‘Van Gogh’ mummy found in Spanish church

Archaeologists found a well preserved mummy which bears an impressive resemblance to Van Gogh’s famous self-portrait during restoration work in the church of the Assumption of Our Lady in the village of Quinto, near Zaragoza, Spain.

The individual, whose real name is unknown, is one of 30 mummified bodies that were found when a part of the floor of the church, also known as the “Piquete,” was removed to install the heating system. All the bodies (11 adults and 24 children) were stored in a chapel of the church to be examined, as Seeker reports.

In 2014 a project was launched to study the bodies and is still in progress.

“The project is still ongoing. We have begun with five mummies, two adults and three children,” Mercedes González, director of the Instituto de Estudios Científicos en Momias in Madrid, told Discovery News.

Based on their clothing, the bodies date from the late 18th until mid-19th century.
There is not enough information about the “Van Gogh” mummy, but it is estimated that he might have been in his 40’s when he died.

“We are waiting for the results of histological analysis that were sent to several international institutions in Italy, Korea, Nebraska and Brazil,” González said.

The large number of children found in the burials might hint to epidemics as the main cause of death, while CT scans carried out at the Royo Villanova Hospital in Zaragoza revealed one of them has a possible pathology in his right foot.