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“Human mummies are the focus of my research and I think that the stories these old bodies told me is reward enough for my efforts. Studying them is one way to shed light on what history has hidden from us.”

Telos: Paleoanthropologist. How did you become interested in what you call bodies that have tales to tell?

Dario Piombino-Mascali: At elementary school I learnt about the mummy of Blessed Eustochia, the saint from Messina who shortly afterwards was canonised by John Paul II in her hometown along the Straits. I asked my father if he’d take me to see her and remained unperturbed when I came face to face with her. That was the first time I came into contact with important remains that not only contain so much historical and biological data, but can also be studied and preserved for future generations. But my interest was well and truly sparked while studying at Pisa University. During my anthropology course, I discovered that I could become professionally involved with these artefacts, just like one can with archaeological artefacts or works of art. It immediately dawned on me that Sicilian mummies had never been examined and that they could become a unique research topic. In hindsight, I can say I was right. During the cursus honorum I was about to embark upon (graduate student, assistant, research doctorate, researcher and teacher) my focus was on human mummies, and I think that the stories these old bodies told me is reward enough for my efforts. But thinking back to the early days of this adventure of mine I would be amiss if I didn’t mention my mentor and maestro, the American pathologist Arthur Aufderheide, the father of the modern, scientific study of mummies who, when he was almost ninety, travelled around Sicily with me just to support me and launch the scientific project of which I am still director. Only his generosity and encouragement motivated me to go on rather than give up when I had to face the hostility of people who didn’t want to give young people opportunities, but instead did their best to monopolise this field of science. I know I owe him so much and, even now, I have very sad, but fond memories of him. In fact, I still have the tools he used to take on his scientific missions - sacred relics for scholars of mummies - and I’m thinking of donating them to a museum.

Would you share with us a few of the most interesting stories and secrets you’ve been told by your silent friends?

Actually there are so many, each with a different protagonist: the mummy of the Dutch peatlands, the mummies in a Lithuanian crypt or the famous mummies of Ferentillo, the internal organs of the Medici dynasty in Florence, and even an Egyptian mummy in the Vatican Museums. However, the mummies that made a lasting impression from a historical/medical point of view are, to start with, those in Salò, stone artefacts called petrifactions embalmed by Giovanni Battista Rini. When these petrifactions were studied they revealed the technique, based on the injection and immersion of preserving substances, used by this rather obscure doctor. Or the mummies of Savoca, aristocrats, churchmen and middle class citizens who led a comfortable life; we know this because their remains show they all had illnesses typical of longer life expectancy and a civilised lifestyle: gout and DISH.
Or the extremely interesting mummies of Piraino, priests who died in old age, one of which, suffering from multiple myeloma, had been treated with a medicinal plant that was not well-known in Europe. This plant was instead renowned in the East and even among American Indians. And how could I forget to mention the surprises we had while studying several Egyptian mummies? The first, housed in the Vatican Museums, was thought to be a female and instead it turned out to be unequivocally male. The same thing happened in Kaunas where the mummy was a low caste male rather than the unidentified singer of the god Amun, Shemait. Not to mention the two child mummies, one completely empty and the other with the hand of an adult. In short, the study of mummies is one way to shed light on what history has hidden from us.

Santa Lucia del Mela, an aristocratic small town in the province of Messina, hit the headlines when an extraordinary piece of news was published: it was to be the seat of the first school of studies of mummies in the world. Since you made it happen, can you tell us more?

Together with my American colleagues, we decided to organise a summer school for graduate students focusing on different research fields: forensic sciences, biology and archaeology. Not just the students at the University of Nebraska, the main project partner, but students from several overseas universities that had formed a consortium with it. Santa Lucia del Mela was not a random choice. It is a small town with noble origins and a huge historical and artistic heritage; a spectacular place you cannot but love. There is a small crypt under the Capuchin Church in Santa Lucia where dozens of mummies are buried; the crypt also contains the incorruptible body of the very important Blessed Antonio Franco, the Sicilian St. Francis who fought against usury in the early seventeenth century and whom I had the honour and privilege to preserve a few years ago.
The subjects we teach include paleopathology, anatomy, taphonomy, funerary archaeology, parasitology, palynology and the conservation and musealisation of mummies. It’s an opportunity to follow intensive, two-week courses on these theoretical disciplines and see the artefacts during visits to the most representative sites, such as Palermo and Piraino. A not-to-be-missed golden opportunity for our youngsters who have probably only see mummies in a museum. Amongst other things, the students will avoid extremely expensive travel costs thanks to a remarkable number of grants. A logic very different to the one in Italian universities.

Your words have drawn back the veil on the incredible heritage of mummies in Sicily, so much so that the island is a ‘must’ for any scholar. A tradition that sinks its roots in history. Can you tell us how it all started and then developed?

Actually its origins are lost in the mists of time, even if several studies have shown that we can associate mummification with ancient practices in the south where people considered death as a long, culturally sanctioned process. The soul had to reach the afterworld and was represented by the body, which instead had to be purified of its more turbid elements. In short, this prompted the construction of the colatoi (storage places where the fluids could drain away); these architectural structures were shaped like a seat or bed and used to facilitate the desiccation of the bodies. This practice continued until 1880 when it was prohibited by new hygiene and sanitary norms promulgated after the Unification of Italy. This interpretation appears to be corroborated by the numerous frescoes, paintings and even sculptures of the purged souls associated with these places of death. Nevertheless, chemicals were sill used at least until the 1930’s to produce several mummies: for example the bodies of little Rosalia Lombardo and the vice-consul of the United States, Giovanni Paterniti.