Mummies from Guanajuato
The Guanajuato mummies are a series of naturally mummified bodies that were buried during a cholera outbreak in Guanajuato , Mexico , in 1833. The mummies were discovered in a cemetery in Guanajuato, making the Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato a tourist attraction in Mexico. The museum is related to the typical Mexican death culture , which has a humorous side to the subject. However, exhibiting the mummies in Mexico is not without controversy.
All of these mummies were excavated between 1865 and 1958, when the law required relatives to pay a tax if the dead were to remain in the cemetery. If the relatives did not pay the tax, they would lose their right to the burial site and the bodies would be excavated. This happened in 90 percent of the dead. But only 2 percent of them were naturally mummified. The mummified bodies were stored in a building and tourists came to see them from the beginning of the 20th century. Cemetery workers started charging people a few pesos if they wanted to enter the building where bones and mummies were kept. This place became a museum called El Museo De Las Momias . A law since 1958 has banned the exhuming of further dead, but the museum continues to display the original mummies.
A total of 119 mummies are on display. Some have extremely strange expressions, because it has also happened that the dying and the seemingly dead were buried. Some are clothed, others only wear shoes. The ages range from children to the elderly. A mummified fetus is considered to be the smallest mummy in the world.
The mummies have found their way into everyday Mexican culture and have been artistically processed in songs and films several times. Werner Herzog used images of the mummies in his film Nosferatu - Phantom of the Night .
Another well-known place in Mexico where the mummification process occurs naturally is Encarnación de Díaz in the state of Jalisco .
Sources and Notes
- ↑ Guanajuato Mummies ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at mummytombs.com
- ^ Professor unravels secrets of Guanajuato mummies, Aug. 30, 2007, Texas State University News Service , accessed Nov. 5, 2012
- ↑ The facial features of mummies are caused by the drying of the skin, which becomes distorted in the process. The expression on the face at the moment of death is never preserved.
Web links
- Official website of the museum
- The Mummies of Guanajuato
- Professor unravels secrets of Guanajuato mummies
Coordinates: 21 ° 1 ′ 12 ″ N , 101 ° 15 ′ 59 ″ W.