1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,719 Speaker 1: Lauren Bogel Bomb. Here. Imagine opening a dusty box shelved 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: away in a research facility. Inside you see some small bones, 4 00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:18,279 Speaker 1: a few antique artifacts, and a tiny mummified hand colored 5 00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:21,360 Speaker 1: an eerie shade of green. Would you shriek in terror? 6 00:00:21,520 --> 00:00:24,120 Speaker 1: Would you worry it was a harbinger of some terrible curse? 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 1: Would you at least see if the mummified hand could 8 00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:30,120 Speaker 1: grant you a wish or to remove the literary shock value? 9 00:00:30,200 --> 00:00:32,959 Speaker 1: And that's precisely the dilemma that presented itself in two 10 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,839 Speaker 1: thousand five, when two biological anthropologists at Hungary's University of 11 00:00:36,920 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: Zaged investigated a box filled with small bones and the 12 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:42,879 Speaker 1: mummified hand of a human baby found in central Hungary. 13 00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:46,280 Speaker 1: Though discovered in a medieval cemetery, the remains of the baby, 14 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:50,120 Speaker 1: either premature, miscarried, or stillborn, according to the researchers, date 15 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:52,680 Speaker 1: back to only the second half of the nineteenth century. 16 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,360 Speaker 1: But how was the baby's hand mummified and why wasn't 17 00:00:56,400 --> 00:00:59,640 Speaker 1: the rest of its body equally preserved. To answer this mystery, 18 00:00:59,680 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: the searchers looked to the artifacts found alongside these human remains, 19 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:06,960 Speaker 1: A small ceramic pot and corroded copper coin were part 20 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: of the burial package. The researchers found that the copper 21 00:01:09,760 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: coin exactly fit in the baby's hand, and surmised the 22 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: copper from the coin leached into and preserved the organic material. 23 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,199 Speaker 1: Their findings were published in a paper in the journal 24 00:01:20,280 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. The paper details that the mummified 25 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:28,119 Speaker 1: hand contained copper levels four hundred and ninety seven times 26 00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,199 Speaker 1: higher than would be expected, and that another baby found 27 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:33,680 Speaker 1: at the site, buried without a coin, did not show 28 00:01:33,680 --> 00:01:37,520 Speaker 1: similar mummification. The outhers wrote in the paper, according to 29 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: ethnographic references, newborns who died without being baptized were rolled 30 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:43,920 Speaker 1: up in some sort of textile and buried in a pot, 31 00:01:43,959 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 1: for example, a milk jug or small wooden box, and 32 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:50,440 Speaker 1: abandoned cemeteries usually located close to the ruins of medieval churches. 33 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: They also point out that low value coins were occasionally 34 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:56,000 Speaker 1: placed next to or in the hands of a corpse 35 00:01:56,040 --> 00:01:59,560 Speaker 1: as an offering to the afterlife. In its metallic form 36 00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: is anti microbial and can rapidly kill bacteria, yeasts, and viruses. 37 00:02:04,920 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: Ancient civilizations knew of copper's microub fighting powers. In fact, 38 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:11,239 Speaker 1: one of the oldest books ever discovered is an ancient 39 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: Egyptian medical text known as the Edwin Smith Papyrus. Dating 40 00:02:14,840 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: back to between d and b C. It describes using 41 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: copper to sterilize chest wounds and drinking water, and the 42 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: practice continues to this day. Researchers proposed in two thousand 43 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:29,280 Speaker 1: nine using special copper drinking vessels to sterilize water in 44 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: areas where other antibacterial medicines and applications are less common. 45 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Christopher Hauseiotas and produced by 46 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:43,520 Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other 47 00:02:43,560 --> 00:02:46,720 Speaker 1: long lasting topics, visit our home planet, how stuff works 48 00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: dot com.