The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-03-22
Mummy of PyrCn66S.
Ancient Human Body
Found in Cave
Indianapolis Sentinel.)
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The scientific and religious world are
both a good deal stirred up over re-
cent discovery in the Pyrenees. some
people who have been getting out
building stone from a Pyreneean hill
side came upon shallow cavern.
While exploring it they discovered
what is by far the oldest relic OF the
human race extant. 1t is the mummy
for want of better name it is SO
caIled-of the prehistoric man.
The type clearly approaches Caucas-
ian in class. The body is extremely
well preserved, as well it might be,
seeing it has been preserved absolutely
from moisture or atmospheric deterlor7
alton for many thousand years. me
body when first discovered was enVel-
oped in what the great scientists who
examined ii, and they were the great
est in all continental Europe, declared
to have been the skin of the cave bear,
a species of animal that became ex-
tinct with the last mighty CONFUSION
that changed the face of this earth.
This newly discovered mummy or
preserved human body is at least 10000
years old. 1t is the first authentic per-
feet human corpus known to the sci
entific world. which accounts for the
extraordinary interest taken in the
find
1t represents a man who was young,
not beyond five and thirty years of age.
He was about five feet eleven inches
in stature and extremely well proper
toned. He evidently came TO his death
in battle or by violence, for there is
bad wound on the back of the head
sufficient to have killed him. Having
been kept dry so long and cut off from
atmospheric effects, the body is Won
derfully free from decay.
The French government wishes to
keep it so, and, therefore, as soon as
the leading savants of France had
carefully examined it the body was in
closed in an alright steel case, with
q glass top of sufficient thickness to |
endure the outward pressure of the |
air when that within the case had been /
carefully pumped out The limbs of |
the body were well proportional. From |
the appearance of the soles of the feet /
the man in life must have gone bare |
footed, for they were greatly calloused |
and hardened. In color the man was !
of a light brown, something between |
the Japanese and the Anglo Saxon. By !
his side there were a stone ak, a flint |
knife and what is declared to be a |
bark-formed drinking cup.
Not far from where this remarkable !
prehistoric mans body was |
found were parts of the skeleton of |
woman The pelvis and the other por-
tions of the body clearly proved that |
it was part of the skeleton of a
and one who was about five
feet five inches in stature Some finger
joints, in an excellent state of preser-
vation, indicated a hand small and
lelicately made These remains must
have been deposited where they were
found, though the great natural con-
1ulsion which ensued about 10000 years
ago occurred very soon after or pos
'iely contemporary with the placing of
-hese remains where they were found.
These discoveries prove that the Ply
'eneean caves, some of which are very
extensive, are extremely ancient, and
we're in use as human dwellings during
he stone age, or from 10000 to 10000
5ears ago. The Darwinian theory of
human development would seem to be
somewhat jolted by these late discov-
.ries of human beings fully developed,
hat existed anywhere from 100 to 200
ago.
The French Royal Academy of Sci
nee intends next summer and even
his winter. as far as may be possible,
o institute a thorough investigation
md research all through the cave re-
ZION of that mountain section of
france. The government has appro-
,riated 100000 francs and the learned
ociety above named viii add 100000
rancs more. This will permit a very
omplete exploration of this heretofore
practically unknown region being made.
s. (. .
Ur to this discovery the oldest hui
nan body, with all its members intact
hat was known TO exist was in the
possession of the Psychological society
f France, a body created by the |
french government during the Joint
ecupation of Egypt by France and
England. 1t is the mummied BODY of
n Egyptian princess, the daughter of
ling Pthtah, the great-grandfather of
he ruler that so opposed the Israel ,,
-es
The writer was present when this
cung princess body was first nm
trapped after being brought from the
orth wing of the pyramid of Gizab