2,000-Year-Old Chinese Woman Lady Dai Is One Of The Most Well-Preserved Mummies In The World

All That's Interesting ^ | December 5, 2018

[Swordmaker]

50 was “young”?
Thought the average keel over time was like 45....

That “average” is wrong headed statistical aberrant thinking. The idea that people lived short lives is only statistical, based on childhood mortality. If you survived infancy and childhood, you would likely live a long life into old age.

[Swordmaker]

That image of the princess you posted is not the image of an obese woman, “given to excess,” as described in the article, who died of a cardiac infarct. Instead they’ve shown a younger woman who is fairly trim of body.

The mummy of the princess has been somewhat depleted of water, but the skin, from what I’ve read, is still supple, and the subcutaneous fat cells are still present. The age of the princess at death is an estimate based on an examination of the body by forensic pathologists, not on contemporaneous records.

Ramses II is as hard and dry as an old saddle, brittle, and easily cracked. The estimate of his age is based on historic records from the period, compiled by knowing his age at ascension to the throne and his historic history as documented on stone walls. Again, a huge difference. We really do not know how robust his visage was at the time of his death. There are no realistic images of him, or unrealistic images for that matter, at that age.

[Swordmaker]

Xin Zhui looked nothing like that when she was alive.

You have a poloroid, video, or slide, or even an oil painting of Xin Zhui taken just before she died? If not, then you really do not know what she looked like when living. Maybe she was the spitting image of Kim Jong Il. . .