At the time of de Brazza’s writing, the number of mummies in Venzone was numbered at 42. Following an earthquake in the area in 1976, the number has since been reduced to only 15. Their declining number, understandably, has made it rather difficult to study precisely what the conditions behind their mummification had truly been. As University of Minnesota professor Arthur C. Aufderheide recounts, while the community of Venzone may be “incredibly hospitable,” those with jurisdiction over the bodies have often refused even Aufderheide himself to collect samples for analysis. In turn, this means that only already-collected cultures can generally be used today in analyzing what conditions might have caused mummification.