Buyer beware: Those mummified remains might carry toxic spores

These microorganisms can have serious health effects. Spores of Aspergillus flavus famously infected and killed 10 of the 12 scientists who first opened the 15th century Royal tomb of Grand Duke Casimir IV Jagillon in Poland in 1973. Rumors of a “mummy’s curse” have also dogged the death of George Herbert, fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who funded Howard Carter’s expedition that discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb. The theory that Lord Carnarvon succumbed to exposure to toxic fungi—one archaeologist reported seeing a black fungus inside the tomb—was dismissed outright as “tommy-rot” by Carter, who had asked a scientist to test the bandages for any pathogens. Carnarvon died after accidentally slashing a fresh mosquito bite while shaving; it became infected, and he died of blood poisoning—technically pneumonia arising from a streptococcal infection of the skin, according to a 1994 report published in The Lancet. Carnarvon had long been prone to chronic lung infections. Per The Lancet article, there was a “general belief that one acute attack of bronchitis could have killed him.” In fact, 58 people were present when King Tut’s tomb was opened, and only eight died within 12 years. Lord Carnarvon’s daughter, Lady Evelyn Herbert, was among the first to enter, and she didn’t die until 1980. That hasn’t stopped the “mummy’s curse” story from resurfacing occasionally, most recently in a 2022 documentary that cited the toxic spores theory. Squires et al. scoured the Internet for public posts related to the sale or collection of mummified remains, both human and animal: public and business pages on Facebook, public Instagram pages, websites of brick-and-mortar stores, a Dutch e-commerce platform, and online auctioneers. Only 24 of the 128 posts included in the study came from non-Meta platforms. All the posts were anonymized to protect any personal information, although unaltered versions were stored on an external hard drive not connected to the cloud. Most of the items for sale were mummified human remains, usually body parts such as hands and feet, or heads (like Peruvian shrunken heads); six were animals, specifically a cat, a falcon, an ibis, a perch, and a primate skull. Only one seller was offering a complete mummified body. The authors note that such items are extremely rare and hence very costly; such transactions would not usually be handled via public social media posts. The resulting analysis showed that sellers were very much aware of any legal issues associated with the sale and shipment of mummified human remains, often specifying geographical locations where laws forbid such transfers. Typically, such sellers would not openly declare shipment contents to avoid seizure by authorities. There was also often no provenance offered for such items. The authors were particularly alarmed to note 13 Facebook posts offering mummified remains with visible fungal colonization in the photos, likely due to improper storage conditions: yellow spots, white spots, white spots on a black patina, white and gray spots, black and pink patinas, and so forth. Because such growth is not always immediately visible to the naked eye, the problem may be widespread. “There is evidence to show that mummified remains are being mailed to buyers, both nationally and internationally, with little (if any) consideration of the health and safety implications of these actions,” said Squires. “Clearer, more prominent guidelines are needed to ensure buyers and sellers are unable to misinterpret or find loopholes in shipping policies.” International Journal of Cultural Property, 2026. DOI: 10.1017/S0940739126100393 (About DOIs).