Story of an unusually preserved early modern Vicar in Finnish Lapland

Summary

The custom of burying beneath church floors, commonly practiced among the early modern elite, is responsible for the mummification of the remains of a Northern Finnish vicar, Nikolaus Rungius (c.1560–1629). The mummy of Vicar Rungius exhibited since the 18th century is the source of several local stories. A computed tomography (CT) imaging performed on his remains allowed examining his anthropometric features, but it also revealed indications of pathological conditions of which the Vicar may have suffered from. He was a fairly large man who achieved relative longevity in his time, although his remains showed signs of obesity-related conditions, such as DISH, and possible tuberculous involvement. Both, the CT results, and the prior understanding of the local diet contemporaneous to the Vicar were in line with the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses indicating that Vicar Rungius consumed a rather abundant, protein and fat rich diet.

Cite this Record

Story of an unusually preserved early modern Vicar in Finnish Lapland. Tiina Väre, Juho-Antti Junno, Markku Niskanen, Milton Núñez, Sirpa Niinimäki, Jaakko Niinimäki. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Fort Worth, TX. 2017 ( tDAR id: 435339)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: 19.648; min lat: 59.807 ; max long: 31.582; max lat: 70.089 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 349