posted
Ok, morbid topic, but I need to know, how long would a mummified body last? And not the Egyptian embalmed kind, but mummified as in when a body is buried in the desert deep in dry hot sand and mummified. And if you DO happen to know, I'm not going to ask why ;D.
Posts: 79 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I don’t happen to know, but don’t they find bodies under those conditions in Egypt and other desert countries fairly frequently (Not everybody got the full mummy deal)? I’m sure in some of those reports you’d find some time information, or maybe even in a book about mummies in general. I’m thinking it’s fairly long because the sand/heat/low humidly situation does a fair job of desiccation.
Posts: 652 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Well, It would take to many variables to ever possibly know but I would say it would be way less than the Egyptian way- if it was a dry desert maybe 2.5 to 3 times less than the Egyptian way.
posted
My daughter, 8, is very into mummys--we just rewatched the Ice Man, The Ice Maiden, and the one about the child Inca mummys. All these were frozen and remarkably well preserved----and the Ice Man is 5,300 years old.
In dry places providing preditors couldn't get to them I would say the chances arwe about the same. Wonder if insects would get to them though? You would have to deal with mice ect as well. Better to have a peat boug or something rather than sand.
Will have to dig out some of my daughter's books and see.
posted
So long as there's no moisture to allow decomposition, there's no immediate limit on how long a dessicated corpse will last in that state. However, if you start to consider timescales in terms of hundreds of thousands of years, you're looking at petrification rather than dessication. In which case, less a muumy and more a fossil. Posts: 286 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
If there is no embalming of any kind...but you say 'mummified' I would think the body would still decompose naturally (because there is no living tissue). Whatever you wrap them in (my guess as to what you mean by mummification) may actually last longer than the body depending on what you wrap the body in and how biodegradeable it is.
I don't think, (my guess), if there was someone around to wrap a dead dinosaur in saran wrap, newspaper, toilet paper (or whatever) the whole thing would be around today, or even 6 weeks after burial.
Bones and DNA may still be there... but overall; skin, muscles, etc, I would think not.
But I would need more details on you definition of mummy if not Egyptian style.
posted
There are a lot of types of mummification. In the deserts of Peru there are dececated mummies that will last virtually forever because it only rains there every century or so. Also there is salts in the sand that dries out the body just like the natron used by the Egyptians. The bodies are so dried out that organisms that usually would decay the body can?t live. Scientists have estimates that these bodies may be as old as 6,000 years and even longer. Also in South America there are mummies that are freeze dried in the high mountains. As long as the body is not exposed, they can last virtually forever also. Since these high glaciers never melt it is like keeping the body in a big deep freeze. Some bodies become mummified in caves where the dry conditions or the salts in the air and water preserve the body. It is a lot like pickling. Bogs provide an anaerobic (oxygen free) environment that can preserve organic mater indefinitely. Places like the bottom of the Black Sea can do the same thing. Posts: 33 | Registered: Jun 2002
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posted
I guess what I really need to know is what way would preserve the body longest, in best condition, other than freezing (say, in a desert or cave, but warm-ish climate).
Posts: 79 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Hard to say what would be THE longest but in the Atacama desert in northern Chile, Southern Peru there have been plenty of bodies that have naturally mummified without any help and have been preserved for hundreds if not thousands of years. This place qualifies on the dry warmish thing. There are areas in the desert where there has been no recorded rainfall in over 300 years. No animals, or insects. Only humans are crazy enough to go there because of wars or for minerals which are plentiful.
Dave
[This message has been edited by Ergoface (edited July 01, 2002).]
using key words such as "body", "mummified" and "pertrification", for example.
There's a lot of research you can do simply using the internet, and a lot of online articles can provide key points of information. The process of discovery will probably inspire you as well.
posted
You also need to define what you mean by "preserved" or "last", etc.
After all, if the local humidity is zero, then all the moisture will leave the body in a matter of a few days, well before decomposition begins to become a serious problem, but the dehydration process severely alters many of the characteristics of the body. Do you mean that enough DNA and bone structure is left to give a forensic scientist the ability to reconstruct the appearance of the deceased? Do you mean that there is enough tissue to determine pre-mortem physical health and cause of death? Do you mean that a non-specialist would be able to recognize the corpse, perhaps by referance to a portrait of the deceased? Do you mean that a non-specialist would possibly think that the body was a still living human? Do you mean that even a specialist would require detailed investigation to determine that this was, in fact, a corpse? Do you mean that the neural tissue is intact enough to recreate the deceased with at least some intact memories? Do you mean that the body is in good enough condition for an EMT to revive the person using a standard proceedure?
I am guessing that your idea of "preserved" is somewhere in the middle of that list. But it is vital that you understand what you mean when you ask how long a body will last under any given condition. All of the atoms that compose the body will last nearly forever, except those that are unstable like carbon-14. The only meaningful criteria of how long a body "lasts" is what you need to do with it at the end of that time period.
posted
Sorry about taking so long to reply, I've been incredibly busy (it's summer! I'm not supposed to have to do anything till August! Crimeny!) JK, I want to know 'cause I had this really cool story idea, and it's kind of gruesome, but in it these really old old older than old older than the Egyptian mummies come to life (kind of like in the Brendan Fraisier movie, only not...yeah...), and I wanted to know how well-preserved that the bodies would be under certain circumstances. (Yes, I know it could never happen, they would be too decayed and whatnot to do that, and yes I know that they would not be very pretty, but the coming back to life involves a certain degree of magic and whatnot, and it's fiction, but I wanted to know if it would be a "that's so impossible that the slightest details of that would even be present" kind of impossible, or a 'gee, impossible, but I can see it happening in a fictious Earth" kind of impossible). And I think I will search on-line, thanks for the tip.
Posts: 79 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Okidokey. If I were you I'd go see a doctor about those run-on sentences *grin*. Congratulations, though; you've been maddenly vague. Just enough that my curiosity is very much aroused. It needs a cold shower now (tiddy-boom). JK
Posts: 503 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
It would depend on the conditions of the environment where the body is left. If I were you, I'd dig up a forensic anthropologist. <sorry -- no pun intended.> You could also try to find a physical anthropology textbook and look it up.
I'm an anthropologist myself (in training -- grad student) and occasionally run into forensic anthros. If I happen to see one of my old forensic friends, I'll pass your question along.
If this takes place on a fictitious "Earth," then why not have some fictitious insects, say, maybe ones that actually help preserve the body. They live inside the body and as a kind of mutual benefit (well, the guy would be dead), but in trade, these insects actually preserve the body in order so they can habitate there longer.
Thought I'd offer, since I know I wouldn't be interested in reanimation projects.
posted
Dude, microbes and insects and whatnot would eat the body, not preserve it!
Just have the guy die while mountain climbing and get preserved in a glacier like the Iceman...ice and glaciers are real, magical bugs that preserve rather than decomposing dead tissue are not
posted
On Earth, insects would eat the body, but on another planet, who knows? It's your planet. Design it how you want it.
Posts: 17 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
If they were using the body as a place to live, then they would tunnel all through it...not a good method for preservation. You would have to come up with a reason that "preservative" bugs would exist at all, and I can't think of one that doesn't involve artificial manipulation of their behavior.
posted
How much do you have to preserve the body? If only a little, you won't miss a few organs, will you? In that case, have bugs that perhaps feed off the liver in their infancy, using the body as shelter from the elements and the like. The bugs' droppings contain a certain compound which actually works to preserve the rest of the body as they walk around on it. This idea, of course, would have to be fleshed out a little, and it's just popped into my head so it's not brilliant. But it's an idea, nonetheless, without artificial manipulation of behaviour. JK
Posts: 503 | Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Yeah, but then you have a situation where 90% of animal remains never decay...unless these bugs only eat human livers and preserve human remains.
It just doesn't hold up as an explaination either. If these bugs only live in the liver (or even the entire abdominal cavity) then why do they preserve the rest of the body? Why wouldn't the head, arms and legs rot away, if the bugs don't specifically seek out and preserve them as well?
You might as well just say that the bugs have a magical energy field that prevents any person that they bite from decaying after death. Oh sure, I haven't actually said that this is an artificial manipulation...but the fact remains that it is.
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