Modern Mummies

Modern mummy activity isn’t limited to Summum. Excessively bandaged creatures have also been lurking in college dorms, flunking drug tests and taking center stage at bizarre sadomasochistic parties, according to recent stories.

In 1990, for example, a freshman at Wesleyan University in Connecticut was shocked to discover a 2,500-year-old Egyptian mummy lounging in his dorm bed--apparently placed there by a prankster who spirited it from a library attic.

Other well-preserved Egyptians found trouble in Germany, where researchers discovered traces of hashish and cocaine in their hair, bones and muscle tissue. Fortunately for the mummies, the statute of limitations had run out several thousand years earlier.

Mummies have also been dabbling in sexual bondage. Sadomasochists have developed a practice called mummification, in which live people are wrapped in cellophane, latex strips or cloth, except for certain body parts--not the elbow--that are left exposed for “erotic play.” Says one source: “It isn’t about torture. It’s about sex and fun.”

And sometimes death.

In July, 1990, the body of a 24-year-old male prostitute was found wrapped in heavy yellow plastic and duct tape inside a coffin at a Houston home. Also in the room: leather blindfolds, chains, an electric hoist in the ceiling and a giant wrought-iron cage. Authorities said the victim probably suffocated during a “mummification party.”

The case has not been solved.