Why would the colonists try to embalm the man in Solve the Mystery of the Three Lead Coffins?
The short answer is “we don’t know.” The long answer is a little more complex. Embalming after someone dies has been common in humans since the ancient Egyptians embalmed the Pharaohs. What made the man in the large coffin’s embalming unusual was the time and place. Most men, women, and children in 1680’s Maryland were buried in flimsy wooden coffins or in nothing at all. Even the very wealthy were usually buried in wooden coffins. So a burial in a lead coffin was almost unheard of for the time. And a person embalmed in a lead coffin was, before the discovery, almost unimaginable. Embalming was very rare in England at the time. So you can imagine how unusual this “luxury” practice would be across the Atlantic Ocean. We can only assume that the man’s important status in society and family wealth led to his unusual burial. But we will probably never know the real reasons he was embalmed.
