«On the trail of the world’s best mummy sleuths»
National Geographic Magazine
© Manuel Montesano / Davide Monteleone Studio / National Geographic Magazine
Microbiologist Frank Maixner on 2,500-year-old gut microbiome research in the salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria.
In October 2025, Frank Maixner and his team at EURAC Research's Institute for Mummy Studies recovered 2,500-year-old human fecal samples from the prehistoric salt mines of Hallstatt. By comparing ancient and modern gut microbiomes, they're tracing the loss of bacterial diversity over millennia — with implications for how we understand antibiotic resistance today.
Read the full story on National Geographic.
© Manuel Montesano / Davide Monteleone Studio / National Geographic Magazine
Recreating a Neolithic meal at the Archeoparc in Val Senales, South Tyrol.
Stefan Tappeiner and Dr. Johanna Niederkofler demonstrate how Ötzi the Iceman would have cooked 5,000 years ago.
© Manuel Montesano / Davide Monteleone Studio / National Geographic Magazine
Pre-Columbian mummy research in Bolivia.
Biochemist Guido Valverde and archaeologist Rubén Sergio Mamani Roque, with the support of EURAC Research's Institute for Mummy Studies, investigate the pre-Columbian mummies of La Paz's National Museum of Archaeology through multispectral imaging and DNA analysis — and confront the ethical questions that come with working on human remains.
© Manuel Montesano / Davide Monteleone Studio / National Geographic Magazine