When most people think of mummies, they think of Egyptian culture and the elaborate mummification procedures that were used to create a bridge between life and death, preserving the body. While most mummies discovered today are the result of this process, it is rare for a mummy to be the result of a natural preservation process.

In 2011, road workers in China discovered the incredibly well-preserved remains of a 700-year-old female skeleton dating back to the Ming Dynasty. The discovery provided insight into the lifestyles of the people of the era and left many questions. Who was this woman? How did the mummy stay so well preserved over the centuries?

Workers were digging the road when they discovered a stone coffin at a depth of 2 meters.

The discovery of a Chinese mummy was quite a shock. In Taizhou, Jiangsu, eastern China, road workers were digging about 2 meters deep when they hit a large, solid object. They quickly realized it could be an important find, so they contacted a team of archaeologists from the Taizhou Museum to excavate it.

They eventually determined that it was indeed a tomb and that there was a three-layer coffin inside. When the main coffin was opened, archaeologists found several layers of silk and bed linens, covered in a brown liquid. When they looked under the bed linens, they discovered the beautiful skeleton of a woman. The rest of the body, hair, skin, clothes, and jewelry were almost completely intact. Details such as eyebrows and eyelashes were still perfectly preserved.

Inside was a perfectly preserved female mummy.

Researchers have not yet been able to determine the age of the mummy. The woman is believed to have lived during the Ming Dynasty, dating from 1368-1644. The body would be 700 years old if it dates from the beginning of the dynasty. She was dressed in traditional Ming Dynasty clothing and had some jewelry, including a striking green ring. From the jewelry and the fine silk wrappings, it is believed that the mummy belonged to a high-class commoner.

To this day scientists still do not know what makes the mummy so intact.

The coffin also contained bones, ceramics, ancient texts, and other artifacts. Archaeologists who excavated the coffin do not know whether the brown liquid inside was used to preserve the body or if it was simply water that had seeped in. However, some researchers have suggested that the body may have been preserved by being buried in the right environment. If the temperature and oxygen levels in the water are just right, bacteria cannot grow, and decomposition can be slowed or stopped.

The mummy’s striking blue ring.

The discovery gives researchers an insight into the customs of the Ming Dynasty. They learn about the clothing, jewelry, and artifacts that people used at that time. This can answer many questions about the lifestyle, traditions, and daily activities of the people at that time.

The discovery also raises many new questions about the conditions under which the woman’s body was preserved for hundreds of years. There are also questions such as who was this person? What role did she play in society? How did she die and were there any preservation techniques used on the body? Due to the isolated nature of the discovery, many questions will never be answered because it is difficult to answer with just one skeleton. If similar discoveries are made in the future, it could be the source of information needed to solve many mysteries.