The Incredible Discovery of the Spirit Cave Mummy
Many cultural traditions surrounding death are meant to preserve a person’s legacy. Yet few souls could ever have expected to be remembered for so long. Nor could they possibly imagine the amount of controversy and scientific inquiry they would evoke thousands of years after their death. Such is the case of the man found entombed in Spirit Cave, 13 miles east of Fallon, Nevada. The naturally preserved body was first discovered in the 1940s but then shelved until the 1990s. Today, the battle over cultural heritage wages as scientists and Native Americans vie over the dead man’s fate.