Science- A 2,000-year-old mummy was found dumped in the trash in Yemen.
- Local officials said the mummy was likely abandoned by grave robbers and antiquities smugglers.
A mummy believed to be around 2,000 years old has been found dumped in the trash in Yemen's capital Sanaa with its insides ripped out.
Yemen's General Organization of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM) on Wednesday blamed "tomb robbers and antiquities traffickers" for exhuming the artifact.
The body was found curled up in a fetal position, wrapped in animal hide, as was traditional for embalming at the time. The smugglers had opened the corpse's abdomen before dumping it, per Arab news.
The discovery has caused fury among locals, who have seen their rare historical artifacts threatened by the country's long-raging civil war, per the Saudi-Arabian daily Arab News.
"It has been taken to the National Museum in Sanaa for preservation and experts from the board will treat it for bacterial decay that started to appear and studies are being conducted," the Organization said, per the post.
Ancient Yemenis were the third people to discover mummification, after the Egyptians and the Chileans, per GOAM.
The remains are likely from the third of fourth century BC, GOAM said, meaning this person may have lived during the legendary Kingdom of Saba, which is thought to have been the land of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
The Sabaeans' built a lush and prosperous trading empire from their close proximity to the sea and strategic geographic position, ferrying goods such as Frankincense and Myrrh through the desert.
Ancient mummies can be found in caves and built-up rocky graves through the Saba, Himyar, Qataban, Awsan, Ma'in, and Hadramout governates of Yemen, Abdullah Mohsen, a Yemeni researcher who tracks antiquities smuggling said in a Facebook post.
In the midst of one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises after decades of conflict, the Yemeni are also struggling to keep hold of this ancient heritage.
A 2017 report said that power shortages could threaten the preservation of 12 mummies Sanaa University Museum in the Yemeni capital.