350-year-old surprises scientists

The remains of a former bishop of Lund reveals an incredible find.  

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  Portrait from Winstrup's theological work "Pendectæ Sacrorum seu Commentarii in historiam domini n. Jesu Christi" of 1666.

• The Rev. Peder Winstrup was the bishop of Lund from 1638-1679. So when Per Karsten, director of the Historial Museum in Lund, was told that the authorities had approved the relocation of Bishop Winstrup's remains from Lund Cathedral to the North Cemetery in Lund, he prepared for the above-ground casket and remains to be moved.

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  Winstrup's coffin in the crypt at Lund Cathedral. Wikimedia Commons

• What Karsten's team found wasn’t just a very well preserved body, but two of them. X-rays revealed a small fetus in its fifth or sixth fetal month, well wrapped in a cloth and hidden under the bishop's feet. DNA analysis is still identifying whether there is a family connection between the two.

• The coffin’s mattress of plants such as hops and juniper is believed to have had a preservative and antiseptic effect on the 74-year-old bishop. Examinations revealed incredible preservation of the 350-year-old mummy — his internal organs are well preserved, and scientists have identified traces of tuberculosis, gout, gallstones and osteoarthritis in his joints. His body is a unique medical history in and of itself, representing to some degree the life and times of the 1600s.