Creepy Mummified Body Parts Found!

There was a drink tradition that began in 1973 in Dawson City in the Klondike area of Canada called a "Sourtoe." A human toe that was dehydrated in salt was added to a drink as a garnishment.

Miserable cocktails aside, mummified body parts have been found and some of them have been so unusual as to seem impossible!

This photo was taken in the late 1980s. The story goes that a man had a meeting with a grave robber in Egypt. He paid money to see a remnant that the robber had taken. 

The finger measured 15 inches (38 cm). The finger was supposedly found in a grave where a giant skeleton was unearthed near Giza. If the proportions were same as they are for Homo sapiens, the fellow would have been 16 feet tall! 

The finger has not been accounted for since and the photographs certainly offer a tantalizing view into one possible giant upon the earth. 






Now, let's move into even more bizarre mummified body parts territory - a supposed 3-fingered mummified hand found in Peru. 

(LINK) A mummified three-fingered hand with eight inch fingers has been found in a Peruvian tunnel in the desert. While first inspection may lead one to conclude that it is nothing more than an imaginative man-made creation, examination by a physician in Cusco, Peru, revealed that it is composed of skin and bone, with six bones in each finger.

There are certainly tantalizing photos and x-ray, but such an exceptional find being taken to Brien Foerster instead of proper investigative authorities means that any value it might have will be questioned by the public. The fact is, a real find of such significance would need to follow the proper chain of possession and documentation to be eventually peer reviewed. I await further reports on it to see what conclusions are drawn.

Here is an x-ray of a whooping crane's feet on top/the found "hand" on the bottom. 

The amount of bones and amount of "fingers" to me represents a bird foot. The smaller numerous bones are to help the toes grip around a branch. It is the only creature that would need that kind of articulation in a foot. 

Let's move on to a mummified hand found in a wall in a thatched cottage in North Yorkshire and henceforth referred to as Hand of Glory.

This creepy item was the preserved hand of a hanged convict. 

(LINK) Once the blood was drained, the hand was wrapped in a cloth (preferably the winding sheet of a freshly buried corpse) and, according to an old recipe: ‘pickled in salt, and the urine of man, woman, dog, horse and mare; smoked with herbs and hay for a month; hung on an oak tree for three nights running, then laid at a crossroads, then hung on a church door for one night’.

Let's head back to Peru where the ancient culture of the Paracas had members of their group elongating the malleable skulls of the babies to make them misshapen. For what reason? Well, it appears that from the Northwestern US to the  tip of Peru, to the African cultures, and even parts of Europe, elongation of skulls was a regular practice. But why?

This mummified skull is that of a newborn and it was elongated. The mummified baby skull was believed to be 2000 to 2800 years old. The hair was found to be auburn. There is some supposition that this baby was naturally elongated in the skull and part of a race of such people with characteristics not at all like the indigenous people. The skull opening to the spine is believed to be in a different location to naturally accommodate a being with a long skull. (LINK)

Sure, we find full-body mummies that are truly amazing, but upon occasion, just a part shows up and leaves us to ponder the whole entity. These are just some of those mysterious finds.