Swiss church mummy ‘is Boris Johnson’s ancestor’

Corpse found in Basel church identified as politician’s seven-times-great grandmother

Basel mummy
(Image credit: Gregor Brandli/Basel Natural History Museum)

Boris Johnson has been accused of being a fossil and a dinosaur in his time, but he’s never drawn comparisons with a mummy. But now DNA testing has revealed that a mummified body found beneath a Swiss church is the Foreign Secretary’s seven-times-great-grandmother.

The corpse was uncovered during construction work at the Barfusser church in Basel in 1975, in an unusually well-preserved state due to the body’s high levels of mercury, once commonly used to treat syphilis.

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