About fair-haired mummies - 5th part

Raman spectroscopyIndex
1st part: henna, natron and Ramesses II 
2nd part: bog bodies and photo-oxidation 
3rd part: Tarim and Paracas mummies 
4th part: Egypt and Sudan 
5th part: techniques for tracing the original colour of archaeological hair, hypotheses about the origin of red/blond archaeological hair

This 5th and last part is going to be a bit more technical than the previous ones, but I think it is important that we have a clear picture of the situation. That is, it is important we see that techniques for hair colour analysis do exist, while, on the contrary, we don’t have any evidence supporting the various hypotheses about the origin of red/blond archaeological hair. 

 

TECHNIQUES FOR TRACING THE ORIGINAL COLOUR OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL HAIR

As you will see, only some of these techniques allow us to directly measure the amount of eumelanin and phaeomelanin in hair. The others too are important, however, because they allow us to determine if the hair contains dyes or other pigments, traces of minerals present in the soil or burial, degradation products, etc. Consequently, using three or four of these techniques in combination can achieve good results, although, obviously, we can't always be sure of a definitive answer as far as archaeological hair is concerned.
Furthermore, these techniques are either non-destructive or minimally destructive, which means they can also be used on important finds such as pharaonic mummies.

Without sampling

Raman spectroscopy
As of now, Raman spectroscopy is one of the few tools to detect and distinguish melanins, as you can read in these three studies by Ismael Galvàn and colleagues: Raman spectroscopy as a non-invasive technique for the quantification of melanins in feathers and hairs, Dispersive Raman spectroscopy allows the identification and quantification of melanin types and Vibrational characterization of pheomelanin and trichochrome F by Raman spectroscopy. 
The laser interacts with the hair molecules and produces a spectrum containing information on keratin, disulfide bonds and even pigments. Experimentally, it has been demonstrated that Raman spectra can correlate with the amount of eumelanin and phaeomelanin present in hair.
Since it is non destructive, Raman has already been used for various analyses on historical hair (see here).
However, a Raman spectrum of mummified hair doesn't automatically equate to a photograph of its original colour, because the hair may have been altered by the environment, mummification, cosmetics, oils, resins or dyes. Therefore, it would be useful to combine Raman with other techniques.


Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy
The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), included micro-FTIR and synchroton FTIR, allows for the analysis of molecular composition without necessarily sampling material. It has been used directly on ancient hair to assess keratin preservation, protein degradation, chemical modifications and substances from the environment or mummification.
For example, as you can read in this study, this technique has already been used to analyse the state of the hair of two Egyptian mummies.
Another study analysed ancient hair from the Roman period, to characterise its state of conservation and the alterations of the organic elements (see here).
Besides, along with scanning-electron-microscopy (SEM) and X-ray-diffraction-analysis (XRD), it has been used to investigte the Egyptian mummy called Screaming Woman. On its hair, juniper and henna have been found.
Athough performed with sampling, I think this 2018 study is important too. By using nano-FTIR and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), the authors analysed sheep hairs melanosomes. They were able to directly distinguish, in situ (i. e. in the single hair), the vibrational characteristics associated with eumelanin and phaeomelanin, without resorting to chemical extraction. Some of the hairs were white (without melanosomes) and others black. In white hairs, they were able to indentify keratin, while in black hairs they could associate specific vibrational bands with melanosomes of eumelanin and phaeomelanin, thus distinguishing the chemical fingerprint of the two melanosomes.
So, althought this technique can’t measure the amounts of melanins, it can give us important information about the modifications that hair has undergone over centuries and millennia and about melanosomes.


Hyperspectral and multispectral imaging
Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to obtain the spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene, with the purpose of finding objects, identifying materials or detecting processes
When applied to hairs, it can help distinguish pigments, dye residues, foreign materials, areas of different composition and surface alterations. Basically, it can give an excellent and completely non-invasive preliminary mapping.

 

X-ray fluorescence
X-ray fluorescence is another non-destructive technique which detects chemical elements, like iron, copper, lead, arsenic, etc. Along with scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, it has been used on two Andean mummies.

 

With sampling 

High-performance liquid chromatography
High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a chromatography technique in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify specific components in mixtures. The mixtures can originate from food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, biological, environmental, agriculture, etc., in which the sample analysed is either a liquid or has been dissolved into a liquid.
Melanin is an extremely complex polymer and difficult to analyse directly, but through a standardised chemical reaction it produces certain relatively simple and characteristic molecules, such as PTCA, PDCA, TTCA, etc., which can be separated by HPLC.
For example, eumelanin produces PTCA, PDCA and PteCA, while phaeomelanin produces TTCA and TDCA.
Therefore, we don't directly measure how much melanin there is: we measure how much marker product is formed from melanin. A higher amount of PTCA indicates a higher amount of certain eumelanin structures, while TTCA is an important marker of the benzothiazole component of phaeomelanin.
Obviously, the whole process may be more difficult with archaeological hair.
Here’s an article on the subject. 


Mass spectrometry imaging
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) can be performed on a section of a single hair, obtaining a true chemical map. In modern hair, it has been possible to directly visualise the melanin granules and distinguish them from the cuticle, cortex, and medulla (see here).
It also allows mapping numerous chemical species along and through a single hair shaft (see here).  
The problem is that the most powerful versions of MSI are microdestructive: the hair generally needs to be sectioned and/or subjected to surface preparation.


X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES)
XANES measures how an element absorbs X-rays near its absorption threshold and can provide information about its chemical state and coordination environment.
It has already been used, along with EXAFS (extended X-ray absorption fine structure), in the study of Egyptian mummies' hair. In particular, experiments on zinc showed differences between ancient and modern hair, suggesting that some of the zinc was of exogenous origin or had a different chemical environment than biological zinc. (see here)
However, this technique can’t determine directly hair colour. Melanin is a complex organic system, and colour doesn't simply depend on an element that XANES can identify as "black" or "red." XANES can, though, tell us if the element (pigment) we see is the result of mummification or other port-mortme treatments.
 

Scanning electron microscopy and Transmission electron microscopy
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) allows us to observe the surface and microstructure of hair at very high magnifications. With it, we can analyse the state of preservation and alterations of the cuticle, the cortex and medulla, the distribution and morphology of melanosomes and any mineral deposits or contaminants that have penetrated the hair.
Combining SEM with EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) we can distinguish organic material from mineral deposits, identify elements from the soil or burial environment, recognise any pigments or contaminants and understand whether a colour change is likely endogenous or due to mineralisation/contamination.
However, if our goal is to study melanosomes, the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) could be even more informative than SEM.
For example, in the 1993 study Detection of eumelanogenic and pheomelanogenic melanosomes in the same normal human melanocyte, by M. Inazu and Y. Mishima, melanosomes were analysed with high-voltage transmission electron microscopy (HV-TEM) and EDX. Melanosomes producing the two melanins are different: phaeomelanosomes are spherical, while eumelanosomes are ellipsoidal/lamellar. By using HV-TEM, the authors of this study confirmed this different morphology. By using EDX, they found sulfur in spherical melanosomes, but not in ellipsoidal ones, and sulfur is typical of phaeomelanin. Lastly, they treated melanosomes with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and found that the internal structure of the spheroidal melanosomes was dissolved, while that of the ellipsoidal melanosomes was not altered. This provided a further physicochemical difference between the two melanosomes.


Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry
Liquid chromatography, combined with mass spectrometry (LC-MS) can tell us which melanin products are chemically present in hair and in what ratio, and this can tell us, indirectly, which melanin was originally mostly present.
This review on colour reconstruction in fossil material emphasises that the chemical markers of eu- and phaeomelanin are well characterized by HPLC/MS, but that diagenetic transformations of melanin in ancient finds still constitute a major problem. However, the SEM/EDX and controls on archaeological hair of different ages and conservation conditions can solve in part this problem. Along with others, this technique has been used for several analyses on an Egyptian mummy.  

 

Pyrolysis-gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS)
Pyrolysis–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry is a method of chemical analysis in which the sample is heated to decomposition to produce smaller molecules that are separated by gas chromatography and detected using mass spectrometry.
With archaeological hairs, the sample is rapidly heated in the absence or near-absence of oxygen. Melanin, being a polymer, breaks down into smaller molecules. These products are then separated by GC and identified by MS. The composition of the resulting products can provide information on the presence and state of melanin.
So, basically, GC-MS does not directly "see" the intact eumelanin or phaeomelanin molecule, but only identifies characteristic degradation products.

 

DNA phenotyping - HIrisPlex-S
DNA phenotyping is the process of predicting an organism's phenotype using only genetic information collected from genotyping or DNA sequencing. This term, also known as molecular photofitting, is primarily used to refer to the prediction of a person's physical appearance and/or biogeographic ancestry for forensic purposes.
With this technique, significant genetic variants associated with a particular trait are discovered using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) approach, in which hundreds of thousands or millions of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) are tested for their association with each trait of interest. Predictive modeling is then used to build a mathematical model for making trait predictions about new subjects.
One online tool available to the public and law enforcement is the HIrisPlex-S Webtool. This system uses SNPs that are linked to human pigmentation to predict an individual's phenotype.
In the case of ancient human remains, the main issue for analysis is not just how much DNA is left, but how much endogenous human DNA is recoverable compared to modern contamination.
As I said, this method was originally developed for modern/forensic DNA, while in ancient DNA we often find fragmented DNA, postmortem damage, low coverage and possible modern contamination. It's not enough to find a SNP: we must be sure that the observed allele is truly that of the ancient individual and not the result of postmortem damage or contamination.
In this 2013 study authors extracted the DNA from twenty-one teeth between 1 and approximately 800 years of age and from 5 contemporary bones, and then analysed them using the HIrisPlex system. I quote from the abstract: 

Twenty-three out of 26 bone DNA extracts yielded the full 24 SNP HIrisPlex profile, therefore successfully allowing model-based eye and hair colour prediction. HIrisPlex analysis of a tooth from the Polish general Władysław Sikorski (1881 to 1943) revealed blue eye colour and blond hair colour, which was positively verified from reliable documentation. The partial profiles collected in the remaining three cases (two contemporary samples and a 14th century sample) were sufficient for eye colour prediction. 

Besides, a paper published in February 2026 developed a missing data imputation method for HIrisPlex-S, demonstrating that under certain conditions, predictions can be obtained even from ancient genomes with extremely low coverage, on the order of 0.1–0.5×.
In 2025, the first high-quality genome of an individual from Nuwayrat (Old Kingdom of Egypt), was published. From the genetic analysis, the authors predicted brown eyes, brown hair and dark/black skin pigmentation (see here and here). DNA was extracted from seven teeth.
However, this very work underscores how anomalous the result is: authors explicitly write that, until then, poor DNA preservation had prevented whole-genome sequencing in Dynastic Egypt. There's also a very important detail: the find was exceptionally well preserved. The body was placed in a large pottery vessel inside a rock-cut tomb and authors believe that this particular burial may have favoured DNA preservation.
So, caution is warranted: another recent study (from 2025) shows that HIrisPlex-S predictions can become unstable when coverage drops too low. In particular, below about 8×, some approaches can produce large errors.

Here are a couple of articles discussing some of the techniques we have just seen:

- Research Techniques Made Simple: Cell Biology Methods for the Analysis of Pigmentation  
- From Extraction to Advanced Analytical Methods: The Challenges of Melanin Analysis 

 

HYPOTHES ABOUT THE ORIGIN OF RED/BLOND ARCHAEOLOGICAL HAIR
It is important to keep in mind that none of these hypotheses has ever been directly tested on red- and blond-haired mummies. For this reason, I’m not saying they are wrong: I’m just saying they are only educated guesses, and passing off mere educated guesses as proven facts is scientifically incorrect.
So, basically, we need to find a process that can 1) explain both red and blond hair and 2) occur in places as different as the Tarim Basin, Egypt and South America.

Photo-oxidation
see part 2

Melanin oxidation/degradation
As you have seen in the previous parts of this article, melanin (and specifically eumelanin) oxidation/degradation is one the preferred hypotheses to explain blond and red archaeological hair, although 1) there is no evidence that melanin oxidation turns archaeological hair red or blond, and 2) there is no evidence this red/blond archaeological hair is due to melanin oxidation.
(Please note that here "degradation" is a sort of umbrella word: it means that the chemical structure of melanin is altered or fragmented and this can occur through various mechanisms.)

As far as melanin oxidation is concerned, we know for certain it can occur in two situations (apart from photo-oxidation, obviously). One is the bleaching with hydrogen peroxide (which I have already mentioned in previous parts) and another one comes from this study with ozonated water, although authors write that “Changes in shine and colour were minimal.” There is also this study on Japanese swimmers’ hair, but authors conclude that “discoloration was mainly due to cuticle damage by friction with water”, and, although they write that hypochlorous acid in the swimming pool water can oxidise melanosomes, this is only a concurrent factor.

As you probably know, one of the main oxidising agents is oxigen (here’s a list of the most common oxidizing agents), which means that oxidation can occur underground as well, for example because of residual atmospheric oxygen in the pores of the soil, in the burial materials or in the cavity in which the body is laid, or because of water/humidity and microorganisms.
However, the mummies and skeletons we are talking about not only have been found in very dry environments (so, most likely, there was very little or no humidity at all), but many of the bodies were laid to rest wrapped in several layers of textiles, just like the so-called “mummy bundles” of Paracas, or the Gebelein Man. In such a situation, it is unlikely that melanin can oxidise, and in any case, if oxidation occurred, we should find some traces of it on textiles as well. On the contrary, the textiles found in Paracas burials were in excellent conditions, so excellent that many of them were stolen by tomb looters. Furthermore, if oxidation occurred and we assume this is the cause of red hair, all the mummies found in the same place should have red hair. 

Some argue that oxidation could have occurred when the mummies were removed from their burial sites: contact with oxygen in the open air would have oxidised the melanin, causing the hair colour to change. If this were the case, however, archaeologists should have noticed it. Others argue that contact with oxygen (and therefore oxidation) could have occurred due to tomb looters. In this case, however, it would be necessary to demonstrate that all the mummies with red hair come from burials that were disturbed by tomb looters.
In some of the previous parts (for example in the 2nd part, speaking of bog bodies) we have seen that dark, brown and blond hair have very small amounts of phaeomelanin, so, even if all eumelanin should disappear (through oxidation or other forms of degradation), the remaining phaeomelanin wouldn’t be enough to turn hair red. Probably this is reason why some speak of “products of degradation”. That is, products are left as a result of eumelanin oxidation/degradation and this products could turn hair red. 

Deposits of iron and other minerals oxides
Minerals in the soil (such as iron or copper) are sometimes implicated in explaining red or blond hair in mummies and skeletons, but here two aspects of the issue need to be distinguished.
The fact that iron oxide (or other minerals) can produce a visible and very intense colour on a keratin fiber, without altering the internal biological pigment, is now well documented. See, for example, the experiment with the bearded vultures: 

The rufous colouring on the feathers of the under parts of adult bearded vultures Gypaetus barbatus, studied by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis and X-ray diffraction analysis, is caused by an external deposit of iron oxide in the ferrihydrite state. Unstained feathers, e.g. in captive birds, are pure white. 

Subsequent studies have experimentally observed the behavior of bearded vultures in captivity: when baths containing red/ferruginous soil were provided, the animals willingly immersed themselves, and their feathers took on a rich orange hue (see one more study here).
However, we don’t have any evidence that the red and blond hair of mummies and skeletons is caused by minerals in the soil. We only have evidence that, in certain cases, minerals were found on archaeological hair.

 
For example, here we have a study on the hair of two Andean mummies. 
The hair was analysed with some of the techniques we just saw (scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Fourier transformed infra-red spectroscopy), but NOT to ascertain its original colour. Researchers found out that for one of the mummies (PLM7_T305) a 3,5% of iron was found on its reddish hair. After treatment with ultrapure water, dichloromethane/methanol and acetone, the iron levels dropped to approximately 100 ppm. EDS mapping also showed that the iron was distributed across the surface. From these observations, researchers deduced that the red coloration was due to the use of hematite, an iron-based red pigment. However, strangely enough, the study doesn’t say which colour the hair sample turned after the treatment with ultrapure water, acetone, etc. and, as I said, researchers didn’t attempt to assess the levels of melanins in hair. 

Another interesting study is the one on the relics of “Mary Magdalene” (kept in Provence, France), which consist of a dry skull and a lock of hair of brown colour.
Researchers analysed the hair with optical microscope, scanning electron microscope and helium ion microscope in order to assess melanin concentration and aspect of melanosomeThey observed microscopic characteristics of pigments consistent with dark brown hair. Along with localised red pigmentation features in some portions. The meaning of this red pigmentation is not very clear, however, because researchers didn’t use any of the techniques for the chemical analysis of melanin. The techniques they used were aimed to find mineral deposits and, in fact, they found significant superficial diatomaceous deposit, probably used as a prevention method against lice. 
On the same year, 2019, another study on the hair of “Mary Magdalene” was published. I quote from the abstract: 

As a new contribution to the scientific knowledge of Holy Maria-Magdalena’s remains, we have studied by SEM-EDX some mineral particles and micro-organism debris adhering to her hair. We found on it mineral particles of gypsum, aragonite and salt, algae fragments, microorganism as diatoms, coccoliths and tintinnides, and micro-debris of Crustaceans. Such marine micro-remains indicate a past close contact of the hair with sea water. 

Many mineral particles of barytine were also found on or near the surfaces of the hairs, which, according to researchers, originated from the ceiling of the Sainte-Baume cave. Not even this time a chemical analysis of melanin was performed.
However, since (as I said in the previous paragraph) many of the mummies we are talking about were found wrapped in layers of textiles, I doubt that in such a condition a contamination from minerals in the soil can occur. 

Keratin/tyrosine degradation/oxidation
As I said before, "degradation" is a sort of umbrella word: it means that the chemical structure of keratin is altered or fragmented. This can occur through various mechanisms: oxidation, hydrolysis, photodegradation, enzymatic/microbial attack, reactions with acids or bases and other chemical reactions.
Keratin is one of the components of hair (but also of scales, nails, feathers, horns, etc.).
Tyrosine is one of the 20 standard amino acids that are used by cells to synthesize proteins and is also the precursor to melanin. 

As we have seen in previous parts, the products of degradation and oxidation of these two elements are sometimes used to explain the fair-haired mummies, and not only fair-haired mummies, but even… red-haired mammoths!
This 2014 study by Silvana Tridico and colleagues is about the hairs of wolly mammoths and wollly rhinoceros. At one point, authors write "The majority of overhairs and thicker guard hairs from the woolly mammoths and woolly rhino were vivid red/orange colour or ‘fox red’ as described by Krefft (1969)” and argue this colour may be in part due to melanin oxidation. However, they find out that also some hairs lacking melanin granules (i. e. they were originally white) had the same red/orange coloration. One of the sources cited (Krefft 1969) attributes this colour to photo-oxidation, but then researchers find “red/orange debris” on some of these red (originally white) hairs, and conclude this is due to a fungal deposit. The techniques they used to analyse hairs samples are scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy, which means they didn’t perform a chemical analysis of eumelanin and phaeomelanin to trace the original colour. They don’t even verify if melanin was really oxidated.  

So, we have here the usual situation: they wonder why these animals’ hairs are red, they make hypotheses about the oxidation of this and that, but don’t do the only thing that could, maybe, give an answer.
Besides (as you can read here) in 2006 a mutation of MC1R was found on a 43,000-year-old woolly mammoth. The author writes “… the reduction in activity of the Arg67Cys variant would be sufficient to result in substantially lighter hair color…it is possible that mammoth populations were polymorphic with regard to hair color, harboring both dark- and light-haired individuals." So, it is perfectly possible that the red hairs Tridico and colleagues were analysing were naturally red (apart from the ones without pigment granules).


Conclusions
The conclusions we can draw seem very clear to me. Although scientists today possess all the tools to analyse archaeological hair in terms of colour, they do not seem interested in doing so, preferring instead to keep repeating hypotheses that have never been proven.
We have seen that it is not a matter of funding, since these same tools have been used to conduct other types of hair analyses.
It’s not even a matter of damaging important finds, since many of these tools are either non-destructive or minimally destructive, and in any case we have seen that, whenever necessary, samples are taken from mummies and skeletons.
At this point, all we can do is wait and hope that someone decides to do the only sensible thing to clear up the mystery.

About fair-haired mummies - 4th part

Index

1st part: henna, natron and Ramesses II 

2nd part: bog bodies and photo-oxidation 

3rd part: Tarim and Paracas mummies 

4th part: Egypt and Sudan

5th part: techniques for tracing the original colour of archaeological hair, hypotheses about the origin of red/blond archaeological hair 


This fourth part will be devoted to natural mummies and skeletons found in Egypt. I will also add a “bonus mummy” about little-known remains found in Sudan.

In the next (and, hopefully, last 😁) part, we will see the latest techniques for hair melanin and colour analysis and we will review the various hypotheses about chemical processes which, according to researchers, may result in red hair in mummies.




THE GEBELEIN MAN, AKA GINGER

In the second part, speaking of photo-oxidation, I have mentioned the predynastic mummy called Gebelein Man, found in Gebelein (now Naga el-Gherira) in Upper Egypt, 40 km south of Thebes. It was found in 1896, along with five more mummies and it is dated circa 3400 BC.

The six bodies were found in shallow sand graves, along with partial remains of wicker, fur and linen, In the predynastic period, bodies were usually buried naked and sometimes loosely wrapped, and then covered in sand. Thanks to the warm climate, the water in the bodies would quickly evaporate, resulting in a natural mummification.


No genomic analysis has been performed on this mummy, but I don’t know if it is because the DNA is too degraded or for other reasons. I found out that in a study from 2023 by Alexandra Mussauer and colleagues (Genetic study of ancient Egyptian human remains dating from the Predynastic Period to the early Islamic Period (ca. 4000 cal. BCE - 800 cal. CE), 100 individuals were analysed from nine Egyptian archaeological sites, included Gebelein, and 25 mitogenomes were reconstructed. However, it is not clear which ones of the Gebelein mummies were chosen. Mussauer and her team found (unsurprisingly) 

further evidence for shared maternal ancestries between western Eurasian or northern African populations and ancient Egyptians during and after the New Kingdom. In addition, we also found western Eurasian mtDNA haplogroups in individuals dated to periods prior to the New Kingdom.

The same western Eurasian haplogroups were found in Y-DNA (transmitted from father to sons), and in particular a subclade of E1b1b1. 
(Unfortunately, all Alexandra Mussauer’s works on Ancient Egypt are not available on the internet).

In 2018, an analysis was performed on the hair of Ginger and of another mummy (EA 32572, an adult female), but (guess what?) NOT to find out their original colour! The study is Natural mummies from Predynastic Egypt reveal the world's earliest figural tattoos  and it was mostly aimed to study the tattoos still visible on these mummies. Some hairs were removed from the two mummies’ heads and used for radiocarbon dating with accelerator mass spectrometry. Isotope analysis was performed to gather information about the diet.

FAG EL-GAMOUS
Fag el-Gamous was a Christian cemetery located in the Faiyum Governorate, Egypt, dating from the 1st to the 7th century AD, the period of Roman rule in Egypt. It was discovered by a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University (Utah, USA) in 1980.
As we will see, information about this archaeological site is rather vague.
The first strange thing is that it is not clear how many bodies were found, and in which conditions. Many artcles online talk of “a million mummies”, but according to this article from the Brigham Young University, by 2015 around 1000 mummies had been excavated. On the contrary, this study from 2014 mentions 350,000 individuals. 
In any case, as far as I could understand, not all of the remains were mummies with an exceptional preservation like the Tarim mummies, for example, and in many cases the bodies found were mostly skeletal.
Another strange thing is that there are very few pictures of the finds, especially of those with red and blond hair. The picture below is the only one I could find described as having red hair (source).

Blonds on one side, redheads on the other
As for the red- and blond-haired individuals buried there, this article states: 

Of the 37 adults whose hair was still preserved, the most interesting observation relates to the hair color. There were 4 redheads, 16 blondes, 12 with light or medium brown hair, and only 5 with dark brown or black hair. Of those whose hair was preserved 54% were blondes or redheads, and the percentage grows to 87% when light-brown hair color is added. Such a preponderance of light-colored hair was unexpected, and it will be interesting to see if this trait continues to be exhibited throughout the cemetery.

And this article states: 

While the database is in the early stages, it has already provided some intriguing initial results. Muhlestein said he and the other researchers can use the database to "show us all of the blond burials, and [it shows] they are clustered in one area, or all of the red-headed burials, and [it shows] they're clustered in another area."
These clusters are interesting because they suggest "perhaps we have family areas or genetic groups [in certain areas], but we're still trying to explore that," Muhlestein said.

This statement was later echoed by other online articles, like this one.

Faiyum Governorate on the map of Egypt

The elusive DNA analyses
According to this study, in 2013 the BYU began “ tissue sampling and DNA analysis of the estimated 150,000 burials at the ancient Fag el Gamous cemetery”, but I couldn’t find any publication with the results of these analyses. For example, in this recently-published article by Kerry Muhlestein (director for the excavation project) we read: 

… the analysis and publishing work will begin more intensely. The creation of a database will allow for more sophisticated research, and it will yield a tremendous amount of information about the lives and deaths of the people who lived in this part of Egypt during the Greco-Roman era. […] Once the burial database is finished, we anticipate that a great deal more research will be possible. We hope that we will be able to see patterns that yield insights into the lives of all those who lived in the Fayoum. Years of research, analysis, and publishing lie ahead.

So, apparently, the genomic analyses either have not been performed yet or have not been published.
The strange thing is that in Muhlestein’s curriculum vitae there is this entry: “Burials in the Fag el-Gamous Necropolis – C14 and DNA Analyses,” (refereed). Presented at the Bioarchaeology of Ancient Egypt and the International Symposium of Animals in Egypt, sponsored by the American University of Cairo, held January, 2019.”
So, it seems that in 2019 the results were available.
However, in this 2010 article we read that Dr Paul Evans, a BYU professor of microbiology,

compared the skeletons' cranial features and drilled tiny holes in the teeth to extract DNA samples for genetic testing.
He searched for genetic signals of in-migration to determine whether a Christian population moved in or whether native Egyptians converted to the faith. Evans says the findings are consistent with both possibilities.

It seems that DNA results (or, at least, a part of them) were available already in 2010. The same article states that “Hair types run the gamut from blond to black and straight to curly.”


A study on the hair from Fag el-Gamous
But, obviously, not on the colour!
The study is from 2002 (Morphological characteristics of hair of Egyptian mummies compared with hair from US Caucasoids, Mediterranean workers and Chinese, by Ball and colleagues) and aimed to study the morphology of the hair of individuals from Fag el-Gamous, in order to determine more about their origins. Basically, they took hair samples from workers at the excavations and called these samples “Mediterranean”. Then, they took hair samples from people from the city of Provo, Utah, and called these samples “Caucasoid” and, lastly, took hair samples from Chinese people. All these samples were compared with samples taken from 26 mummies. The result is that 

The mummy hair most resembled Caucasoid hair in terms of size, but most resembled Mediterranean hair in terms of shape. Female hair and male hair from individuals of the same racial type were generally significantly different in parameters of size, but not significantly different in parameters of shape.

As far as I could understand, with “size” they mean the diameter of the hair shaft and of the medulla, while with “shape” they mean not only straight/wavy/curly, but also fibres’ direction and shape (round/oval).
In any case, no reference to colour.

The image above comes from the paper by Dr Janet Davey Is ancestry, not natron, an explanation for fair haired children in Greco-Roman Egypt? (we mentioned it in first part of this article), where she referred to the hair of three fair-haired mummies from Egypt. Unfortunately, the provenance of the mummies in unknown, but they date back to the Greco-Roman Period (332 BC – c.395 AD). The paper features two more photos, which means that fair-haired Egyptian mummies are not uncommon and they have been known for more than one century (the three mummies from this paper were acquired by the British Museum in 1898).



ANTINOPOLIS
The city of Antinopolis was founded by Roman emperor Hadrian in 130 AD on the east bank of the Nile.
The most important excavations took place thanks to French archaeologist Albert Gayet (1856 - 1916), known as the "archaeologist of Antinoöpolis". His excavations have revealed mummies, grave goods and thousands of fabrics, as well as a large cemetery, the burial place of numerous Coptic Christians.

In the 2017 study The Luscious Locks of Lust: Hair and the Construction of Gender in Egypt from Clement to the Fātimids (by Christina Thérèse Rooijakkers) we read: 

Most of the mummies from Antinoöpolis have brown, reddish or even bright blond hair. It was originally believed that some of the women had dyed their hair with henna, but in a recent analysis of the hair of a number of mummies no dye or bleaching agents were found. […] It is very likely that the reddish brown or even blond colour has rather been caused by the degradation of the eumelanin pigment (black/brown) in favour of pheomelanin.

So, again, the usual mantra of eumelanin degradation that no-one ever demonstrated.
As for the analysis she mentions (that found no dye or bleaching agents), it was performed by Witold Nowik in 2013: Cheveux et couvre-chefs textiles: caractérisation des colorants. Nowik took 39 samples from dyed textiles and 9 hair samples (but I couldn’t find their colour), and analysed them with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in order to detect artificial or natural dyes on textiles or on hair.
The result is that only on textiles natural dyes have been found, while on hair samples no dye or degradation products have been found.
Now, the HPLC is one of those techniques that allows the identification of eumelanin and phaeomelanin in hair (as you can read in this study by melanin experts Shosuke Ito and Kazumasa Wakamatsu), but, again, in this case it was not used in that way.
We don’t know if in those 9 samples there were also red or blond hair, but since they were going to perform HPLC, they could well take a red and a blond sample and analyse the melanin content.


The golden mummy of Dunkerque

The mummy above has been found in Antinopolis by Albert Gayet in 1906 and is now in Dunkerque. It is a female, around 20 years of age when she died, and is called Ounnout (the Astrologer), because she was probably a priestess. The mummy, dated 2nd century AD, is covered with gold and lies on a bed of sycomore leaves and shells (more info here).

As you can read in this article, in 2015 hairs were taken from the mummy for analysis. Researchers found out that they were very degraded and fragile, and then they concluded Ounnout’s hair became blond because of proteines’ degradation due to UVA and UVB radiations and visible radiation (D'autre part, leur couleur jaune est liée à une dégradation des protéines des cheveux par une exposition aux rayons ultraviolets A et B, et aux rayons visibles.)
However, if you read the original study from 2013 (Hair surface and mechanical properties of Copt mummies from Antinopolis), you won’t find any test aiming to find out the original hair colour. The stated objective of the paper is to study hair surface morphology/topography, cuticle condition, mechanical properties and preservation differences among mummies (samples were taken from 11 mummies), so how can researchers know that Ounnout’s hair became blond due to UV radiations?
In the first part of this article, talking of photo-oxidation, we saw that, if a body remains under the sun so long that its hair changes colour, that body will never become a mummy, because it will be destroyed by atmospheric agents, wild animals, fungi, bacteria, ecc. This mummy is so well-preserved I doubt it has ever been exposed to atmospheric agents.
As if this were not enough, here you can see Ounnout’s museum ID, which reads, about its hair: "red, turned blond because of depigmentation".
So, basically, these people, without performing any colour analysis, managed to find out not only that this woman had red hair, but also that it became blond because depigmentation. They are indeed astrologers! 😂

source

In 2016, a new analysis was performed on the mummy using its hair, as you can read in Datation par le carbone 14 et restes humains. Une étude de cas : la momie dorée de Dunkerque.
Researchers took 66mg of hairs from the mummy and 45mg of hairs found on the leaves bed, with the aim of radiocarbon dating. No analysis of hair colour.


Red-haired heads from the Louvre

D.1909.55.3

D.1909.55.4

These two mummified heads kept at the Louvre were found in Antinopolis and, just like Ounnout, date back to the Roman period.
The first one (D.1909.55.4) is a female and the second (D.1909.55.4) a male.
In the description of the first one you can read: “Cheveux roux teints au henné?” that is “Red hair dyed with henna?”, while in the description of the second one you can read: “Cheveux roux teints au henné”, “Red hair dyed with henna”.
So, we see the usual pattern: they have all these archaeological red and blond hair and, instead of performing analyses to find out the original colour, make up improbable theories about photo-oxidation, eumelanin degradation and henna.



SEMNA SOUTH, NUBIA (SUDAN)
Semna was a fortified area established on the west bank of the Nile at the southern end of a series of fortresses founded during the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (1985–1795 BC) in the area of Lower Nubia (Sudan), near the border with Egypt. There are three forts at Semna: Semna West (Semna Gharb), Semna East (Semna Sherq, also called Kummeh or Kumma), and Semna South (Semna Gubli).

Excavations in Semna South took place in 1956-1957 and 1966-1968.
The cemetery to the north of the fort contained approximately 560 graves (over 800 individuals) of which about 494 were from the Meroitic period (4th century BC – 4th century AD), 50 from the X-Group/Ballana culture period (4th – 6th century AD), and 16 from the Christian period (550 – 1500 AD). The Meroitic period through the Christian period is a span of approximately 2,000 years, which indicates that the fort was used for an extended period of time.
In 1978, Dr Daniel Bruce Hrdy published the study Analysis of hair samples of mummies from Semna South (Sudanese Nubia) (free download here) where he examined 76 hair samples from Semna South, using the techniques available at the time. I quote from the abstract:

However, the cuticular structure and the lack of fluorescence of the cortex indicate that the low humidity and non-alkaline conditions preserved the physical and chemical properties of the hair well. Pigmentation, even allowing for oxidation of melanin, showed a higher proportion of lighter samples than is currently associated with the Nubian area. Hair form analysis showed medium diameter and scale count; the curling variables were intermediate between European and African samples.

Now, here it is important to understand that Hrdy did observe oxidation of the cuticule and of keratin protein, but he didn’t make any test to verify if melanin oxidation took place as well, and if melanin oxidation resulted in red hair. When he writes “even allowing for oxidation of melanin”, he is simply drawing an inference based on the literture of the time, and that’s why he cites the 1963 work by Brothwell and Spearman The Hair of Earlier Peoples (in Science in archaeology; a comprehensive survey of progress and research, pages 427–436). I quote again “As Brothwell and Spearman (‘63) point out, reddish-brown ancient hair is usually the result of partial oxidation of the melanin pigment.”
Brothwell and Spearman's work was a pioneering comparative study of archaeological hair, based, among other things, on microscopic observations and pigmentation characteristics, but it lacked the spectroscopic and molecular techniques that would be used today to directly demonstrate melanin oxidation. As a matter of fact, the only evidence they bring for melanin oxidation is the usual hydrogen peroxide (that is, hair bleaching) that we have already met in the second part of this article, but obviously mummies’ hair did not came in contact with hydrogen peroxide.

The table above is featured in Hrdy’s paper and needs to be read in the right way.
Hrdy took 76 hair samples: 56 from Meroitic individuals, 15 from the X-Group and 5 from Christian individuals, and graded them according to the Fischer-Saller scale for hair colours. 
As you can see, the first part (on the left) goes from blond to black, while the second part (on the right) is about red. The two parts are not mutually exclusive, which means that a sample can be classified in both parts.


Hrdy writes: “Twenty-six percent (29% of the Meroitic, 13% of the Xgroup) of the total sample had some red pigmentation, and 10.5% (8.9 Meroitic, 13% Xgroup) had “blond” pigmentation.”
However, the “red” part is not to be interpreted as if the 26% of the samples had actual red hair, but rather “some red pigmentation”, like, for example, reddish shades on brown hair (that’s why the two parts are not mutually exclusive).
As for blond hair, Hrdy writes: 

However, the large number of blond hairs that are not associated with the cuticular damage that bleaching produces, probably points to a significantly lighter-haired population than is now present in the Nubian region. Brothwell and Spearman (’63) noted genuinely blond ancient Egyptian samples using reflectance spectrophotometry. Blondism, especially in young children, is common in many dark-haired populations (e.g., Australian, Melanesian), and is still found in some Nubian villages (J. Zabkar, personal communication). Only one sample (M197) showed cuticular damage and irregularities definitely consistent with bleaching, although bleaching could not be ruled out in some of the blond samples.

As for the DNA, I couldn’t find any genomic analysis on individuals from Semna South, although the human remains have been used in many researches, mostly about diseases and injuries (as you can read here).
A DNA analysis was performed on 66 individuals from another site in Nubia, Kulubnarti (dated 650-1000 AD). The 2021 study Social stratification without genetic differentiation at the site of Kulubnarti in Christian Period Nubia showed that the population of Kulubnarti had 42.5% Nilotic-related DNA and 57.5% West Eurasian-related DNA (the latter mostly through female lineage). The team concluded that the present-day Nubian people are not direct descendants of the people of Kulubnarti, attesting to additional genetic input since the Christian Period.
However, we don’t know if these results can be transferred to Semna South.

Late Summer Reds

Some random red hair art finds. Late summer, 2026.

This is my favourite of the bunch. An image of the dramatist Édouard Pailleron's wife, painted by John Singer Sargent.

Madame Edouard Pailleron

Next is another by Singer, along with a painting by Edward Hopper. Both are paintings where the red hair, though minimal, draws the focus of the image.

En route pour la pêche (Setting Out to Fish)

Nighthawks - Edward Hopper

Finally, we have some paintings by the German expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. I share them a little reluctantly, as they're not really to my taste. They're a bit ugly and disturbing, though admittedly interesting.

(We shared some of his paintings on here a few years ago. Seemingly he liked to paint redheads, so that's at least to his credit.

https://redhairmyths.blogspot.com/2024/12/red-hair-in-art-ernst-ludwig-kirchner.html )

Doris with Ruff Collar

Head of a Woman

Marzella

Street, Berlin

I guess that last one wasn't so bad. It was also another where the red hair pulled the focus.

About fair-haired mummies - 3rd part

Index

1st part: henna, natron and Ramesses II

2nd part: bog bodies and photo-oxidation 

3rd part: Tarim and Paracas mummies

4th part: Egypt and Sudan

5th part: techniques for tracing the original colour of archaeological hair, hypotheses about the origin of red/blond archaeological hair 

In this third part we will see what we know and (above all) what we don’t know about the Tarim mummies found in China and the Paracas mummies of Peru. The next part will be about Egyptian natural mummies, because I found out that, besides the Gebelein Man I have already mentioned in the second part, more red- and blond-haired mummies and skeletons have been unearthed in Egypt, but (strangely enough) they’re not very famous.

I know some articles, speaking of red-haired mummies, also mention a red-haired mummy from the Guanche culture in the Canary Islands, but the picture featuring these articles is partly false, because it has been “reddened” with some sort of filter. The actual mummy has got dark brown hair, as you can see here. 




TARIM MUMMIES

The term "Tarim mummies" refers to a series of mummies (more than 300) unearthed in cemeteries along the edges of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin, present-day Xinjiang, China.

The mummies span roughly from 2000 BC to 200 AD.
I quote a passage from Grokipedia about the extraordinary preservation of the mummies and their artifacts: 

The Tarim mummies were preserved through natural desiccation in the hyper-arid environment of the Tarim Basin, where annual precipitation is less than 50 mm and evaporation rates exceed 3,000 mm, creating conditions that rapidly dehydrate tissues and inhibit microbial activity. Saline soils, rich in salts like sodium chloride, further contribute by drawing out residual moisture and acting as a natural preservative, preventing putrefaction even in shallow burials. This process allowed soft tissues, hair, skin, and internal organs to remain intact for millennia, with the mummies dating primarily from circa 2000 BCE to the early centuries CE.

These mummies proved to be a very controversial find for the Chinese government, as you can read here.

The red-haired mummies (obviously 😁) became the most popular. They are the Cherchen Man (probably dating to 800 BC), described as having reddish brown hair flecked with grey and a ginger beard; the Beauty of Loulan (arond 1800 BC), whose hair is described as auburn; the Princess of Xiaohe (about 1800 BC), with reddish-brown hair (here you can see some HD pictures of several mummies). There are probably more of them (with blond hair as well), but these are the most famous.

The Princess of Xiaohe

In 2021, a first genomic test was performed (The genomic origins of the Bronze Age Tarim Basin mummies, by Fan Zhang and colleagues) although in previous years mtDNA  and Y-DNA of some mummies were analysed. In this 2021 study, 33 samples were taken, but only 18 could be used: 13 were from the Tarim Basin and dated 2100-1700 BC, while the remaining 5 were from the Dzungarian Basin (north of the Tarim Basin) and dated 3000-2800 BC.
The 13 Tarim samples were mainly from Xiaohe (with some from Gumugou e Beifang) and belonged to the Early Bronze Age: that is, they were chosen among the most ancient mummies. The reason of this choice is that researchers wanted to understand the very origin of the Xiaohe population, before following migrations. They also wanted to make a comparison between the population of Dzungaria (related to the Afanasievo culture) and Tarim.
The result was that the mummies had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry (ANE, about 72%), with smaller admixture from Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA, about 28%). What does that mean? It simply means that those 13 mummies showed a high genetic affinity with the proxy of ANE population, that is, the individual called Afonotova Gora 3 (who lived 18,000 years ago). However, Afontova Gora 3 doesn’t represent the whole of Ancient North Eurasians and the study itself calls AG3 “a distant representative” of ANE ancestry.” This is a small but important detail.
The three red-haired mummies mentioned above were not included in this study. Cherchen Man was too recent, while the Beauty of Loulan was from Loulan and not from Xiaohe. As for the Princess of Xiaohe, we don’t know why it was not included (maybe the DNA couldn’t be used). However, in all internet articles about the Tarim mummies and their ancestry, usually we find the pictures of these red-haired mummies (for example in this article from the National Geographic), so, obviously, readers assume that these mummies were genetically tested and they have ANE ancestry. Maybe they do have ANE ancestry, but we don’t have any evidence of that.


In this 2021 paper there is a link called Supplementary Data 1, from which you can download a file with, among other things, the phenotypic traits of the studied individuals. The sample from Gumugou (GMGM1) seems to have a call for the A allele of the SNP rs11547464 on the MC1R gene (that would be the mutation R142H), which may result in red hair, but I couldn’t find any information on the actual hair colour of this mummy. Another sample (L5209) has a call for the C allele of rs12821256 on the KITLG gene, associated with blond hair (that would be the same mutation found on the Afontova Gora 3 remains I mentioned above), but, again, I couldn’t find any information on the mummy’s hair colour (and this is odd, in my opinion).

Cherchen Man

In 2025, Dr Zhang and colleagues performed a new genomic study, Bronze and Iron Age genomes reveal the integration of diverse ancestries in the Tarim Basin. This time they sequenced 24 genomes from the western Tarim Basin, spanning from Bronze to Iron Age (roughly from 1600 to 1000 BC) and found a strong component derived from pastoral steppe populations (which the authors link to the eastward expansion of Andronovo-related groups) and admixtures from the Bactria-Margiana Archeological Complex. Not even this time the red-haired mummies mentioned above were analysed. Several articles (included Wikipedia) write these mummies have this or that ancestry, but I couldn’t find any paper.


As for their hair, it was not analysed either, so, technically, we don’t know whether the colour is natural or not, but, (unlike what happens with other mummies) in this case no-one posits this or that chemical process to explain the colour. All articles and books about the Tarim mummies simply describe it, and that’s all. Apparently, the Taklamakan Desert is not conducive to hair colour changes. 😅
So, basically, we have these three mummies with reddish hair, but we don’t know if this is their original colour and don’t know if they have mutations for red hair.




PARACAS MUMMIES
The Paracas culture was a pre-Columbian Andean civilisation that developed on the southern coast of Peru, primarily in the Ica, Chincha, and Pisco valleys, from approximately 800 BC to 200 BC. It was named after the Paracas Peninsula, where major archaeological sites were first identified (the Paracas Peninsula is also famous for the geoglyph called Paracas Candelabra).
The Paracas culture is known today above all for cranial modification and elongated skulls.
In the Peninsula, two distinct types of cemeteries have been found. The earliest example is called Paracas Cavernas and is characterized by internments in subterranean caverns, with burials conical in shape and wrapped in a coarse outer cloth sewn closed.
In the late Paracas era, called Necropolis phase, we have above-ground stone chambers containing densely packed flexed bundles, often including multiple individuals. The Necropolis site's Wari Kayan cemetery, excavated by Julio C. Tello in 1929, yielded 429 so-called mummy bundles, arranged in clusters within and around abandoned structures on a hillside.

Drawing illustrating a Paracas Cavernas burial (source)

Thanks to very high aridity, low humidity and, probably, saline soil (conditions similar to those of the Tarim Desert), rapid dehydration and a slowing of decomposition occurred, elements that allowed the preservation not only of the bodies, but also of the funerary objects and textiles. As a matter of fact, the Paracas Necropolis textiles and embroideries are considered to be some of the finest ever produced by Pre-Columbian Andean societies. They are the primary works of art by which Paracas culture is known.

According to the 2015 study Pre-Columbian population dynamics in coastal southern Peru: A diachronic investigation of mtDNA patterns in the Palpa region by ancient DNA analysis,  the mitocodrial DNA (trasmitted from mother to children) of the Paracas Peninsula and Palpa were mostly D and C. For one individual from the necropolis of Wari Kayan we have both mtDNA and Y-DNA (transmitted from father to sons): mtDNA is D1 and Y-DNA is Q1b1a1a1 (see here). As far as I could see, these are the only data from the genetic point of view.

As for the hair, I found two hair analyses, but (guess what?) they’re not about the colour.
In the study Paleodiet in the Paracas Necropolis of Wari Kayan: carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of keratin samples from the south coast of Peru, the hair of 14 mummies from Wai Kayan were analysed to investigate paleomobility and paleodiet.
In the study Raman Spectroscopy and STR Analysis of the Elongated Skulls from the Paracas Mummies of Peru (2022, Thornton and colleagues)  a skull from Palpa was analysed with (among other techniques) Raman spectroscopy and microscope, in order to ascertain that the hair belonged to a human being (as you probably know, several fringe theories claim the Paracas were not human).

Now (as you can read in the study), the hair on this skull was described as red and (as I wrote in the first part of this article) the Raman spectroscopy is one of the techniques which can be used (often with others) to determine the real colour of archaeological hair. However, these researchers did not perform this kind of analysis! They had the chance to find out if this individual was really a redhead, but didn’t take it. On the contrary, they repeated the mantra that eumelanin is less stable than phaeomelanin, while in the second part of this article we saw this statement is not scientifically correct and there’s a single evidence that eumelanin is less stable than phaeomelanin under all circumstances. I quote some passages from the study: 

The hair from the Paracas skull was dark and almost reddish in color, supporting the earlier observation that the Paracas mummies were comprised mostly, if not entirely, of redheads (Dr. Dennis Swift, personal communication). […] Pheomelanin tends to be stable in the hair even under extreme conditions; however, eumelanin is less chemically stable than pheomelanin and breaks down much more rapidly when oxidized. Even in wet oxidizing climates, the eumelanin in the hair is lost over extended periods of time, leaving behind the red pigment, pheomelanin. Thus, the color of hair changes faster under extreme conditions and will often turn a reddish color. Consequently, it is difficult, if not speculative, to assume that the Paracas society was a population of redheads.

In the second part I also explained that, since in all hair colours but red the amount of phaeomelanin is very small, should all eumelanin disappear, the remaining phaeomelanin wouldn’t be enough to colour the hair red (and the authors of this study should have known that).

Although dated, I think it is worth mentioning the paper that forensic anthropologist Mildred Trotter (1899 - 1991) wrote in 1943, Hair from Paracas Indian Mummies.
In this study, Trotter examined the hair of 10 Paracas mummies (two females and eight males) collected by Julio Tello in 1925 and preserved in Lima. She writes “In general, the color was a rusty brown and gave the appearance of having faded.” This sentence is often interpreted as if she said that the original colour was dark and that, because of some chemical process, the colour lightened. However, this is not was she meant, as we read in this excerpt from the book American Indians in the Pacific (1952), written by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl (we mentioned him here). Heyerdahl writes:  

Dr. Trotter (1951) wrote me as follows with reference her paper quoted above: "I have gone over all the evidence we have and have discussed it with Mr, O. H. Duggins, who is now working with me on the subject of the hair. His background is an interesting one, since he has worked in the hair and fiber section of the F. B. I. I have come to the conclusion that there are two mistakes in my paper on the mummies' hair. The first mistake was to introduce the word 'Indian', and the second was the use of the word 'faded'. Now I shall try to answer your direct questions with a direct answer. The hair of the Paracas mummies which I examined in 1943 may have changed color and texture slightly. However, the amount of change in either colour or texture from any evidence we have would not deny that the original colour was a reddish brown and that the original texture was fine." Although no reason was found to warrant the hypothesis that the reddish-brown scalps had ever 'faded' from blue-black, microscopic examination showed that the light yellow hairs, interspersed to a very slight extent in eight of the samples, contained no pigment, and hence presumably had been even lighter, or white.

 

The huge Trotter collection (more than 6000 hair samples) still exists and is kept at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. In 2024, a team of researchers re-examined some the hair samples collected by Trotter (see here), but we don’t know if the 10 samples she studied in 1943 still exist and were re-examined. In any case, the 2024 team didn’t attempt to find out if the hair colour we see in these samples is the original one. As far as colour was concerned, they only studied density and distribution of melanosomes. So, basically, one more lost opportunity to solve the mystery of red-haired mummies.

For the sake of completeness it is also worth mentioning the 2009 study Multi-analytical techniques for the study of pre-Columbian mummies and related funerary materials, in which mummies and various archaeological finds from the necropolis of Ancòn (Peru) were examined (dated betwen 11th and 13th century AD). As you can read in the abstract, various techniques were used to identiy pigments and organic dyes and it turned out that one mummy had a red pigment on its hair, cinnabar. As you can see, identifying red dyes on archaeological hair is perfectly feasible.