It has revealed that the woman is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother of UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Scientists in the Swiss city of Basel have solved a decades-old mystery over the identity of a mummified woman.
Found in 1975 whilst renovations were being done on Basel’s Barfüsser Church, the body was buried wearing good quality clothes infront of the church’s alter. The nature of the burial and the conditions the body was buried in indicate that this Basel resident was amongst the better off of the population. It’s known by local Historians that members of the Basel family were wealthy enough to be buried in such conditions.
There was no gravestone to indicate her identity, but initial testing of her wooden coffin suggested it dated from the 16th Century.
The woman is said to have died of mercury poisoning. Mercury was a standard treatment so syphilis in the 15th – 19th centuries.
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HeadlineMummified Basel woman is “ancestor” of Boris Johnson
Short HeadlineMummified Basel woman is "descendant" of Boris Johnson
Standfirst
It has revealed that the woman is the great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother of UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Scientists in the Swiss city of Basel have solved a decades-old mystery over the identity of a mummified woman.
Found in 1975 whilst renovations were being done on Basel’s Barfüsser Church, the body was buried wearing good quality clothes infront of the church’s alter. The nature of the burial and the conditions the body was buried in indicate that this Basel resident was amongst the better off of the population. It’s known by local Historians that members of the Basel family were wealthy enough to be buried in such conditions.
There was no gravestone to indicate her identity, but initial testing of her wooden coffin suggested it dated from the 16th Century.
The woman is said to have died of mercury poisoning. Mercury was a standard treatment so syphilis in the 15th – 19th centuries.
