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The Vác Mummy Project: Investigation of 265 Eighteenth-Century Mummified Remains from the TB Pandemic Era

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The Handbook of Mummy Studies

Abstract

Aims: This chapter aims to investigate the 265 eighteenth-century human remains interned in a sealed crypt within the Dominican Church in Vác, Hungary, between 1731 and 1838, including their lifestyle, occupation, and modes of death. In particular, this chapter aims to study the natural history of tuberculosis in the preantibiotic era related to age at death, sex, and body site and to characterize the infecting organisms. Church and civic records provided details of the individuals buried in the crypt.

Methods: Bodies were examined by naked eye or radiographic examination, initially by X-ray, then via CT analysis. Several selected individuals were examined for noninfectious conditions, including a nun with a severe spinal deformity, two young men with developmental abnormalities, and an elderly woman with gout. Skeletal and naturally mummified tissues were examined for the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA using specific molecular markers and techniques.

Results: The crypt individuals included wealthy citizens and clergy. Overall, specimens from 176/265 (66.4%) individuals were positive for tuberculosis, with 36/67 (53.7%) positive aged <20 years plus140/193 of adults (72.5%). When multiple body sites were examined, 79/101 (78.2%) of individuals were positive; disseminated disease was detected in 41 (40.6%) neonates, infants, and adults. Most had pulmonary disease, but 15 (14.9%) had extrapulmonary disease only.

Conclusions: These human remains tell us much about their lifestyle and occupations. Tuberculosis, caused by M. tuberculosis, was widespread in this community. Examining both mummified tissues and skeletal remains gave a better indication of the nature of tuberculosis than is possible from the examination of skeletal material alone.

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Acknowledgments

A grant from the Wellcome Trust (UK), the Wenkart Foundation (Australia), and the Ancient Ills Modern Cures Fund, Sydney, Australia, funded preliminary work, led by Mr Leon Fink. During the years of the research, several Hungarian funds supported the work: NKA (Hungarian Cultural Fund), OTKA (Hungarian National Science Foundation), T023671 (Interdisciplinary mummy project I), OTKA 61155 (Interdisciplinary mummy project II), and NKFI 125561 (Tuberculosis and evolution).

Dr Thomas Wenkart of the Wenkart Foundation and Professor Daniel Spira, from the Hebrew University Medical School, Jerusalem, participated in the endoscopic examinations at the Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary. The endoscope was kindly loaned by the Karl Storz Company and its CEO, Dr H. C. Mult. Sybill Storz. The earlier contribution to the project by Dr Helen Fletcher is gratefully acknowledged. Dr G. Michael Taylor (Imperial College London), Dr Adri van der Zanden (Apeldoorn, The Netherlands), and Dr Hamidou Traoré (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) kindly carried out the spoligotyping. Excellent technical assistance was provided by the following students: Sheima Abdulla Ahmed, Farah Aladin, Lynn Biderman, Rebecca Butt, Anneli Cooper, Hussein Farah, Poonam Gokal, Lauren Goldschmidt, Jaffer Sufi, and Ria Cickers. Tibor Bolcskei and Marian Ciuca kindly translated the eighteenth-century Hungarian and Latin texts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Division of Infection and Immunity, University College London, London, UK

    Helen D. Donoghue

  2. Department of Anthropology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary

    Ildikó Pap & Ildikó Szikossy

  3. The Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases and Ancient DNA, Hadassah Medical School, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

    Mark Spigelman

  4. Division of Infection and Immunity, Centre of Clinical Microbiology Royal Free hospital UCL London, London, UK

    Mark Spigelman

  5. Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia

    Mark Spigelman

Authors
  1. Helen D. Donoghue
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  2. Ildikó Pap
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  3. Ildikó Szikossy
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  4. Mark Spigelman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Helen D. Donoghue .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Bioanthropology, Paleopathology and History of Diseases, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Institute of Forensic and Anthropological Science, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Dong Hoon Shin

  2. New Mexico Health Enhancement and Marathon Clinics Research Foundation, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Raffaella Bianucci

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Donoghue, H.D., Pap, I., Szikossy, I., Spigelman, M. (2021). The Vác Mummy Project: Investigation of 265 Eighteenth-Century Mummified Remains from the TB Pandemic Era. In: Shin, D.H., Bianucci, R. (eds) The Handbook of Mummy Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3354-9_21

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