Post-Mortem Transformations: Mummification and Saponification

Posted on Dec 31, 2025 in Geology

Mummification: Post-Mortem Drying

Mummification is the drying of the body through evaporation of water from its tissues, allowing external forms to persist for a long time. The essential factor in this process is the rapid drying of the body, which prevents the development of germs and inhibits ordinary putrefaction. Mummification can be natural or artificial.

Natural mummification begins in the exposed parts of the body: face, hands, and feet, later spreading to the rest of the body. These parts shrink and assume a brownish coloration. Internal organs become hard, shrink in size, and also take on a dark brown or black color. The volume of the whole body decreases; it loses weight and becomes stiff and brittle. The entire process takes place over a period of 1 to 12 months, depending on environmental conditions and body size.

Conditions for Mummification

Environmental Locations

  1. In the hot sand of deserts.
  2. In certain natural caves or underground crypts.
  3. In some ordinary cemeteries.
  4. It has never been observed in the bodies of the drowned.

Key Environmental Factors

The most important factors are high temperature or the body being subjected to a strong, active draft with plenty of oxygen. The three favorable environmental conditions are: dryness, heat, and circulating air with ease and abundance.

Individual Factors

  • Age: In newborns, mummification is more feasible due to more intense post-mortem dehydration phenomena.
  • Sex: According to some observers, mummification is more common in women.
  • Constitution: Thinness is an almost necessary condition for a body to mummify.
  • Cause of Death: Circumstances that produce a marked degree of pre-mortal dehydration (e.g., large hemorrhage, severe diarrhea) and intense and prolonged treatment with antibiotics are considered circumstances that promote mummification.

General Characteristics of Mummies

The features that define mummified bodies are:

  1. Huge weight loss.
  2. The great consistency of the skin, which takes on the appearance of tanned leather.
  3. Conservation of external forms.
  4. The conservation of the inner parts, however, is not as complete.
  5. The duration, sometimes prodigious, of the mummified bodies.

Medicolegal Significance

Estimating Time Since Death

Estimating the time since death is very difficult. Recent or heavy mummies correspond to periods of months or a few weeks, always less than 1 year. Lighter, older mummies can correspond to periods of years.

Diagnosis of Cause of Death

The cause of death can be recognized for long periods of time, especially when due to mechanical causes. The dried skin and soft tissue clearly retain the characteristics of wounds caused by sharp objects or firearm projectiles.

Identification of the Body

Identification is possible due to the preservation of facial features and other identity data.

Saponification (Adipocere Formation)

Saponification is a transformative body phenomenon that leads to the formation of a fatty shell, greasy and sticky when wet, but after air drying, becomes hard, granular, and whitish-gray in consistency. The saponification of the body takes place from the outside inward. It can be partial or total, isolated or widespread.

Evolution of Saponification

It starts in parts of the body that contain more fat, forming adipocere (e.g., cheeks and buttocks). The adipocere forms a white substance if it is formed in water or slightly yellow if it did.