Posted on 07/18/2002 5:48:23 PM PDT by vannrox
2,000-year-old corpse found intact in mystery fluid
BEIJING - The corpse of a woman who died more than 2,000 years ago has been found well preserved in a mystery fluid in eastern China, state media reported on Saturday.
The body of the woman, who was believed to have lived during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 24), still had some of her skin, muscle tissue and veins, according to the Xinhua news agency.
Workers at a building site in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, discovered the corpse, which was in a coffin, on July 8.
'The female corpse, estimated to be over 2,000 years old, is said to still have elastic muscle tissue from being immersed in a special fluid in her coffin,' Xinhua quoted Lianyungang museum curator Zhou Jinping as saying.
He said a rectangular lacquer box, a bamboo food container, a comb, a copper mirror and a lock of hair with a hairpin were also found in the coffin.
Xinhua described the corpse as priceless in terms of archaeological research and said it was now being preserved in formalin solution and covered with a layer of absorbent cotton.
It said the woman was only the third well-preserved Han Dynasty corpse ever discovered.--AFP
Copyright @ 2002 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
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