In 1972, scientists found an Eskimo family near the northern settlement of Kilakitsoq. The find seems surprising because the bodies are surprisingly well preserved, thanks to the cold. In total, there were nine people who died, but one of the corpses attracted the attention of scientists.
The mummy of a one-year-old boy still terrifies visitors to the National Museum of Greenland. He looks more like a doll than a child. Scientists have established that the boy suffered from Down syndrome.
This mummy also has creepy stories. Museum keepers said that they heard children’s laughter and crying, and at first they did not understand where. After that, one of the caretakers died right at the place where the baby is.
Found by hunters at an abandoned Inuit encampment in 1972, the mummies still have their skin, fingernails and hair intact after hundreds of years.
It’s believed the mummification process was accidental and resulted from the region’s ice-cold climate.
The settlement of Qilakitsoq, on Greenland’s west coast, is 450 kilometres north of the Arctic.
Archaeologists think the group died there sometime around 1475AD.
Perhaps the most shocking realisation was that the baby appeared to have been buried alive.
Inuit tradition at the time dictated that if a mother passed away, her children be buried with her.
The practice was carried out even if the children were alive to ensure they passed to the afterlife as a family.
Despite decades of study, researchers have not been able to determine how or why the family died.
Four of the Qilakitsoq mummies are on permanent display at the Greenland National Museum in Nuuk.
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