Are Newark’s Long-Lost Mummies Really Behind the Devils’ Strange Injury Streak? Fans Think So — Here’s What the Archeologist Says
This year has been strange for the Devils. Players are confident, winning games, and leading the Eastern Conference. But their players keep getting hurt, so fans look for nonsensical sports answers.
The mummified bodies found 150 years ago under the Prudential Center, before it was the Devils’ home ice, keep prompting doubt in many Newarkers.
Is the team’s recent misfortune their fault?
The archaeologist who found them believes they are fake.
Over 20 years, Scott Warnasch has been a forensic archaeologist. He discovered the amazing find in 2005 while digging the arena’s foundation. He laughed at the new rumors, unable to believe cursed remains could affect an NHL team today.
He said “I don’t think so.” when asked if the mummies caused the team’s recent injuries.
Fans are doubting, and it’s understandable. Devils star forward Jack Hughes missed almost two months after slipping on glass while eating with the team in Chicago. Many had been hurt this year. There are many teams that have missed games due to injuries, including the Devils. Fans suspect something strange is happening.
Defenseman Brenden Dillon joked that the team might need to “sage the place or something.” before the month ended. This shows how crazy fans are.
Warnasch believes the mummy story is more historical than supernatural.
When the Prudential Center site was dug up, many First Presbyterian Church cemetery bones were found. Some were rare 1800s cast-iron coffins with 100% preserved mummies.
William Pollard was crucial to New Jersey’s early history. His coffin was larger. Jersey City’s fourth fire chief was born in 1816. He led local militias and was the city’s first permanent police captain. Cholera killed him in 1854. Warnasch said Pollard’s clothes, hair, and body were good for a 100-year-old buried person.
In the second coffin was 1764-born Mary Camp Roberts, a descendant of the Puritans who settled Newark in the 1600s. She died in 1852 at almost eighty. Many of her body parts were still there, which amazed Warnasch and the Smithsonian experts who helped with the examination years later but scared them.
The find was never meant to be supernatural, he said. We saw early Newark in a rare way, revealing stories that may have been lost.
Warnasch understands the theory’s joke. Devils are named that for a reason. Fans want to know why this season has so many strange injuries. They will search underground for answers.
He said “I don’t really get why people blame the mummies because I’m not a sports fan.” “But if you’re going to call yourselves the Devils, you might as well bring some dead bodies with you.”
He maintains that the mummies are unrelated to the team’s problems. Their current state is part of Newark’s history. They are not a curse under the arena.
While the Devils play without their star player, fans can rest assured that the Prudential Center’s mummified past is unrelated to the team’s injuries. The person who knows them best says so.
Sources:
NJ Advance Media
