Until then no one had known that mummies existed in Korea because for centuries Koreans believed that the corpses of their deceased should decay naturally in tombs.

A burial process developed in the late 1300s which explains the remains, however: Koreans at that time wanted their deceased to decay naturally – so naturally, in fact, that they did not want the bodies’ decomposition to be affected by so much as an earthworm.

As such, they developed special burial customs of laying a body on ice for three to thirty days during mourning, placing the corpse inside an inner and an outer pine coffin, and covering the coffin in a lime soil mixture.

In some cases, this inadvertently resulted in extremely good natural mummification.  One mummy was discovered retaining traces of hepatitis B, for example, and it is hoped that the mummy can provide current scientists with valuable information about how the virus has evolved and how it might be combated today.

A 430-year-old female mummy was discovered just outside of Gwangju in Naju last year also.  Her body was exhumed and her descendants accepted a request from Korea University’s Kuro Hospital to donate her remains for examination.

She has recently been re-buried, however, for various members of her family have experienced recurring dreams suggesting to them that she be returned to her natural state.

Two more female mummies were discovered just a few weeks ago in Osan, Gyeonggi Province, and both appear to have lived during the 1500s.