In 1994, archaeologists discovered many coffins containing perfectly preserved corpses underneath a church named Dominican in the town of Vac, County Pest, Hungary. Among them, there are 2 mummies that attract the attention of archaeologists. They belong to a 38-year-old mother named Veronica Skripetz and her 1-year-old son, Johannes Orlovits.
Mummified mother and daughter were found in a crypt under a church in the town of Vac, Pest County, Hungary.
During the renovation of the Dominican church, workers accidentally discovered a crypt containing more than 250 underground bodies, all dating back about 300 years.
After a while, in April 2016, doctors at the Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, California (USA) conducted an autopsy on the mother and daughter mummies to find out. life at that time and the cause of their death.
The truth about painful deaths
“Now we can find answers about their lives and explain why so many children die in infancy. They don’t have antibiotics and vaccines. Child mortality is very high. “, Ildiko Szikossy, an anthropologist from Hungary, said.
This means that there are already tens of thousands of children suffering and losing their lives because of diseases for which there is no antibiotic or vaccine. The boy Johannes Orlovits was one of them.
After moving the mother and daughter mummies over a distance of more than 9,000km, scientists used modern computerized tomography (CT) techniques for analysis.
“The mother was almost completely intact from top to bottom while the baby had some small pieces of broken bones. We really didn’t know what we were going to find. It was like we were lifting the veil of something. The mother appears to have died of tuberculosis, but the CT results will reveal more details.”Dr. Jim Sutherland, CT research expert, shared.
Surprising results
After a month of research, scientists came to the conclusion that Veronica Skripetz died of tuberculosis in 1808. Her son, Johannes Orlovits, died of dysentery at the age of 1. Veronica Skripetz has 3 children. None of them lived to be more than 2 years old.
Mummies of mother and daughter are on display at the Bowers Museum until September 5, 2016 in the program “Mummy of the World”. It is not clear where they are currently being moved.
Previously, in 2010, a CT scan was performed on the mummy of a man named Michael Orlovits, the first husband of Veronica Skripetz, who died in 1806. His mummy is also part of the exhibition. at the Bowers Museum.
The three mummies are part of more than 250 mummies found in the secret crypt of the Dominican Church, in the town of Vac, Hungary. Those found were buried sometime in the 1700s and 1800s.
For a long time, the catacombs were hidden and forgotten. But in 1994, repair work at the church led to the discovery of the bodies inside. The mummies were well preserved thanks to the constant flow of cool, dry air.
“When they opened the coffin, they were all amazed that the hair, skin and clothes of the dead bodies had not yet decomposed.”Dr. Linda Sutherland, who directly conducted the study, said: “Usually, when you open a coffin, you just see the skeleton, the soft tissues are completely decomposed.”
Church records and casket writing have made it easier for researchers to identify names, dates of birth and death, marriage and baptism. Even the occupation of mummies.
After the mummy was discovered, researchers in Hungary analyzed Veronica Skripetz’s lung tissue and concluded she had tuberculosis.
The CT scan confirmed it, as there was scarring in Veronica’s lungs. It also shows that Veronica is very skinny. Maybe she was sick for a while before she died. She died at the age of 38, just 2 years after Michael Orlovits died and 1 year after marrying a second time.
The boy Johannes Orlovits was born in 1800 and died a year later. The CT scan results show that Johannes Orlovits is a well-nourished child, with chubby and chubby legs,
Dr. Linda Sutherland says: “The boy did not appear to have suffered from any chronic diseases or broken bones. Therefore, he most likely passed away suddenly. His intestines were relatively clean, with no trace of bacteria that help digest food. eat. Dysentery could be a culprit. Without modern treatments like intravenous rehydration, dysentery could have been fatal at the time.”