Health sciences professor Ronald Beckett discussed the findings of his research about smoked body mummies preserved in the remote New Guinea village of Koke at a press conference Oct. 28 in the Mancheski Executive Seminar Room.
Beckett and his team, including Josh Bernstein from Discovery Channel's "Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein," learned through photojournalism Ulla Lohmann that the Anga people of Koke wanted to restore their mummies to preserve the tradition of mummification. Beckett met Lohmann at the 2004 World Mummy Congress in Torino, Italy.
Beckett received a letter from the village chief asking for assistance. The Discovery Channel agreed to do a documentary about the Anga people as part of its new series, "Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein." The restoration was conducted in June 2008, and the documentary aired on the Discovery Channel Sept. 8.
"We wanted to restore the mummies to be there to provide the mummies a voice," said Beckett, co-director of the Bioanthropology Research Institute.
Beckett, Bernstein and the crew consulted the villagers to use their knowledge of their natural surroundings to find materials necessary to not only restore mummies, but also continue restoration methods and procedures after Beckett left.
"I was going to use surgical glue and medical mesh, but then it dawned on me that they won't have those materials naturally available to them," Beckett said. "So we, with the help of the villagers, made a tool kit of natural elements available to them."
Using native materials, the villagers assisted Beckett and his crew to restore the mummy Moimango, father of the village chief, Gemtasu. Some of the native materials used included suca (tree sap), which was used as an adhesive, and tapa (tree bark), used to reinforce Moimango's legs.
By teaching them the restoration process, the villagers learned the ancient cultural tradition of mummification within the tribe. It is Gemtasu's desire to be mummified and sit next to his father on the cliff overlooking the village of Koke.
"When I saw Gemtasu put his hand on his father's mummy and introduce him to us, it really touched me," Bernstein said at the press conference. "My father died when I was very young, I could never imagine speaking or having a relationship with him like Gemtasu had with his father 50 years after he died."
Mummification within the tribe had stopped about 50 years ago, with Gemtasu's father being the last to be mummified. The process ended after German missionaries told the tribe the process was unhygienic and therefore illegal, which was untrue.
Beckett said a moving moment for everyone involved was when Gemtasu and his family came to see his Moimango just after the restoration. Gemtasu silently looked over his father's mummified body as the crew watched. He then began to speak excitedly and took Lohmann's and Beckett's hands and began to dance and sing. The crew was in tears, as was Gemtasu.
Beckett will present the results of this project at various professional and scientific meetings. Using the results of the mummy restoration as a backdrop, the team hopes to increase awareness of the desire of the Anga to preserve its culture and traditions for future generations.