Mummies of Bronze Age Scotland

Given these indicators, the researchers began to look for chemical changes in the bone that might indicate that the human remains had been specially treated to delay decay prior to their interment. Forensic anthropology has made considerable inroads to understanding and identifying bone diagenesis. Bone diagenesis is the breakdown and crystallization (or fossilization) of bone after an animal or human has died; tools studying bone diagenesis are aimed at measuring the amount of decay and crystallization of bone materials. It is these tools that were used to assist in the identification of post-mortem pre-burial treatment.

Microbial Porosity

One forensic method used to identify the amount of decay in a given bone is to measure the microbial porosity, using a technique called mercury intrusion porosimetry. The long bones in a living human being are quite dense, particularly in the femurs of the legs, which must support most human mobility. After death, bacteria from the human organs escape and attack the bone, eroding tiny holes and making the bones more porous. Removing the organs at death means that the attack on the bones doesn't happen, and thus, bones from a body treated in this manner will be relatively dense. In the illustration on this page, mercury intrusion porosimetry was used to measure the porosity of the bone. The long bones of an adult male at Cladh Hallan indicate that the microbial attack began (seen as the darker elements in the right hand part of the bone), but was halted shortly after death, before it penetrated to the interior.

In addition, further tests assisted by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that the outer surface of the bone had begun the mineralization process, something that would not be expected of burials within the calcareous shell sand of South Uist. Bone becomes mineralized or fossilized at different rates under different circumstances. As any archaeologist can tell you, some soils do not support the preservation of bone, while others do very well. The alkaline sands of South Uist do not generally preserve bone very well. The differential preservation of bone in this context means that some special treatment was used on the human remains to begin the process of mineralization. Researchers hypothesize that the body may have been interred in an acidic environment such as a peat bog for a period of time prior to interment in the roundhouse floors.

Are Mummies More Common Than We Think?

Can it be that the special preparation of human bodies during the Bronze Age of Europe was a common practice, but simply has not been previously identified by archaeologists? Parker Pearson and colleagues believe that it may be the case, that using the tools of bone diagenesis in addition to standard archaeological practice may identify more examples of this little understood religious rite.

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This article was based on web sources listed in the side bar including the original article appearing in Antiquity in September 2005 and may be downloaded from their website:
Parker Pearson, Mike, et al. 2005 Evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain. Antiquity 79:529-546.

Any errors are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.

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