A team of researchers examined several centuries-old mummies using 3D imaging technology. They discovered evidence of their heinous murders in the process.
The authors of a new paper published on Friday in the journal Frontiers in Medicine used 3D computer tomography (the same CT scan used in hospitals) to examine three pre-Columbian South American mummies (two male and one female).
“The availability of modern CT-scans with the opportunity for 3D reconstructions offers unique insight into bodies that would otherwise not have been detected,” Andreas Nerlich, a pathology researcher at the Munich Clinic Bogenhausen and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
“Previous studies would have either destroyed the mummy, while X-rays or older CT-scans without three-dimensional reconstruction functions could not have detected the diagnostic key features we found here.”
According to radiocarbon dating, the mummies died between 740 and 1120 years ago. The cause of death, on the other hand, will make your hair stand on end. The 3D imaging revealed that the two male mummies died as a result of deliberate violence.
“[One] assaulter hit the victim with full force on the head and [a] second assaulter stab[bed] the victim (who still was standing or kneeing) in the back,” the authors wrote of one mummy found in northern Chile.
Meanwhile, the other male mummy, which likely came from southeastern Peru, showed “massive trauma against the cervical spine which represents most likely the cause of death.” In contrast, the female mummy died of natural causes.
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