Fill hole

The mystery of the dragon mummy at the Todaiji Temple, a World Heritage site in Nara, Japan, has been solved.

The mummy called “Koryu” is one of the many artifacts housed in the temple’s Shosoin Repository. It was extensively studied by zoologists and archeologists from the National Museum of Nature and Science and the University Museum of the University of Tokyo.

The Imperial Household Agency’s Shosoin office based in Nara announced the results of the studies on 23 April, Asahi Shimbun reports.

The mummified remains are that of an adult female Japanese marten from the weasel family. It is believed that the marten entered the repository through gaps in the ceiling and it died and became mummified, according to Asahi Shimbun.

Meanwhile, researchers studying an 18th-century Austrian mummy found that it was embalmed through a method not cited in historical records.

In a study published on 2 May in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, the researchers said the remains of a parish vicar named Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, who died in 1746 of tuberculosis, were well preserved by stuffing the abdomen with mud, wood chips, twigs and silk fabric.

Historically, mummification involves opening the abdominal wall, removing the organs, and inserting packing material, Asahi Shimbun reports.

The Austrian mummy’s abdomen, however, was intact and the researchers learned the packing material was inserted via his anus. Proving the unusual mummification method was the somewhat enlarged anal opening of the mummy.