.76 .161 19 16 Moderate 



460 L2 1.64 346 .62 



94 .90 .608 26 13 High 



17 - . - - High 



absent moisture in the soil sample from adjacent to the 

 church. This could be a factor contributing to the dehydration 

 of a body whose postmortem, enzymatic tissue digestion had 

 been delayed by some other factor. 



Contamination of Venzone area soils by common heavy 

 metals is clearly absent, as seen in the listed analytical values 

 of the sample from adjacent to the church. The dark soil of 

 the floor from tomb 1 5 immediately below the coffins reveals 

 contamination by lead (460 ppm) and copper (346 ppm). The 

 latter is a known, powerful, enzymatic poison, and it is a 

 common archeological experience to find human soft tissue 

 preserved adjacent to a copper ornament, such as a bracelet, 

 on an otherwise skeletonized body. While our observation 

 circumstances did not permit a thorough search of the tomb 

 content, both lead and copper items were common compo- 

 nents of coffins or their contained artifacts since medieval 

 times, and thus are the most likely source of these con- 

 taminating elements. 



The fungus cultures are of special interest. Many of the 

 mummies were partially covered with a white fungus at the 

 time of their exhumation. Biasoletto's concept (1829?), at- 

 tributing the desiccated state of the mummies' tissues to the 

 dehydrating effect of growth of the fungus "Hypha bom- 

 bacina," has become a permanent part of local folklore. 

 Since this terminology is no longer used, it was necessary to 

 peruse 19th century mycological taxonomy texts to obtain a 

 description of the organism to which this label was applied. 

 An 1822 publication (see Appendix) suggests this name was 

 created by Pcrsoon ( 1 822:64) and persisted at least until 1 899 



(Saccardo 1899:1 192). It was used to describe a white, fluffy, 

 cottony or silky mycelial growth without conidia. Unfortu- 

 nately, this description is too nonspecific to permit its assign- 

 ment within the modem system of mycological taxonomy. 

 The fungi cultured from the various sources listed in Table 

 I do not include any which demonstrate the growth charac- 

 teristics listed under the rubric "Hypha bombycina" in the 

 older texts. Indeed, they represent common household and 

 soil fungi. The formaldehyde and phenol treatment of the 

 bodies following the earthquake as described above can be 

 expected to have destroyed fungi and probably also their 

 spores previously present in or on the bodies, but if fungi 

 meeting the description of "Hypha bombycina" had played a 

 significant role in the mummification of the bodies in the 

 various tombs, it would seem reasonable to anticipate their 

 abundant presence in the soil samples and on the tomb con- 

 tents. Of the organisms recovered from our sample cultures, 

 only Penicillium is known to produce an antibiotic substance. 

 While penicillin is effective against many gram-positive bac- 

 teria, including the Clostridia commonly present in feces, it 

 does not inhibit the growth of most gram-negative organisms 

 including Escherichia coli. the most numerous stool inhabi- 

 tant. It is also common hospital experience that therapeutic 

 tissue concentrations of penicillin at the time of death do not 

 prevent postmortem tissue degeneration. Postmortem fungal 

 growth is extremely common on tissues of exposed, de- 

 generating bodies after autogenous, bacterial, and insect en- 

 zymatic action has acidified the tissues (Kvans 1963:4). Such 

 growth, however, almost invariably restricts itself to exposed 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



