Palermo, The 200-year-old secrets of the child mummies of the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo in northern Sicily are to be revealed by a British-led team of scientists using X-ray technology.

Dr. Kirsty Squires, of Staffordshire University, will head a first attempt to tell the stories of some of the 163 children whose remains lie within the corridors and crypts of the famous underground tomb.

The Catacombs contain 1,284 mummified and skeletonised bodies, the largest collection of mummies in Europe. While many of the children contained there are now skeletal, others have been described as appearing as if they are sleeping.

The two-year investigation will focus on the children who died between 1787 and 1880 and, initially, on 41 bodies residing within a bespoke “child chapel”.

None of the children’s identity, cause of death and medical history is known, and descriptive tags attached to them have long eroded away.

It is hoped that a better picture about the children’s lives and passing will be revealed by cross-referencing the anatomical findings with archival records, including two books containing names and years of death.

Squires said “We are going in January to carry out our fieldwork, and we will take a portable X-ray unit and take hundreds of images of the children from different angles, we are hoping to better understand their development, health and identity, comparing the biological findings with the more cultural kind of things: the way the individuals have been mummified and the clothes they are wearing as well.”

The catacombs have become a popular and macabre tourist attraction, with every niche and crevice bearing bodies on open display, the guardian news reported.

Source: Oman News Agency