Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Eyebrows still intact highlighting amazing level of preservation
Mummy believed to be a high-ranking member of the Ming Dynasty
Wearing silk and cotton, she's the first major discovery in years in the area

These incredible pictures show a 700-year-old mummy, which was discovered by chance - by road workers - in excellent condition in eastern China.
The corpse of the high-ranking woman believed to be from the Ming Dynasty - the ruling power in China between 1368 and 1644 - was stumbled across by a team who were looking to expand a street.
And the mummy, which was found in the city of Taizhou, in the Jiangsu Province, along with two other wooden tombs, offers a fascinating insight into life as it was back then.
Discovered two metres below the road surface, the woman's features - from her head to her shoes - have retained their original condition, and have hardly deteriorated.

When the discovery was made by the road workers, late last month, Chinese archaeologists, from the nearby Museum of Taizhou, were called into excavate the area, the state agency Xinhua News reported.
They were surprised by the remarkably good condition of the woman's skin, hair, eyelashes and face. It was as though she had only recently died.

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Her body, which measures 1.5 metres high, was found at the construction site immersed in a brown liquid inside the coffin.
And the coffin was opened earlier this week, on March 1, much to the excitement of the local city - and further afield. And the right hand of the 700-year-old mummy showed her preserved skin, and a ring.
The mummy was wearing traditional Ming dynasty costume, and also in the coffin were bones, ceramics, ancient writings and other relics.
This is the latest discovery after a lull of three years in the area. Indeed, between 1979 and 2008 five mummies were found, all in very good condition.
Those findings raising the interest in learning the techniques of preservation funeral of this dynasty and customs in time to bury the dead.
Director of the Museum of Taizhou, Wang Weiyin, told Xinhua that the mummy's clothes are made mostly of silk, with a little cotton.
He said usually silk and cotton are very hard to preserve and excavations found that this mummifying technology was used only at very high-profile funerals.
The first finding of the Ming Dynasty in Taizhou dates from May 1979 and led the opening of the museum.
At that time the bodies were also found intact, but due to lack of experience of archaeologists only clothing, belts and clamps could be preserved.
The Ming Dynasty, who built the Forbidden City and restored the Great Wall, was the last in China and marked an era of economic growth and cultural splendour which produced the first commercial contacts with the West.

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

Face of Incredibly Preserved 700 Years Old Mummy

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After 5,300 years, Oetzi the iceman finally shows his face

After 5,300 years, Oetzi the iceman finally shows his face

He doesn't look half bad for a 5,300-year-old.

Since his discovery in 1991, Oetzi the iceman's true identity has been shrouded in myth and mystery. Just a faceless corpse that has embodied a bygone era of humankind.

But experts have finally worked out what the world's most famous natural mummy actually looked like.

Using 3D images of the corpse and forensic technology, two Dutch artists - Alfons and Adrie Kennis - painstakingly created a new Oetzi model.

But the one thing they couldn't determine was his natural eye colour. So they went with brown.

The model is on show at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy, alongside his mummified remains.

He was unearthed in September 1991 in the Eastern Alps near the Austro-Italian border by a couple of German tourists trekking through the Oetz Valley, after which he was named.

He was about 46 years old when he met his violent death.

Examinations revealed that he had been wounded by an arrow and possibly finished off with a mace blow to the face.

It is thought the arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to massive loss of blood - and the shock caused Oetzi to suffer a heart attack.

The fact that the arrow's shaft was pulled out before his death may have worsened the injury.

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The iceman has been crucial to our understanding of how prehistoric people lived, what they wore and even what they ate.

Researchers had previously suggested he was killed by a rival hunter after putting up a fight, and by examining the contents of his stomach, worked out that his final meal consisted of venison and ibex meat.

Archaeologists believe Oetzi, who was carrying a bow, a quiver of arrows and a copper axe, may have been a hunter or warrior killed in a skirmish with a rival tribe.

Researchers say he was about 159cm tall (5ft 2.5in), 46 years old, arthritic and infested with whipworm, an intestinal parasite.

But he may not object to being immortalised in art, as he was apparently a fan himself with several carbon tattoos including groups of short, parallel, vertical lines behind his knees and around both ankles.

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