84 • Arthur C. Aufderheide and Mary L. Aufderheide 



surfaces and is thus unable to exert any significant preserving 

 effect on deeper tissues. It appears improbable to us that 

 fungal growth contributed significantly to the desiccated 

 state of the Venzone mummies. 



The mummy bodies were examined (limited to inspection) 

 for gross evidence of molecular alteration of proteins and/or 

 fat to a chemically inert state. Facial features were frequently 

 reasonably intact. The skin over the thorax was riddled with 

 insect holes but was generally otherwise intact in many mum- 

 mies. The anterior abdominal wall was frequently partially or 

 completely absent; in these the exposed abdominal cavity 

 rarely contained recognizable organs. Tissues comprising 

 the perineum, gluteal areas, medial aspect of the thighs and 

 posterior trunk were absent in most of the mummies — a 

 pattern commonly present in naturally mummified bodies 

 placed in a supine position post mortem and reflecting the 

 gravitational distribution of enzyme-rich, intestinal digestive 

 fluids. While admittedly adipocere formation is not always 

 obvious, only a few, focal areas (primarily facial) could be 

 identified which conceivably could represent such an altera- 

 tion of fat . Certainly we could not confirm that the bulk of the 

 tissue preservation was the consequence of a shell of protec- 

 tive adipocere formation, nor was there any recognizable 

 evidence of chemical protein fixation. The general condition 

 of the mummies surviving the earthquake was similar to that 

 described by Gallassi in 1950. 



It appears unlikely that tomb temperatures ever reach the 

 freezing point. Midwinter temperature measurement (made 

 by the authors) of a sealed, nearly identical tomb beneath the 

 stone floor of the church in a nearby community of Urbania 

 was 18°C. 



In summary, consideration of factors possibly contributing 

 to the natural mummification of these bodies suggests it is 

 conceivable, though not established, that highly alkaline 

 ground water seeping through the surrounding area limestone 

 intermittently may gain access through the soil floors to these 

 bodies' tombs (though not as readily to the tombs with stone 

 floors in the rear of the church), transiently immersing the 

 corpses and raising their tissue pH at least temporarily to a 

 degree sufficient to retard enzymatic .soft tissue destruction 

 for a period long enough to permit subsequent tissue desicca- 

 tion by the hydrophilic effect of the dolomite soil. Alter- 

 natively, postmortem enzymatic action on tissues could have 

 been paralyzed by the presence of heavy metals or by acidic 

 action from degenerating textiles or other artifacts like cop- 

 per, probably from coffin components or included contents 

 (since area soils do not reveal excess quantities of at least the 

 more common heavy metals). Cool but not frigid ambient 

 temperatures may have enhanced retardation of soft tissue 

 degeneration during winter burials, but it appears highly un- 

 likely that natural preservation of these bodies was achieved 

 through extreme thermal action (freezing or very high tem- 

 peratures), by the mechanism of anoxia, by protein fixation 

 or significant adipocere formation, nor by the dehydrating or 



antibiotic action of any fungus, including that of the organ- 

 ism termed "Hypha bombycina." 



In brief, while application of our current information (re- 

 garding spontaneous mummification) to the Venzone mum- 

 mies makes certain possibilities more conceivable than oth- 

 ers, it is not possible to establish the locally operative 

 mechanisms with a desirable degree of certainty. Clearly, 

 more precise predictions of such events will require a much 

 more detailed understanding of postmortem changes, made 

 possible by a program of laboratory investigation designed 

 for that purpose. 



Research needs 



Presently, bodies preserved by spontaneous mummification 

 represent the most valuable form of human remains for bio- 

 medical and anthropological study, since they retain the 

 organs bearing the anatomical, biochemical, immunological 

 or microbiological evidence of the disease afflicting them, 

 including the final, fatal episode. Postmortem degenerative 

 processes place constraints on the ability of our modem labo- 

 ratory methods to extract the desired information from these 

 tissues. Detailed knowledge of these postmortem changes 

 would permit us to adapt our technology so as to maximize 

 the informational return. 



The broad generalizations necessary in the previous dis- 

 cussion as well as our inability to identify unequivocally the 

 mechanisms producing the Venzone mummies reflect the 

 relatively barren state of our knowledge about postmortem 

 human tissue changes. In a few, restricted areas isolated re- 

 ports permit the synthesis of at least a proposed chemical 

 sequence leading to a specific preservational product 

 (adipocere) (Cotton et al. 1987), but every mechanism dis- 

 cussed here needs to be studied in detail by developing an 

 appropriate operational model in which the individual vari- 

 ables of interest can be controlled. Measurement methods for 

 the various reactions studied need to be created. Effects of the 

 individual factors impeding or enhancing these reactions 

 need to be identified and quantified. Following this the re- 

 sults obtained in isolated tissue under controlled circums- 

 tances then need to be evaluated under the infinitely more 

 complex, field situations of the entire organism. While the 

 "chemistry of death" (Evans 196.3: 1-87) is surely a compli- 

 cated matter, it may be no more so than many which have 

 been well defined in living organisms. 



Our understanding of postmortem tissue changes and the 

 factors affecting them will only be achieved by such orderly 

 investigations. Field observations unsupported by the con- 

 trolled studies described above rarely provide information 

 applicable to situations occurring under different circums- 

 tances. Funding necessary to carry out such studies may be 

 justified by the obvious applications of the derived data to 

 everyday forensic problems of enormous medico-legal im- 

 portance. 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



