What does research into mummies mean for the living?
May 30, 2026|Written by Christine Hyldal
Written by Christine Hyldal
Their ancestors were taken from their graves, studied, and exhibited. Now, a researcher wants to understand how their descendants feel about it.
How do descendants experience the fact that their ancestors have been researched and put on display?
This is what Sara Næss Elleskov, a PhD student at Ilisimatusarfik (University of Greenland), is investigating.
A few years ago, she stood in a basement beneath the Panum Building at the University of Copenhagen. The basement houses large collections of skulls and skeletal remains from around the world. At the time, Sara Næss Elleskov was training to become a biological anthropologist. Holding a bone in her hand, she began to wonder—why were there so many skeletal remains from Greenland in the collection?
“I was actually quite surprised by how little I knew about my own colonial history. When I looked into it, I found that the entire collection—at least majority of it—consists of skulls taken from graves during the colonial period,” she says.
“I didn’t know that story. I was surprised that we don’t talk about it, because it affects how we conduct research today.”
Presentation at Greenland Science Week last October. Photo: Emil Stach, Justin Case Productions.
Local voices in Uummannaq
In August 2025, she traveled to Uummannaq to meet local residents. Not far from the town lies the site where two local hunters discovered six mummies in 1972. The mummies have received significant attention from researchers, but Sara Næss Elleskov turns her focus in the opposite direction—asking people about their relationship to the six famous mummies from Qilakitsoq.
“It was very positive,” she says.
“I told them that I was researching the mummies across the fjord and asked if they knew about them. They replied, ‘Yes, of course we do.’”
Some told her they still use the area near the former settlement for hunting. Others said they had played there as children. It was clear that many feel a strong connection to Qilakitsoq.
“Several people said: ‘It’s about time someone asked us how we feel about the mummies,’” she explains.
The Qilakitsoq Mummies
Around the year 1475, six women and two boys were buried just outside the settlement of Qilakitsoq near Uummannaq. They were placed in two graves.
Why they died is unknown. They were wrapped in skins and were fully clothed. They were equipped for a long journey to the realm of the dead, carefully prepared according to inherited rules. The five oldest women have almost identical facial tattoos, which may express kinship and/or social status. On and among the garments were amulets.
In 1972, they were discovered by the brothers Hans and Jokum Grønvold from Uummannaq while they were out hunting ptarmigan.
Four of the mummies are on display in a separate room at the National Museum in Nuuk. The room is part of the exhibition “Qilakitsormiut”, which presents Greenlandic clothing and ways of life from the 15th century.
The platform on which the mummies rest is designed to resemble a dark burial chamber—similar to how they were originally found.
The remaining four are kept at the Panum Institute in Copenhagen. Although the National Museum would like to repatriate them, Greenland currently lacks the facilities required to store all the mummies.
Source: KNR and Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu (Greenland National Museum & Archives)
Disturbing the graves
Today, the mummies are far from their original burial site in Qilakitsoq, and this affects some people, Sara Næss Elleskov has found.
“Some people don’t like that the mummies are exhibited and believe they cannot rest when they are not in their graves. They feel that graves should not be disturbed,” she says.
“Some also do not wish to see them on display. They experience it as crossing a boundary.”
At the same time, she notes that many visitors appreciate the exhibition at the National Museum in Nuuk, where the mummies are displayed in a separate room. Visitors can easily avoid the exhibition if they choose.
Sara Næss Elleskov took part in the Qaagitsi workshop in Nuuk during Greenland Science Week last year. Photo: Emil Stach, Justin Case Productions.
Sara was previously affiliated with the National Museum in Nuuk, where she observed that not all visitors want to see the mummies. “Many come to visit or revisit their ancestors, but many also walk past because they find it overwhelming. I think it’s very interesting to document these experiences so we can better understand what happens when we exhibit the dead” she says. Photo: Sara Næss Elleskov.
We have never asked
According to Sara Næss Elleskov, research can never be neutral. It is always shaped by the researchers themselves, and historically, Western researchers have set the agenda for research on Indigenous peoples.
So how can research become more relevant to the people it concerns? What are Greenlanders’ own perspectives on the study of their ancestors? And what makes sense for the descendants?
These are the questions she now seeks to answer.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that current research is problematic. But we don’t know—because we have never actually asked,” she says.
When you listen to the stories of descendants, is it because you want to give them influence over how research on human remains should be conducted?
“I don’t have that authority as a PhD student, but I want to highlight the stories that also exist among the population—among the people who live in the same places where human remains have been found. They are also affected by the research conducted in Greenland.”
“At the same time, we have a national research strategy stating that research should be relevant and anchored in Greenland. I want to help show what is relevant and how we can anchor it locally.”
In July, she will return to Uummannaq to conduct more interviews.