October 29, 2011 The Wet Mummy

[CaliforniaMama]

Not your average Halloween mummy, but a real live Ming Dynasty mummy!

With eyebrows, hair, and skin still intact after more than 600 years, a remarkably preserved Chinese "wet mummy" remains bundled in her quilt after centuries in a flooded coffin.

They don't know who she was, but it looks as though she had a good family. She was buried with a lot of nice things, but wasn't royalty or anyone of importance.

She was a young woman, and very modern with purple hair, probably from something in the water.

She was buried with her exorcism coin, but it didn't keep water from leaking into her coffin. Instead of rotting her body, though, the water actually preserved her, turning her into a wet mummy.

A wet mummy is made when the water lacks oxygen, preventing bacteria from breaking down the body.

Follow the link to see some other great pictures.

via National Geographic

Photograph from Fame Pictures/Barcroft