Buyer beware: Those mummified remains might carry toxic spores
Buyer beware: Those mummified remains might carry toxic spores
买家请注意：那些木乃伊遗骸可能携带剧毒孢子
Mummified human and animal remains have long been in demand among collectors, and such items are sufficiently rare that their acquisition may involve unregulated, occasionally clandestine trade practices—if not outright illegal ones. According to the authors of a paper published in the International Journal of Cultural Property, the risks to would-be collectors aren’t just legal. Mummified remains may also pose a significant health hazard due to toxic substances used in their preservation and microbial growth due to improper storage. In fact, toxic spores or fungi are often cited as the source of the legendary “mummy’s curse” tied to the excavation of King Tutankhamen’s tomb.
长期以来，木乃伊化的人类和动物遗骸一直受到收藏家的追捧。由于此类物品极为罕见，其获取过程往往涉及不受监管、偶尔隐秘的贸易行为，甚至可能直接触犯法律。根据发表在《国际文化财产杂志》（International Journal of Cultural Property）上的一篇论文，潜在收藏家面临的风险不仅仅是法律层面的。由于保存过程中使用的有毒物质以及因储存不当导致的微生物滋生，木乃伊遗骸也可能构成严重的健康危害。事实上，有毒孢子或真菌常被认为是与图坦卡蒙法老墓发掘相关的“木乃伊诅咒”传说的源头。
Per the authors, the mummification process throughout history has relied on various toxic materials and substances to help preserve the remains—heavy metals like arsenic, mercury, and lead, for example—which is why careful handling is necessary to avoid adverse health effects. (Professionals typically don masks, gloves, and lab coats when working with such remains.) Various micro-organisms (bacteria, fungi, yeasts) can also lie dormant in the tissues for centuries and can recolonize and multiply due to a ready supply of organic material—particularly if the remains have been stored in suboptimal conditions.
据作者所述，纵观历史，木乃伊制作过程依赖于各种有毒材料和物质来帮助保存遗骸，例如砷、汞和铅等重金属，因此必须小心处理以避免对健康造成不利影响。（专业人员在处理此类遗骸时通常会佩戴口罩、手套并穿上实验服。）各种微生物（细菌、真菌、酵母菌）也可能在组织中休眠数百年，并因有机物质供应充足而重新定植和繁殖——特别是在遗骸储存条件不佳的情况下。
A 1962 case, for example, revealed the presence of poisonous fungi spores in mummified remains that would cause respiratory inflammation and infection if inhaled, as well as fever. A 2013 study found that the hundreds of mummies on display at the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, are prone to microbial and fungal growth after years of unstable environmental conditions. Similarly, in 2012, scientists identified three species of fungi (Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Stachybotrys) on human remains, coffins, walls, and in the air in the crypts of the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Krakow, Poland. These microorganisms can have serious health effects.
例如，1962年的一起案例显示，木乃伊遗骸中存在有毒真菌孢子，吸入后会导致呼吸道炎症、感染以及发烧。2013年的一项研究发现，西西里岛巴勒莫嘉布遣会地下墓穴中展出的数百具木乃伊，在经历多年不稳定的环境条件后，极易滋生微生物和真菌。同样，2012年，科学家在波兰克拉科夫圣彼得和保罗教堂的地下室中，在人类遗骸、棺材、墙壁以及空气中发现了三种真菌（曲霉菌、青霉菌和葡萄穗霉菌）。这些微生物可能会对健康产生严重影响。
Spores of Aspergillus flavus famously infected and killed 10 of the 12 scientists who first opened the 15th century Royal tomb of Grand Duke Casimir IV Jagillon in Poland in 1973. Rumors of a “mummy’s curse” have also dogged the death of George Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who funded Howard Carter’s expedition that discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb. The theory that Lord Carnarvon succumbed to exposure to toxic fungi—one archaeologist reported seeing a black fungus inside the tomb—was dismissed outright as “tommy-rot” by Carter, who had asked a scientist to test the bandages for any pathogens.
黄曲霉菌的孢子曾导致1973年首批打开波兰15世纪卡齐米日四世大公皇家陵墓的12名科学家中的10人感染并死亡，这一事件广为人知。关于“木乃伊诅咒”的传言也一直围绕着第五代卡纳冯伯爵乔治·赫伯特的死亡，他曾资助霍华德·卡特发现了图坦卡蒙墓的探险活动。关于卡纳冯伯爵死于接触有毒真菌的理论——一位考古学家报告称在墓内看到了黑色真菌——被卡特断然斥为“胡说八道”，卡特曾要求科学家对绷带进行病原体检测。
Carnarvon died after accidentally slashing a fresh mosquito bite while shaving; it became infected, and he died of blood poisoning—technically pneumonia arising from a streptococcal infection of the skin, according to a 1994 report published in The Lancet. Carnarvon had long been prone to chronic lung infections. Per The Lancet article, there was a “general belief that one acute attack of bronchitis could have killed him.” In fact, 58 people were present when King Tut’s tomb was opened, and only eight died within 12 years. Lord Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, was among the first to enter, and she didn’t die until 1980. That hasn’t stopped the “mummy’s curse” story from resurfacing occasionally, most recently in a 2022 documentary that cited the toxic spores theory.
卡纳冯在剃须时意外划破了一个新鲜的蚊子叮咬处，随后伤口感染，最终死于败血症。根据1994年发表在《柳叶刀》上的一份报告，其死因在医学上被定义为皮肤链球菌感染引发的肺炎。卡纳冯长期患有慢性肺部感染。据《柳叶刀》文章称，当时人们“普遍认为一次急性支气管炎发作就足以夺去他的生命”。事实上，图坦卡蒙墓开启时有58人在场，其中只有8人在12年内去世。卡纳冯伯爵的女儿伊芙琳·赫伯特夫人是第一批进入墓穴的人之一，她直到1980年才去世。但这并没有阻止“木乃伊诅咒”的故事不时浮出水面，最近一次是在2022年的一部纪录片中，该片引用了有毒孢子理论。
All that microbial growth still poses a serious health risk to collectors of mummified remains. “The rise of the Internet, especially social media, has amplified international trafficking and driven demand for unique cultural heritage, including mummified humans and animals,” said co-author Kirsty Squires of the University of Staffordshire. “However, these preserved remains pose health and biosecurity risks, due to the toxicity of embalming methods and/or suboptimal storage that can promote microbial growth. Our research revealed that mummified remains sold online exhibit signs of biodeterioration, yet sellers provide no safety guidance, suggesting limited awareness or deliberate disregard of hazards.”
所有这些微生物滋生对木乃伊遗骸的收藏者来说，仍然构成严重的健康风险。“互联网，尤其是社交媒体的兴起，加剧了国际非法贸易，并推动了对包括人类和动物木乃伊在内的独特文化遗产的需求，”斯塔福德郡大学的合著者克里斯蒂·斯奎尔斯表示。“然而，这些保存下来的遗骸带来了健康和生物安全风险，这是由于防腐方法的毒性，和/或可能促进微生物生长的次优储存条件所致。我们的研究显示，网上出售的木乃伊遗骸表现出生物降解的迹象，但卖家却不提供任何安全指导，这表明他们对这些危害的认识有限，或者是故意忽视。”
Squires et al. scoured the Internet for public posts related to the sale or collection of mummified remains, both human and animal: public and business pages on Facebook, public Instagram pages, websites of brick-and-mortar stores, a Dutch e-commerce platform, and online auctioneers. Only 24 of the 128 posts included in the study came from non-Meta platforms. All the posts were anonymized to protect any personal information, although unaltered versions were stored on an external hard drive not connected to the cloud. Most of the items for sale were mummified human remains, usually body parts such as hands and feet, or heads (like Peruvian shrunken heads); six were animals, specifically a cat, a falcon, an ibis.
斯奎尔斯等人搜寻了互联网上与买卖或收藏人类及动物木乃伊遗骸相关的公开帖子，包括Facebook上的公共和商业页面、Instagram公共页面、实体店网站、一家荷兰电子商务平台以及在线拍卖商。研究中包含的128个帖子中，只有24个来自非Meta平台。所有帖子都经过匿名处理以保护个人信息，尽管未修改的版本被存储在未连接云端的外部硬盘上。大多数待售物品是人类木乃伊遗骸，通常是手脚等身体部位，或者是头部（如秘鲁缩头）；其中六件是动物，具体包括一只猫、一只猎鹰和一只朱鹭。