Lady Dai China Mummy
Just how this incredible level of preservation was accomplished has baffled and amazed scientists around the world.
Lady dai china mummy. The lady of dai otherwise known as the diva mummy is a 2100 year old mummy from the western han dynasty and the best preserved ancient human ever found. She is widely recognized as the best preserved human mummy in history. Xin zhui also known as lady dai or marquise of dai was the wife of li cang the marquis of dai and chancellor of changsha kingdom during the western han dynasty of ancient china.
Lady dai is a mummy more famous than all other mummies as the legend and mystery of how ancient chinese morticians preserved her remains for so long has baffled and amazed scientists for many years the body is so well preserved that it can be autopsied by pathologists as if it were only recently dead. Flazazawikimedia commons in 1971 workers in chinas hunan province unearthed one of the worlds most amazing archeological sites. While lady dais tomb was equally as her ostentatious as her husband and sons it was her corpse that excited the most interest.
To keep out air and water her tomb was packed with charcoal and the top was sealed with several feet of clay. Now more than 2000 years old xin zhui also known as lady dai is a mummified woman of chinas han dynasty 206 bc 220 ad who still has her own hair is soft to the touch and has ligaments that still bend much like a living person. However lady dai may not be a mummy at all.
The outermost coffin was painted black to emphasize death and the passing of the deceased into the underworld. The body of xin zhui also called the lady of dai who died more than 2000 years ago is considered the best preserved mummy ever discovered after being found in a tomb in china. She was found wrapped in twenty of layers of silk and laid to rest within a series of four nested coffins of decreasing sizes.
She is notable for her tomb and exceptionally well preserved remains discovered in 1968 alongside hundreds of valuable artifacts and documents inside a hill known as mawangdui in changsha hunan china. Lady dais tomb was found in 1971 at an archeological site named mawangdui near the chinese city of changsha. For xin zhuis two thousand year old remains were in the same state of preservation as someone only recently deceased.
The extraordinary state of her body led to the media hailing xin zhui as the best preserved mummy in the world. The mummy which is nowadays known as lady dai the diva mummy and the chinese sleeping beauty was found wrapped in 20 layers of silk and sealed within four elaborate coffins enclosed in one another. Lady dai wax figure photo courtesy.