The Enigma of the Mummified Dead: The Natural Preservation of Bodies at San Bernardo Cemetery

Over the years, researchers have been studying the natural mummification of bodies at the San Bernardo cemetery in Mexico. The cemetery’s location on a mountainside and its high humidity levels are believed to be responsible for the phenomenon. Since the 1960s, over 100 bodies have been exhumed from the cemetery, with many retaining hair, fingernails, skin tissue, and even eyeballs that typically decompose quickly after burial.

Despite local beliefs that bodies became mummies due to their active farming lives or as a reward for living well, new research suggests that the combination of humidity and steep terrain may be responsible for this natural process. The accidental mummification of bodies in San Bernardo was first discovered in 1963 and has since been recorded in Guanajuato, Mexico. However, embalming is a deliberate preservation process, and the bodies in San Bernardo became mummies naturally.

Researchers studying this phenomenon have not identified a specific pattern for how or why bodies become mummies. Teeth and fingernails typically fall out within days of burial but took decades to decompose in this case, leaving behind skeletons and traces of hair, skin tissue, and clothing fibers. Residents have been surprised to find that bodies exhumed after several years still appear well-preserved, resembling someone who is peacefully asleep.

Anthropologists suggest that temperature and elevation may play a role in the mummification process by likening it to pans drying out the bodies. While further research is needed to understand how these conditions lead to this natural process fully