The team of investigating scientists reported that the man’s skin surface shows “ coloration ranging from light to dark brown .” Furthermore, they said the skin texture was “hard and leathery,” and completely dehydrated. Internal examinations revealed that the cranial, thoracic, and abdominal cavities had decayed into “dried, brownish-black masses.”
Maggots can be seen on the inside of the mummified man’s skull. (Mileva B, Tsranchev I, Georgieva M, et al. / CC-BY 4.0 )
The investigators write that natural mummification “usually takes several weeks to 6-12 months,” and they added that “such a fast transformation would only normally happen in extreme heat.” However, around the time the body was discovered, Sofia had temperatures ranging from 16 to 33 degrees Celsius, which the scientists said “is not hot enough to have caused the mummification”.
In ancient mummification internal organs were removed. Here, the mummified corpse shows structureless masses in the abdominal cavity decomposed. (Mileva B, Tsranchev I, Georgieva M, et al. / CC-BY 4.0 )
It’s Time to Call in Sherlock
The researchers are adamant that the weather patterns in Sofia could not have caused what they describe as a “bizarrely fast mummification process,” as is presented in the corpse of the 34-year-old man.
Employing the earlier method of Sherlock Holmes, if it wasn’t the weather that caused the rapid mummification, it could only have been some other factor that warms up the localized environment where the body was recovered? This approach to the mystery renders the train itself, as the prime suspect.
We have all stood beside train lines , and in subway stations, and experienced the whoosh of warm air that occurs when trains pass. Now while this may sound a little ‘improbable’, and the researchers cannot be sure, they speculate that perhaps passing trains caused warm air and wind to engulf the body enough to dehydrate it, and causing the mummification process to manifest more rapidly.
