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| Chinese Wet Mummy |
What we see here is a burial which got flooded, and as the water became stagnant, the bacteria which would normally break down the body are inhibited. These factors have led to the accidental mummy.
Burial inclusions for the 1.5 meter tall women include a jade ring, silver hairpin, and fully clothed. Archaeologists say that lack of identifying insignia means this woman was not royal, but inclusions suggest she was wealthy.
This is deemed news-worthy as scholars don't recognize the Chinese culture as producing mummies. Therefore, here archaeologists have an opportunity to examine a mummification, and perhaps provide some insight into burial practices from the Ming Dynasty.
I was just about to write about this, glad someone else found it as well. Pretty spectacular stuff. Thankfully the road construction did not damage the mummy before it was excavated.
ReplyDelete-SDP
For sure. I don't think any special care was taken in the digging. Lucky. The pictures are nice, too!
ReplyDeleteI was working in China last summer doing some Arch lab work, and it's quite interesting the differences in methods between there and here. One thing is for sure, Chinese archaeologists are really careful with human remains. In the building where we were working there was a crate with a really old human and pig skeleton in it, still in context. That is, the arch's just removed a whole block around the skeletons instead of touching the bones themselves. It was cool. I would post a picture here but I'm not sure Im allowed!