Many have heard about the revenge of the Egyptian pharaohs on those who disturb their peace. Not so long ago an ancient "avenger" appeared in the Alps
Already eight corpses
17 years ago, German spouses-climbers in the snow-capped Alps on the border of Austria and Italy came across a frozen body. Thanks to analyzes carried out in Innsbruck, it was established that the "ice man" froze over 5300 years ago. This is the first time such an ancient body has been discovered in Europe.
Soon after, a story began, as if invented in Hollywood: one after another, people died, during the extraction of the mummy or during its research, touching it.
The first to die in a car accident was a pathologist who was packing the body in a plastic bag. The second was a climber delivering the mummy to Innsbruck: he was covered with an avalanche. Then came the turn of the forensic scientist, who did the autopsy, and the journalist, who made a film about the discovery of the mummy … Then - the discoverer of the "ice man", who led an excursion to the place of discovery: he fell into the abyss during a snowstorm and was found in exactly the same position - face down with his left hand twisted - as a mummy. The head of the rescue service who found him, an hour after the funeral, himself died of a heart attack, although he had never complained of a heart before.
There is no pattern in these deaths, the first researcher of the mummy told reporters. True, he did not live long after that.
Suddenly, the Austrians gave up the right to own the mummy to their southern neighbors from Italy without a fight: they allegedly proved that the last refuge of the “ice man” was located south of the Italian-Austrian border, which means that its legitimate owners are Italians. The mummy was transported to Bolzano, where an archaeological museum was created for it. Now she rests in a sealed chamber at a temperature of -6 degrees and a humidity of 98%, and visitors can observe the mummy through a special window.
However, the change in the "registration" of the formidable deceased did not insure the scientists from the continuation of revenge. The next was Australian archaeologist and microbiologist Tom Loy. The blood disease that brought the scientist down appeared immediately after he began working with the mummy.
What is the professor's illness?
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In Innsbruck, I met with the pathologist Werner Platzer. The professor has been on sick leave for a month now and he received me not at the institute, but in his mansion. The first thing he said was that his illness was not related to research on the mummy. True, what the scientist is sick with, he himself does not yet know.
Having visited the archaeological museum in Bolzano and looked through the window at the dry, deformed body, I did not understand why testing the strength of the nervous system in hundreds of children and adolescents.
I asked a researcher at the museum, Lia Venturini, if eyewitnesses could be believed that sightseers who looked at the mummy immediately fell ill with the flu.
- Yes, we collected statistics on schools in the city: after the excursion - and history teachers bring children in whole classes - from a quarter to half of the students fall ill the next day.
- So, after all, the curse of the mummy works?
- Rather, it is not very useful for an unstable child's psyche to look at a body devoid of skin and watch a film about the preparation of a mummy. Against the background of such impressions, it is possible that the immunity is weakening.
This explanation does not contradict the opinion of the paranormal researcher Jean-Domenic Perge. It is unacceptable, he is convinced, to turn a dead body into an object of display. To stop the conveyor of unexplained deaths, the body of the "ice man" should be buried as soon as possible.
However, this warning is unlikely to stop Gareth Loy, the brother and colleague of the deceased archaeologist, who announced that he intends to complete the study of the mummy's DNA and finish writing the book begun by his brother.