Scans and DNA tests reveal the secrets of a rare African mummy

He lay alone in a shallow grave at the base of a cliff for hundreds of years. Then, in 2008, patrol staff at a game lodge stumbled across the man’s remains – and he became the first mummy ever found in Botswana. Now a team of scientists from Botswana, South Africa and Switzerland has used computerised tomography (CT) scanning and ancient DNA analysis to uncover some of the Tuli mummy’s secrets. The Conversation Africa’s science and technology editor Natasha Joseph asked two of the study’s authors, Maryna Steyn and Frank Rühli, to explain what they found.