Rare baby mummy identified as Austrian aristocrat

About 400 years ago in Austria, someone wrapped the boy’s body in a beautiful silk coat, placed it in an unlabeled wooden coffin, and sealed the corpse in the family crypt. In this sheltered environment, the child’s body was mummified.

Researchers currently studying this mummy An anonymous boy was finally matched by name: Reichardt Wilhelm, a member of the elite Starhenberg family of Upper Austria. I found what you showed. Vitamin Da nutrient found in certain foods and made by the body when exposed to sunlight. medical frontier.

Andreas Nerlich, pathologist and study leader at Munich Clinic Bogenhausen, Germany, said: .

Nerlich and his colleagues child’s mummy Restoration in the Graves of Count Starhemberg in Hellmonsödt, a village nine miles from Linz, Austria. Family records date him to the 11th century, but the crypt was first built around his 1500s, and expanded and restored around 1600s. The eldest son of the family and sometimes his wife were buried there.

The boy, who is less than two feet tall, was remarkably well-preserved, Nerlich said. His body was wrapped in a hooded coat and his left hand, claw intact, rested on his belly. His skull is slightly deformed from being placed in a coffin that is too small, and his mouth is forever pouty and frozen.

Researchers took a small sample of skin. radiocarbon dating Using computed tomography, the mummies were virtually dissected. Their results suggest that the child was well-fed and possibly even obese, with a thick layer of fat on his abdomen and thighs. Koons says this body fat may partially explain his mummification. The fat reacted with moisture to create a waxy substance called adiposhea that could protect the body from decaying.The child’s bones and teeth, when he died, from the age of 10 months he had suggesting that it was between 18 months.

The boy’s ribs were scattered with bumps and the ends of his long bones were slightly enlarged, both signs of rickets. This disorder softens bones and causes overgrowth of cartilage in joints. The root of the problem is a lack of vitamin D, which the body needs to metabolize calcium and build strong bones. Given that he had enough adipose tissue, the boy’s diet was clearly rich in calories, but it’s possible he was still lacking in the nutrients he needed, the authors write in a new paper.

Since the body can use energy from the sun to produce vitamin D, the boy may have led a sheltered life as well. The authors speculate that he may have been kept away from the sun to keep his skin pale, as was often stylish among European aristocrats of this era.

Whatever the reason, the resulting rickets may have contributed to the child’s death. His lung tissue showed signs of pneumonia, which could predispose the children to rickets. .

Radiocarbon dating and the age of the crypt suggest that the boy most likely died between 1550 and 1635, the researchers wrote. At that time, he was the only three eldest sons of the Starchenberg family, and the only one who died after the renovation of the basement. It was Reichardt, the eldest son of Erasmus the Younger and the grandson of Reichard von Starchenberg, the first member of the family to be buried in the renovated crypt. Baby Reichardt died in 1626, according to family records.

There are not many baby mummies from Europe, so young Lychard’s remains are a rare find. The types of information collected from adult and child mummies may be similar, says Bob His Genheimer, archaeological curator at the Cincinnati Museum Center (CMC), although he I was not involved in this research.But the emotional side of studying children can be different, he says. Genheimer says CMC has Roman times egyptian mummy A collection of children affectionately known as “Umi”. “We named the child’s mummy because nothing was mentioned in the cartonnage…” adds Genheimer. “we wanted Take small steps to restore some humanity to him.

And now baby Reichard has a name too.