Bronze Age mummies identified in Britain
Preserved skeletons from ancient England and Scotland show mummification may have been widespread
By Bruce Bower
Widespread mummification of the dead in ancient Britain has been kept under wraps — until now.
Microscopic bone studies indicate that bodies buried at sites throughout Britain were intentionally mummified during the Bronze Age, between about 4,200 and 2,750 years ago, say bioarchaeologist Thomas Booth of the Natural History Museum in London and colleagues.
Bones from 16 of 34 Bronze Age Britons exhibit little to no bacterial damage, Booth’s team reports in the October Antiquity. A lack of such damage signals that natural or artificial mummification blocked rapid decomposition of a dead body’s flesh.