October 29, 2011 The Wet Mummy

CaliforniaMama • Oct 29, 2011 11:01 am

[SIZE="1"]Not your average Halloween mummy, but a real live Ming Dynasty mummy![/SIZE]

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.

[SIZE="1"]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.[/SIZE]

via National Geographic

Photograph from Fame Pictures/Barcroft

Sundae • Oct 29, 2011 11:15 am

CaliforniaMama;767794 wrote:
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.

I beg to differ.
Great IoTD though.

HungLikeJesus • Oct 29, 2011 11:24 am

But why is she wearing a bomber hat?

Gravdigr • Oct 29, 2011 12:04 pm

I'll bet that was a unique scent when they opened that centuries-flooded coffin.

:greenface

footfootfoot • Oct 29, 2011 12:31 pm

Probably not much odor since there was no oxygen to contribute to decay.

600 years? Pffffft! It is to laugh.

Ötzi is 5300 years old.

CaliforniaMama • Oct 30, 2011 10:58 am

Sundae;767801 wrote:
I beg to differ.
Great IoTD though.

You are right. We are ALL important.

Especially Grandads. My heartfelt condolences. I've been there. Let him live in the memories.

Peace.

Coign • Oct 31, 2011 12:32 pm

I just watched Zombies: Living History on the History channel and they talked about how the Chinese would bind their dead so that they could not free themselves and come back to devour the living. Looks like they did a good job here. I just hope now that they excavated her, we don't see the Zompocaplyse start now.

Gravdigr • Oct 31, 2011 12:52 pm

The flesh from a genuine mummy is said to have a very distinct smell. It's smells like something very common, but, I can't for the life of me remember what it is.

wolf • Oct 31, 2011 1:46 pm

Pine trees?

infinite monkey • Oct 31, 2011 1:47 pm

Many parts are edible.

--Euell Gibbons

Sundae • Oct 31, 2011 4:24 pm

Gravdigr;768496 wrote:
The flesh from a genuine mummy is said to have a very distinct smell. It's smells like something very common, but, I can't for the life of me remember what it is.

I seem to remember reading it was like creosote?

wolf • Oct 31, 2011 4:59 pm

Most of what I've found describing the scent involves the word "musty."

So, they don't smell like much of anything other than the cupboards they've been kept in in museum basements.

Sundae • Oct 31, 2011 5:14 pm

Seriously, though.
The first thing you do after digging up a centuries old body is to have a good sniff?

I retch if milk is on the turn.

ETA - googling suggests some smell of bitumin.
So creosote wasn't a bad stab in the dark.

footfootfoot • Oct 31, 2011 9:46 pm

Coign;768484 wrote:
I just watched Zombies: Living History on the History channel and they talked about how the Chinese would bind their dead so that they could not free themselves and come back to devour the living. Looks like they did a good job here. I just hope now that they excavated her, we don't see the Zompocaplyse start now.

There's a great Jake Thackray song The Jolly Captain, I think. His wife is a mean, bitter scold who curses him before she dies and swears she'll come back to haunt him if he re-marries.

Of course he remarries after a fortnight and his friends say he's made a mistake. He replies,
"No she won't come to haunt me or taunt me, I know. For I buried her face downward, she's a long way to go."

BigV • Nov 1, 2011 12:13 am

[YOUTUBE]xOzMxbuOptE[/YOUTUBE]

BigV • Nov 1, 2011 12:16 am

footfootfoot;768762 wrote:
There's a great Jake Thackray song The Jolly Captain, I think. His wife is a mean, bitter scold who curses him before she dies and swears she'll come back to haunt him if he re-marries.

Of course he remarries after a fortnight and his friends say he's made a mistake. He replies,
"No she won't come to haunt me or taunt me, I know. For I buried her face downward, she's a long way to go."

omg.
I'd posted this this morning, THANKS TO YOU, but hadn't refreshed the page since im's euell gibbons joke. (a good one). Now, I hit the post button, and I see my post (in the proper chronological order)... but

but what is (not) weird is that you had the same thought.

SPUCK • Nov 1, 2011 6:04 am

infinite monkey;768523 wrote:
Many parts are edible.

--[COLOR="DarkOrchid"]Goul[/COLOR] Gibbons

Pete Zicato • Nov 2, 2011 4:55 pm

Rick: Is he supposed to look like that?
Evelyn: No, I've never seen a mummy look like this before. He's still... still...
Rick, Jonathan: ...juicy.