A mummy is coming back

Being at field work not far from the Boltongo village of Churapchnsky ulus (district), Yakutsk State University scientists and their colleagues from France discovered the mummy of a young lady buried in the XVII century

A short time later, a group of 20 scientists arrived to the place of discovery. The research team includes geneticists, archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, artists, restorers, forensic medicine experts and two students of Strasbourg and Paris .

Scientists have determined that the mummy is a young lady who was buried in the XVII century. Her personal staff has remained very well. Her clothes appeared to be beautiful and embroidered with many beads. Evidently she was of a well-to-do family.

The mummy has been transported by helicopter from Churapcha to Yakutsk .

The research team lead by Erik Krubezi ( his name might be inaccurate due to translation from Russian ), professor of Toulouse University , has many questions about the mummy of a young lady. What was the cause of her death? Was it any disease? What was her nutrition? When all answers will be found, the mummy will be returned to the burial place.

“Yakutia is a very unusual region in terms of geographical location, climate, and national genetics. That was key factors of our willingness to cooperate with republic scientists,” the expedition leader who has been exploring Yakutian ethnography for many years.

“The Yakuts are cattle-breeders historically. They speak a Turkic language. They managed to cope with indigenous Northern peoples who are deer farmers. We have two versions of Yakuts' origin. The first one is ‘They came from Central Asia '. The second one is ‘From Mongolia.' Now we have a great opportunity to work on the discovered mummy that promises to give many answers. For six years, we examined a dozen of burials. We know that exhumation looks like sinful or sacrilegious, but we do research work. My dream is that our discovery will become precious and important exhibits and they will be displayed in Yakutian museums.”

By the end of this week, research work is coming to the end. What kind of conclusion scientists will arrive at, we will learn in a short time.

// 01.08.2006

Written by Alexandra Starkova.
Translated by YakutiaToday.Com

Resource: GazetaYakutia.Ru