or similar and stored in fluid for teaching; not a funerary or naturally mummified corpse.
• Taxidermy mount - The animal is skinned, eviscerated and rebuilt over an armature; it is a constructed skin, not an intact preserved body.
• Plastinated cadaver - Water and fat are replaced with polymers in a modern anatomical process (e.g. von Hagens), not historical embalming or natural mummification.
• Empty coffin, cartonnage or cenotaph - Burial equipment without a preserved body; imaging or opening shows no corpse.

1. Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of mummy this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance