In 1920, a sensational find in the village of Martyshkino (in 1935 it was within the city of Lomonosov) amazed many seasoned people. At the local cemetery of this settlement, mummies of Peter's time were found.
Man and woman
Age was determined by clothes. Experts say that the dress in which the mummy of the fair sex is dressed was very expensive. No more than a dozen of such outfits have survived to this day. The body of the young lady, which has been in the earth for more than three hundred years, is perfectly preserved.
The observer is invariably struck by a neat hairstyle of fiery red hair, eyelashes on half-closed eyelids, a small, slightly upturned nose, teeth, narrow lips, graceful long fingers. Even the nails are perfectly preserved - the remains of varnish are clearly visible on them. The juicy brown color of the skin of the mummy, a former beauty, gives the impression of a "fresh tan".
The man's mummified body is much worse preserved. The merciless time bent him unusually and slightly flattened him. There is no dress on the descendant of Adam, from the accessories of clothes there is only a boot on his left leg. However, the facial features of the former resident of Martyshkino have been preserved. He had a slightly crooked nose and a rather pointed chin.
It is curious that the mummies were not specially embalmed or buried in any special way. According to popular rumor, there were about twenty mummified bodies in the destroyed crypt. One of them was dressed in rich clothes, and orders glittered on the chest of the deceased. Where this important gentleman got to is a secret sealed with seven seals.
But two other mummies, about which the story is, were transferred to the Museum of Public Health in St. Petersburg, opened on February 21, 1919 at the initiative of the People's Commissar of Health N. A. Semashko. To this day, they are kept here, however, the name of the museum has changed, since 1990 it has been called the Museum of Hygiene of the City Center for Medical Prevention of the Health Committee of the City Hall of St. Petersburg.
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And one more interesting fact: the museum workers are convinced that the mummies kept in glass cases have some mystical power. Whether it is true or not, it is difficult to say, but time has shown: there is probably some truth here. During the Second World War, Leningrad was in a blockade and was methodically subjected to shelling and bombing by the Nazis.
The Health Museum was located in the center of the city in the former palace of Prince I. I. Shuvalov, president of the Academy of Arts, built in 1753-1755. designed by S. I. Chevakinsky. So, all the buildings next to it were literally riddled with fragments, but none of them got into the museum. This is why the employees got the impression that mummies are taking trouble away from their shelter in some unknown way.
In the post-perestroika period, various commercial organizations have repeatedly attacked the prince's palace, and it seemed that the museum would have to vacate the building. However, each new attack invariably retreated.
Secrets of incorruptibility
The question arises: how were the human remains well preserved when buried in the ground of the village of Martyshkino? Unfortunately, no one has seriously studied this riddle during the existence of mummies in the museum. Researchers have yet to uncover their secret. If we talk about the problem of incorruptibility in general, then for modern science it has long ceased to exist. It is well known that the decomposition of dead organisms occurs under the influence of putrefactive bacteria.
However, for their development, certain conditions are necessary - heat, moisture and oxygen. When a dead organism was, for example, in the layers of permafrost, it remained for thousands of years. The well-known fossil mammoths in the Far North serve as an example of this. Their remains sometimes look as if giant hairy elephants died just yesterday. The miracle can be explained simply - putrefactive bacteria do not live here. They also do not multiply when the dead body is in very dry air or dry soil, and sometimes even in water, if it has special properties.
Here is just one illustrative example. In the 18th century, a professional murderer was executed in England, sending about twenty victims to another world. Half a century later, on the square in London, where this took place, during the construction of a new building, a petrified corpse was found in the ground. It is so well preserved that it was easily recognized by its facial features.
The mystery was solved almost immediately. It turned out that in the place where the criminal was buried, there was an underground spring, the water of which contained a lot of lime. The corpse was "calcified" - covered with a coating of lime, and putrefactive bacteria were denied access to it.
It is not uncommon to find "imperishable relics" of both people and animals in the Arabian deserts. It does not rain for a long time (sometimes for years), and the sun blazing with heat creates conditions favorable for mummification.
In Mexico, in the small town of Gwantahvato, there is an extraordinary cemetery. The graves are made right in the steep hillsides. Niches are dug up and the deceased, previously wrapped in several layers of fabric, will be hindered in them. Dry air and time turn corpses into mummies.
It may well be that in the crypt of the village of Martyshkino, nature somehow created the conditions under which the process of decomposition of the dead stopped by itself. Whether this is true or not, research will show.