The Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo contain over 1800 preserved bodies: friars, priests and laypeople including men, women, and children. The bodies were accessible to family members who could visit the deceased and commemorate them through prayers. The "Sicily Mummy Project" analyzed hair samples from 38 mummies to determine the presence of ethyl glucuronide (EtG) using a routine procedure in our accredited laboratory of liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. The limit of quantification was 2.3 pg/mg. The hair samples were from 1.5 to 12 cm in length. All samples were analyzed in 2 segments (seg. A 0-3 cm and seg. B the remainder). Samples <4 cm in length were cut in half. In 31 out of 76 segments positive results were obtained for EtG, with concentrations between 2.5 and 531.3 pg/mg (mean 73.8, median 13.3 pg/mg). In 14 cases positive results were obtained for both segments. In one sample a positive result was obtained for segment A but not for segment B and in a further two samples only for segment B. The results indicate that EtG analyses can be performed on mummy hair samples even several hundred years after death to identify evidence for significant alcohol consumption during life.
Keywords: Alcohol; Ethyl glucuronide (EtG); Hair analysis; Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS); Mummy.
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