Until now, it was believed that the mummy Guano, one of the best known in Ecuador, had been the Spanish friar Lázaro de Santofimia. Nevertheless, a new analysis of the clothes on the body showed that this person could not have lived in the 16th century.
The INPC (National Institute of Cultural Heritage) of Ecuador took samples of the clothing with which the body was buried to extend the studies carried out last decade by National Geographic. According to the archaeologist María Ordóñez, who participated in this new investigation, the clothes of the mummy It’s important because “the way it’s done speaks a lot about the historical moment”.
That historical moment is not the 16th century, in which “Saint Lazarus” lived, as the friar is popularly known. The garments were cotton and some were machine made.so the person in question lived “in a period in which a certain textile industry is already beginning”, according to Ordóñez. In addition, the DNA analyzes of the mummy They found that the person had European and indigenous ancestry, something that would also rule out the Spanish friar.
what is known now
The carbon 14 dating carried out in this investigation gave a range between 1735 and 1802something that would also rule out (unless another sample is taken that competes with these findings) the identity that until then had been related to the Guano mummy.
This new study also reveals that the remains they belong to a person who had a fairly early case of rheumatoid arthritis. However, everything indicates that the cause of death was linked to a very strong infection in the mouth, a condition that would be related to the handkerchief tied to the face of the mummy.
But then who is it? “We do not knowa personage, may have been a member of the clergy, as may have been a person associated with the convent – a place unearthed after the earthquake of 1949, when the mummy—”, concluded the archaeologist. Perhaps, the mystery will never be solved.