In 1994, archaeologists discovered several coffins containing perfectly preserved corpses underneath a church named Dominican in the town of Vác, Pest County, Hungary. Among them, there are 2 mummies that have attracted the attention of archaeologists. They belonged to a 38-year-old mother named Veronica Skripetz and her 1-year-old son, Johannes Orlovits.

The mummy of two mothers and daughters was found in a crypt under a church in the town of Vác, Pest County, Hungary

While carrying out the renovation of the Dominican church, workers accidentally discovered the catacombs containing more than 250 bodies underground, all dating back about 300 years.

After a while, in April 4, doctors at Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, California (USA) conducted an autopsy on the mummies of the mother and daughter to find out what life was like at the time and what led to their deaths.

The Truth About Painful Deaths

“Now we can find answers about their lives and explain why so many children die from childhood. They don’t have antibiotics and vaccines. The child mortality rate is very high,” said Ildiko Szikossy, an anthropologist from Hungary.

This means that tens of thousands of children have suffered and lost their lives to diseases for which there are no antibiotics or vaccines. The boy Johannes Orlovits is one of them.

After moving the mummy of the mother and daughter over a distance of more than 2,9km, the scientists used modern computed tomography (CT) scanning techniques for analysis.

“The mother looks almost intact from top to bottom while the child has some small broken bones. We really didn’t know what we were going to find. It was as if we were lifting the veil of the unexpected. The mother seems to have died of tuberculosis, but the CT results will reveal more details,” said Dr. Jim Sutherland, a CT research expert.

Unexpected results

After a month of research, scientists came to the conclusion that Veronica Skripetz died of tuberculosis in 1. Her son, Johannes Orlovits, died of dysentery at the age of 1808. Veronica Skripetz has 1 children. None of them live past 3 years old.

The mummy of the mother and daughter is on display at the Bowers Museum until September 2, 5 in the program “Mummies of the World”. It is not clear where they can be moved now.

Previously, in 2010, a CT scan was conducted on the mummy of a man named Michael Orlovits, the first husband of Veronica Skripetz, who died in 1806. His mummy is also part of the exhibition at the Bowers Museum.

The three mummies are part of more than 3 mummies found in a secret crypt in the Dominican Church, in the Hungarian town of Vaux. Those who were found were buried sometime in the 250s and 1700s.

For a long time, the catacombs were obscured and forgotten. But in 1994, repair work at the church helped people discover the bodies inside. The mummies have been well preserved thanks to the constant flow of cool, dry air.

“When they opened the coffin, they were all shocked because the hair, skin and clothes of the corpses had not yet decomposed,” said Dr. Linda Sutherland, who conducted the study directly.

Church records and the writing on the coffin have made it easy for researchers to identify names, birth-death dates, marriages, and baptisms. Even the profession of the mummies.

After the mummy was discovered, researchers in Hungary analyzed Veronica Skripetz’s lung tissue and concluded she had tuberculosis.

The CT scan confirmed that, as there was a scar in Veronica’s lungs. It also shows that Veronica is very thin. She may have been ill for some time before she died. She died at the age of 38, just two years after Michael Orlovits died and a year after her second marriage.

Johannes Orlovits was born in 1800 and died a year later. The results of the CT scan showed that Johannes Orlovits was a well-fed child, with fat and chubby legs,

Dr Linda Sutherland said: “He doesn’t seem to have any chronic diseases or fractures. Therefore, it is very likely that the boy died suddenly. The boy’s intestines were relatively clean, there was no trace of bacteria that helped digest food. Dysentery can be a culprit. Without modern treatments such as intravenous rehydration, dysentery could have been fatal at that time.”