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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.

Sec. Pathology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1560050

This article is part of the Research Topic Ancient Diseases and Medical Care: Paleopathological Insights - Volume II View all 3 articles

The Mystery of the "Air-dried Chaplain" solved: the Life and "Afterlife" of an unusual Human Mummy from 18 th century Austria

Provisionally accepted
Andreas G. Nerlich Andreas G. Nerlich 1*Peter Hofer Peter Hofer 2Stephanie Panzer Stephanie Panzer 3Christine Lehn Christine Lehn 1Judith Wimmer Judith Wimmer 4Oskar Nowak Oskar Nowak 5Frank Musshoff Frank Musshoff 6Oliver K Peschel Oliver K Peschel 1
  • 1 Institute of Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany
  • 2 Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
  • 3 Department of Radiology, Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
  • 4 Department of Art and Heritage Conservation, diozese Linz, Linz, Austria
  • 5 Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poznań, Greater Poland, Poland
  • 6 Forensic Toxicological Centre Munich, Munich, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The multidisciplinary study of the well preserved cadaver of the so-called "air-dried chaplain" from the church crypt of St. Thomas am Blasenstein (Upper Austria) not only solved the "mystery" of the excellent preservation of the trunk of this unusual mummified human body, but also provided circumstantial information about this historic individual, his life and disease history, and conclusion of his cause of death. The mummy of a 35 to 45 year old male, radiocarbon dated to the period 1730-1780 CE is most likely that of the local aristocratic parish vicar Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg who had been temporarily delegated to St.Thomas parish from his mother monastery of Waldhausen im Strudengau (Upper Austria).He had a high-quality diet based on terrestrial animal products, showed no signs of major physical work load, was most likely a pipe smoker and suffered from chronic active pulmonary tuberculosis with peripheral and central (hilar) calcifications (primary tuberculous complex) and a right lower lobe cavity with focal heterotopic ossification and potential active inflammation. This latter may have caused acute pulmonary haemorrhage which may have been the cause of death. Most surprisingly, we detected, in the otherwise completely intact abdominal (and pelvic) cavity, extensive packing with foreign material which was identified as a mixture of wood chips, fragmented twigs, large amounts of fabric of various types including elaborate embroidered linen, and even pieces of silk. Furthermore, this embalming method seems to have included high level zinc-ion solution impregnation (most likely zinc-chloride with small amounts of arsenic) and the addition of copper. The packing was inserted into the abdominal body cavity through the rectum. It led to an excellent state of conservation of the trunk, while the face (and skull) and peripheral extremities were less well preserved.

    Keywords: Mummy, internal embalming, Tuberculosis, eigteenth century life, Paleoradiology, paleohistology, paleotoxicology

    Received: 13 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Nerlich, Hofer, Panzer, Lehn, Wimmer, Nowak, Musshoff and Peschel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Andreas G. Nerlich, Institute of Legal Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Munich, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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