I love mummies!

Always have. In fact, I don't know how many nights I've settled in with the television on Discovery Channel or National Geographic to catch the latest theory on who killed King Tut. It's fascinating to me, in part, because of the way our culture (modern U.S) treats death. People die and you never see them again (their physical form), so it almost feels like they never existed. Grave stones don't really give you much information about a person.

Mummies are more than the empty shells of human beings, they are proof that these people existed and they were people too, not just historical figures. They had bad teeth or egg-shaped heads (true of King Tut, though, they don't know if it was genetic or if something was done to him--akin to the process of foot-wrapping in China--to make it that way). When they're buried with stuff, it's usually things that were important to them for one reason or another.

Yesterday, I was home waiting for the home appraisal guy (another long story) and I saw a show on the Sci-Fi Channel with a segment on these catacombs in Italy. And I guess these particular catacombs are pretty famous. Apparently, a couple hundred years ago, one monk died and his brothers embalmed so that the villagers could continue to pray to him. But after seeing how it worked, the villagers themselves wanted to be embalmed. So these catacombs are just full of mummies. It's really neat. They're all dressed in their best clothing, and some of them still look pretty good for being as old as they are. I'm providing a link, but be warned, for those who are grossed out by skeletons and decaying mummies, it's probably not a good choice. But mostly, it looks like anything else you'd see in a horror movie (remember that scene in the Raiders of the Lost Ark?) except this time it's real.

If you do decide to check it out, be sure to check out the picture links on the left hand side of the page and also the professional photographer's link on the right hand side. The photos are poignant, seeing the clothing that was chosen for the dead and how carefully they are laid out. There are photos of babies and small children mummies, which is also sad, so be warned. But in one way, they continue to live on because people know their names and their stories whereas their contemporaries in other parts of the world have been buried under grave stones and forgotten.

One of the more fascinating of those is Rosalia Lombardo, a little girl who died more than 80 years ago, but due to a secret recipe of embalming materials, she looks like she's still alive and just sleeping.

Also, be sure to check out the clothing. It's interesting to see all the different styles and amazing to see how well the cloth has held up over the years.

Sorry if you find this morbid or disturbing. I've always been interested in stuff that's a little...dark : ) I find this fascinating and would love to use it in a book somehow. Can you imagine being the security guard at night in a place like this? Every little noise, every little rustle....ooooh. *shudder*