I have seen an interesting documaentation on chineese mummies yesterday.
These Mummies still had fresh, and flixible tissue after 2000 years.
Thy looked like a corpse that is just a few month old.

Now the question was, why they did not decay.

But what is more interesting in this relation:

Why dont living things rot?

What is thae difference. if an animal or plant dies, it
directly starts to rot and decay.
What is the mechanism that prevents living tisse not to rot?

The bacterias are already within the body, before death, bur they dont seem
to harm the body.

Does anyone know the biochemical protection, that is imidiatly lost in
case of death?

So it is all the dominace of the immune system...
Plants must have them too ?

Ok, regarding the chinese mummies, that where not salt-dried as in Egypt,
they must have killed all bacterias that could decay the body.

Maybe they used Pastorisation ?
Heating up the body above 78Celsius for a while, to kill every bacteria....
And then sealed the body hermetically in the coffin.

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So it is all the dominace of the immune system...
Plants must have them too ?

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Yes, plants have it too, but they tend to be more vulnerable I think, because I'm not sure if plants have a system that can actively adapt to changing bacterias and things like that. Things need to go quite wrong before we humans actually get hurt by bacterias.

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Ok, regarding the chinese mummies, that where not salt-dried as in Egypt,
they must have killed all bacterias that could decay the body.

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Generally speaking mummification will be the result of preservation by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or airlessness (oxigine-less is a bit more accurate). I know of some Chines e mummies who were found in ice, but I don't think you're talking about them, are you?

Cheers

I was referring to this mummy:

over 2000 yaers old, and still liquid blood in the veins.
Even the arms can still be bend. Pretty impressive how the chinese conserved the
bodies.


http://www.zdf-enterprises.de/en/diva_mu...rom=64&l=en

Ah, yes, those are impressive indeed, I've read about them before. As for their exact mummification I don't know, but I would place my bet on some sort of poison/toxic this in conjunction with an airtight and oxigine low tomb, could very well have such a great mummification as result. They say environmental circumstances were far from optimal for mummification, so I expect a method which involved chemicals.

When toxic levels are very high in a body, bacterias and the like will naturally get no chance and will be slowed down tremendously. When a body is filled with toxics, it will decay at a much much slower rate,

Cheers

yes, but how can they apply toxins into the inner Body,
The Brain for example was also fully intact.

Maybe they also heated up the body
(below Boiling point)
To kill all bacterias.
(The way you also preserve Food for some time.)

And this already within the toxic liquid.

This way all germs are killed, an no new germs can enter the body
through the liquid.

Although theoretically it's a possibility, I think there's a problem with heating up a body. How would you do it? Boiling in (toxic) water isn't really an option, you'd definately damage the tissue, especially if the body dries out afterwards. Try boiling a chicken and let it dry out, it'll be a heap of flesh, by far not as flexible and intact as these mummies. Perhaps the boiling doesn't last very long, but to kill of all the bacteria in 1 human body you need quite some time I think.

As for the temperature you'd definately need to reach a boiling point, otherwise most of the germs/bacterias won't die. Not all germs/bacterias life untill the boiling point of water is reached off course, but a small majority and the more hazardous bacterias usually do not die untill boiling point is reached. Hence, if you never heat it up untill the boiling point it wouldn't have maximum effect.

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yes, but how can they apply toxins into the inner Body,

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Good question, I don't know, perhaps applying a thick layer on the outside skin is enough to even cover the inside?

I do know that some Chinese emperors/high placed persons used to believe that they would become immortal by swallowing very hazardous toxic cocktails potions or 'tablets' near the end of their reign. A slow and very painful suicide, but I'm not sure if this was common for mummies at all. I do know that such entoxicated bodies usually are very good conserved.

All in all, I'd like to know how dry these mummies are and in what temperature they originally were found, because somehow the used mummification process seems to be somewhat of a mystery indeed, very interesting.

Cheers

I saw the video where they excravated the mummy.
it had a wet skin, an was not dried out at all.

But the Bodies startet to rot quickly, whenever the coffin was opened.

So they had to cool it right away.

No other mummy was ever in this good shape, without being dried out.
(Except corpses in iceblocks)

If they were wet, then probably they have been conserved this well because of the high acidity of the water they lay in. (In the netherlands we have several 'bog bodies' who are well conserved as well because of the airtight situation of the bodies being burried beneath the bog and high acid water, effectively sealing it.) It makes sense that it begins to rot fast after those coffins were opened, because that would mean no airtight situation anymore and oxigine would get in, this overall change of circumstances would make it possible to continue the process of decay.

About Bog People

Cheers