It was of about 500 years old and almost perfect. The story of the girl (and her two companions, who were both children) impressed me enough for me to write a post about famous mummies from all over the world.
And no, I'm not going to include Tutankhamen. Just in case you were wondering.
All right, the first one on this list will be Ötzi.
This guy is pretty old, from about 3300 BC, but it was only recently that it was found. He is supposed to be the oldest human mummy from Europe, and if you were wondering about his name, he got it from the place he was found at: a Valley in the Alps.
When Ötzi died, he was about 40 years old and 160cm tall. The part I found interesting was the fact that he had 57 tattoos, and they were placed on acupuncture points that somehow coincide with the modern points that are considered to treat different illnesses... illnesses that the guy actually suffered from. How he knew about acupuncture is a mystery to me.
There is another interesting thing about him. He had a whole bunch of different stuff around him - and that includes some pretty nice shoes. Funny thing about those shoes is that when some scientists reproduced it, it turned out to be so freakin' comfortable, they actually made plans to sell them.
The second famous mummy is Ginger.
Ginger is about the same age as Ötzi, only he was found in a more 'traditional' place, and by traditional I mean the first place that comes to mind when someone mentions mummies: Egypt. Ginger got his name from his hair color - yes, he still had hair, and also toe and fingernails. Imagine that, after 5000 years! Poor old Ginger was buried in the position you can see because in those times people thought about the earth as a mother godess. This all kinda symbolized the fact that he will be born again soon.
The third one is Rosalia Lombardo.
Yes, that is a real mummified body of a two year old child who died of pneumonia. Although this mummy is not that old - she died in 1920 - her body is still one of the best preserved in the world. Because of this she got the nickname of Sleeping Beauty. She was one of the last who was admitted to the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, and one of the first bodies that was embalmed with formalin. Her blood was replaced with a liquid made of formalin to kill bacteria, alcohol to dry the body, glycerin to keep her from overdrying, salicylic acid to kill fungi, and zinc salts to give her body rigidity.
All right, let's get back to the older ones. This time, a mummy from China: Lady Dai.
I know that many of you guys know how well some Egyptian mummies were preserved over time, but the fact is, Chinese people managed even greater things. Lady Dai, or Xin Zhui, was discovered in 1971, and according to researches she died between 178 and 145 BC, when she was about 50 years old.
She was quite a wealthy woman, and she enjoyed the good things in life (she was buried along a whole lot of fine fabrics, exotic food and amazing silverware), but this is not why she got famous. The fact is, when she was discovered her body was in such a good shape, pathologists could autopsy her as if she died only recently. When she was found her internal organs were all intact, her limbs could be moved, her skin was supple, she still had hair, she still had food in her stomach, and there was still blood running in her veins. Apparently scientists still don't know how the Chinese managed to do this - they found two more mummies in similar state, not too far from her. When they found her, she was embalmed in some kind of mysterious liquid, and no one knows what that liquid contained.
