Chemnitz Tar Mummy



The Chemnitz Tar Mummy is a mummified human body which has been on display at the Saxon Museum of Industry in Chemnitz since 2003.

In 1884 a body of an unknown, 1.66 m tall workman was found in a tar container of the Chemnitz Gasworks 1. The cause of his death could not be ascertained. Because there were no signs of violence found in his body, the man was buried in the ground. After 23 years, in 1907, the body was exhumed for re-examination at the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Leipzig. A further examination revealed that the body was completely mummified.

Because of tar, a gas-plant-by-product, and its preserving action on the body and the working clothes, the Chemnitz Tar Mummy is well preserved to this day.