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Around 1,000 geezerhood ago , two men in South America were in all probability murdered in dusty blood — one getting stabbed in the back and the other experience severe neck trauma , according to a new analysis of their mummified corpse .
Behaving more like detectives than academics , a research team scanned threemummifiedbodies from Chile and Peru in South America to look for clues on how the individuals died . One male victim was hit on the head and stabbed in the back , while another male person was likely killed after receive " massive harm " to the neck , which included breakdown , the researchers revealed .
A 3D CT scan of the skull of one of the South American mummies in the new study.
The field of study adds to evidence of violence in prehistoric human societies and highlights how mummified remains can nurse secret that are lost when only off-white are preserved . Both the stabbing and the cervical rotational trauma of the dislocated neck opening would have bunk detection inskeletons , the authors wrote in the subject field .
" The type of trauma we found would not have been noticeable if these human remains had been bare skeletons , " study atomic number 27 - author Andreas Nerlich , a professor in the department of pathology at Munich Clinic Bogenhausen in Germany , said in astatement .
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Human bodiescan be naturally mummified in wry , cold or other utmost environments , as these environs interpose with the process of decay that usually destroys soft tissue and harmonium . In this case , researcher studied ma that were continue in the very dry environment of South America and being held by museums in Germany and Switzerland .
Radiocarbon datingrevealed that the mummies were between 740 and 1,120 class old , meaning they predated the colonial Spanish period . One male person mummy likely came from the Aricaculturein what is now northern Chile . He was buried alongside sportfishing prick , so the researchers determined he likely came from a fishing community . The two other mummies , a virile and distaff , in all probability hail from the Arequipa part in what is now southwestern Peru and were buried wear materials made out of cotton and hair from llamas or alpacas , as well as viscachas , which are rodents in the Chinchilla laniger family .
The researchers usedcomputed imaging ( CT ) scansto create virtual 3D reconstruction of the bodies , which revealed previously hidden details about their deaths . While the female person died of natural causes , both of the male mummies died from extreme intentional violence , consort to the research .
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Other dry up remains may also have history waiting to be revealed through modernistic scanning and Reconstruction Period techniques . " There are oodles of South American mummy which might benefit from a similar investigating as done here , " Nerlich said .
The study was published online Sept. 9 in the journalFrontiers in Medicine .
Originally published on Live Science .
