Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs – Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

mrbill | Mysterious
October 14, 2024

Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs - Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

Researchers are making efforts to unravel the mystery behind the lives and deaths of the mummified figures from the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo in the province of Sicily.

Researchers at Staffordshire University in Scotland will examine the 41 mummies in the Children’s Room of the Catacombs, but there are an estimated 163 mummies spread across the holy site.

A mummified body from a 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 exhibit at the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, southern Italy, in Japan. 31, 2011.

Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs - Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

Lead researcher Dr Kirsty Squres told Ipsider that researchers will use pop-invasive X-ray technology starting next week to probe young mummies in the catacombs.

Adult bodies in the catacombs had been the main focus of examination in previous studies, the researchers said in a video posted on YouTube in July. The new study of the mummies aims to uncover the lives and identities of those in the Capuchin catacombs and find out why they were placed there.

Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs - Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

Researchers are working closely with the Capuchin friars who guard the catacombs to conduct ethical and respectful research, Squres said.

“There are many ethical considerations when investigating human remains from 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨,” Squres said.

For such consideration is the use of X-ray technology rather than invasive and controversial techniques such as autopsies. Photographs of the catacombs will be reserved for academic students rather than posted on social media, and researchers will not publish identifying information about the site, Squres said.

Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs - Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

Artist Eduardo Hernandez will draw and paint images of the interior of the catacombs for public distribution, Squres added.

“These will be used for outreach materials,” he said. “This medium was selected because some may find photographs of deceased representatives.”

Macabre Discovery: Unraveling the Terrible Mystery of the Mummified Children in the Capuchin Catacombs - Researchers Delve Deeper into Their Dark and Untold Stories.

The Capuchin Catacombs were created in 1599 as a place to house previously buried and mummified mobs, but wealthy and promising figures were later mummified at the site as well as a status symbol, according to the Capuchin Catacombs website.

The catacombs are home to some of the best-preserved mummies in the world, according to National Geographic. Today, the site serves as a tourist attraction housing approximately 1,284 corpses with limited death records. Some of the bodies are mummified and others are partially skeletonized, while some are on display and others reside in coffins.