I wish I lived in a part of the world where well preserved 700-year-old mummies are lying beneath the streets, just waiting to be discovered.
The tomb of the lady shown above was found in the Chinese city of Taizhou. Experts say the woman's dress dates from the Ming Dynasty, which means she lived sometime between 1368 and 1644. Judging by her jewelry and the possessions discovered inside the tomb, she was also a woman of means. (Love that ring.)
No one knows much about the secret methods that were used to produce Chinese mummies. But it's pretty clear that they were nothing like those employed in Egypt. Many of the best preserved Chinese mummies have been found submerged in a rather nasty-looking liquid.
More here.
9 comments:
This is pretty interesting. I bet that liquid is something that drys out body liquids.
Wow... just look at her face! She looks like she was created as a piece of art, not a 700 year old person!!!
Dear Anonymous:
I bet that liquid is something bacteria doesn't like. Maybe salty, maybe acidic or vinegary, maybe both. Think pickled.
Robert in San Diego
Cool... That's a type of mummification I didn't know about! My favorite well-preserved corpses, however, remain the Florida bog people.
Dear Anonymous Science Fiction Writer:
Thanks for the Florida bog people tip. I already knew about the European versions. I'm not too sure the European bog people are better off than the Peruvian ice mummies.
Robert in San Diego
Wow! She looks amazing. I'm loving her ring. ;)
remembers me of the empress's tomb :)
@Robert: Oh, what a lovely image.
Lawyer/Undertaker/whatever: "Last will and testament...blah blah blah...anything else ma'm? No? Great! Now do you want to be buried or cremated? Or, the special this week is being buried at sea!"
Old Lady: "Neither. I want to be pickled."
LUW: "???" (Incomprehensible sound of astonished questioning)
Old Lady: "Yeah, you heard right, young man...PICKLED!!!"
On a vaguely related note, what would an old lady-irregular be like? I'm thinking something like Verushka, and something like the old version of Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle--Completely outrageous, and nobody blinks.
Hehehehe, you never know, maybe you are living in an area with mummies waiting to be discovered! That's very interesting, humans are capable of preserving bodies for that long!
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