Ferdinand I’s Museum of Mummies

Ferdinand I of Naples was the illegitimate son of Alfonso V of Aragon and King of Naples from 1458 to 1494. 

According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, “Ferdinand was gifted with great courage and real political ability, but his method of government was vicious and disastrous. His financial administration was based on oppressive and dishonest monopolies, and he was mercilessly severe and utterly treacherous towards his enemies.” For example, his oppressive government led, in 1485, to a revolt amongst the nobility and, after managing to crush the uprising and promising many of the nobles general amnesty he had many of them treacherously murdered.

With regards to this, Jacob Burckhardt described Ferdinand’s recreational activities as follows: “his pleasures were of two kinds: he liked to have his opponents near him, either alive in well-guarded prisons, or dead and embalmed, dressed in the costume which they wore in their lifetime.” Fearing no one, he would take great pleasure in conducting his guests on a tour of his prized “museum of mummies” [Source]. Indeed, Ferdinand had a novel way of dealing with his enemies. After having them murdered, he had their bodies mummified. He kept them in a private ‘black museum’, dressed in the clothes that they had worn in life. If he suspected one of his subjects of plotting against him, he took him to visit the ‘museum’ as a deterrent! [Source]

This photo shows the mummy owned by a Shinto sect headquartered in the city of Fujinomiya near the base of Mt. Fuji. At 170 cm tall and 1,400 years old, it is the largest and oldest known mermaid mummy in Japan. The mermaid has an unusually large head that is bald, except for some hair growth that extends from its forehead to its nose. Its eyes and mouth are open. It has webbed hands with sharp claws, and a 20-cm long tail. The lower body has a bone structure similar to that of a fish, but it is unclear whether or not the upper body has a bone structure. The entire body shows signs of having been ravaged by moths.

Legend has it that this mermaid appeared to Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi) as he was passing along the shores of Lake Biwa (about 1,400 years ago). The hideous beast told the prince about how it had been transformed into a mermaid as punishment for making a living as a fishermen within the boundaries of an animal sanctuary. The mermaid claimed that over many years it had come to a clear understanding of the horrors of destroying life, and that it was prepared to move on to the next world. As a final wish before dying, though, it asked the prince to establish a temple using the mermaid’s body as a centerpiece, where it could be used to educate people about the sanctity of life. The mermaid then died. The prince took the mermaid’s body and set up a temple as requested. But after a number of strange occurrences, the mummy was passed on to another temple. The mummy changed hands several times before ending up at its current location at the base of Mt. Fuji.

Sokushinbutsu

Buddhism in the extreme! In an obvious game of one-upmanship, a couple of dozen Japanese Buddhist priests have won the self-denial award by successfully mummifying themselves. The process takes years, but begins with the monk taking part in a diet and exercise regimen to burn away all body fat. Then they slowly poison themselves to induce vomiting and diarrhea to empty the body of bodily fluids. Then, the monk crawls into a box and remains in the lotus position until death, when the box is sealed. When the container of horror is reopened, you get a perfectly mummified Buddhist priest- in theory. Many, many people have tried to mummify themselves unsuccessfully. The practice is now outlawed in modern Japan, and thankfully no Buddhist sect advocates Sokushinbutsu.

Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832) was an English author, jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He is best known for his advocacy of utilitarianism and animal rights, and the idea of the panopticon.

As requested in his will, Bentham’s body was dissected as part of a public anatomy lecture. Afterward, the skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the “Auto-icon”, with the skeleton stuffed out with hay and dressed in Bentham’s clothes. Originally kept by his disciple Thomas Southwood Smith, it was acquired by University College London in 1850. It is normally kept on public display at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college, but for the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the college, it was brought to the meeting of the College Council, where it was listed as “present but not voting”.

Bentham had intended the Auto-icon to incorporate his actual head, mummified to resemble its appearance in life. However, Southwood Smith’s experimental efforts at mummification, although technically successful, left the head looking distastefully macabre, with dried and darkened skin stretched tautly over the skull. The Auto-icon was therefore given a wax head, fitted with some of Bentham’s own hair. The real head was displayed in the same case as the Auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks. It is now locked away securely.

(Source: Wikipedia)

The earliest known examples of tattoos were the Egyptians, having being present on numerous female mummies that date as far back as 2000 B.C. It was only until “Iceman”, a frozen body found at the Italian-Austrian border in 1991, was discovered with patterns adorned across various parts of his body that presented evidence of tattoos existing much earlier. Scientists have carbon dated “Iceman” to around 5,200 years old.