Fet-Mats Israelsson

Fet-Mats Israelsson (? - 1677) was a "petrified man" found in 1719.

In 1719 miners in the Falun copper mine found apparently intact dead body from a tunnel that had been long unused. When they took the body up, they found out that it was Fet-Mats Israelsson who had disappeared 42 years earlier. His former fiancée, Margaret Olsdotter, recognized him.

In the open air the body dried up and turned hard as a rock. People gave it a nickname "petrified miner". Fet-Mats Israelsson was put on display on Stora Kopparberget.

When the naturalist Carolus Linnaeus visited, he noticed that Fet-Mats was not petrified but just covered with vitriol. He stated that as soon as the vitriol would evaporate, the body would begin to decay.

That proved to be correct. Fet-Mats Israelsson was finally buried December 21 1749.