Discovering Ming Dynasty Mummy in China

Archaeologists have discovered a well-preserved, 700-year-old,

body of a woman inside a stone coffin in China.

The coffin was found on a building site in Taizhou, in

eastern China's Jiangsu Province. Archaeologists (above)

carefully lever the lid off with crowbars

The coffin was one of the three discovered in a tomb two

metres underground on a construction site in the city.

Researchers from the Taizhou Museum carefully opened the

coffins. In two they found skeletons, Ming Dynasty clothes and

funerary objects. However, in the third they found the well

preserved body of a woman (above)

The 5-foot-long corpse was tightly wrapped in cerecloth

(heavy wax-treated linen cloth used for burying the dead),

quilt and clothes.

Archaeologists remove the body from the stone coffin

The corpse has complete skin and clearly recognizable

facial features, hair and even eyelashes

The Mummy.

Archaeologists carefully unwrap some of the cloth from

around the corpse

During their investigations members of the Taizhou museum team found a number of funerary objects, including a gem ring, a silver hairpin and more than 20 pieces of cotton clothing from the time of the Ming.

The Gem Ring 

The Shoe