In 2015, Indiana Quarry Workers Discovered A Mummy That May Be Up To 2,000 Years Old
By Tori Jane|Published March 02, 2021
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
In 2015, workers at the site of what would be a quarry in Lake County found something strange: what appeared to be a human mummy. It’s not exactly very often that you hear the words “mummy found in Indiana,” but during those months… well, we did, and it only got stranger from there.
Indiana is a state with a lot of mines and quarries - it's immeasurably valuable in the fields of construction and supplies for construction.
Indiana is one of the biggest suppliers of limestone, namely Bedford limestone. It's used in construction all over the world, and it's quite important.
On this particular day, though, workers in the area found what appeared to be human remains: they could make out a head and shoulders very distinctly.
Work at the quarry was halted for an investigation; it was necessary for archaeologists to determine whether the site was sacred to someone or not before construction was allowed to continue The coroner determined very quickly that the mummy pre-dated the 1940s, which meant it was a historic site - and not a murder scene.
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The remains were determined to be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years old.
Upon further prodding, it was found that the remains were not actually mummified, either - just really, really old, and wrapped in such a way that made them appear to be a mummy. Archaeologists began expanding their exploration of the site to determine if there were any more remains to be found.
So, who was the person whose remains they found at the would-be quarry site? They simply didn't know for sure; they hypothesized that chances are, this person was Native American, and they believed these remains may be related to other remains found in Lake County by a man doing yard work.
Among the artifacts discovered were pottery and some hand tools.
Once it was concluded that the site was not, in fact, a sacred burial site, they decided to re-bury the remains where they had been found and left alone.
Construction of the quarry would go on - but it would do so around the body and its final resting place.
The decision to allow the remains to stay was a good one - after all, that person has been resting there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Who are any of us to change that? It's definitely "their" spot, so to speak. We've just borrowed it for now.
Okay, so maybe it wasn’t exactly a mummy found in Indiana – but how amazing is it that such fascinating artifacts were discovered? Even just tiny glimpses into the history of our state can be so incredibly intriguing. Interested in more stories of Native peoples who once inhabited the Hoosier state? Check this article out!
Who do you think the remains belonged to? Tell us your theories in the comments!
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