LADY DAI, World's Best Preserved Mummy

by blacktryst | May 14, 2009 at 04:53 pm

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Who would have thought the world's best preserved mummy is not from Egypt or from the Aztecs BUT from China? Known as Lady Dai, this Western Han Dynasty's noblewomen was buried in style. She was buried in the innermost of four nested lacquer coffins with a vertitable wealth of exquisite treasures such as; preserved food items, musical instruments, embroidered silk amongst other 3000 objects, all not looted at all by any grave robbers!

Her mummy was found so well preserved and intact with her skin and flesh still full and soft to the touch that medical experts was able to perform a full medical checkup, gynecological examination and autopsy. Yet, her intact and still fleshy corpse is estimated to be about 2,200 years old! That was when the Western Han Dynasty exists in China, around 206 B.C - A.D 8.

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The early 1970s excavation of three Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 8) tombs at Mawangdui, in China's southern Hunan Province, yielded some the country's greatest archaeological discoveries ("Entombed in Style," May/June 2009). The family members buried there included Li Cang, the marquis of Dai; his wife, Xin Zhui, known today as "Lady Dai"; and a man in his 30s, thought to be either the couple's son or Li's brother. The rich and powerful family led a luxurious life, which they wanted to maintain in the afterlife. The burials, therefore, contained a wealth of exquisite items, such as lacquerware, embroidered silk, musical instruments, and depictions of the household's servants--more than 3,000 objects in all. A selection of some 70 unforgettable finds from the famous site are now on view at the China Institute Gallery in New York City in the landmark exhibition, Noble Tombs at Mawangdui: Art and Life in the Changsha Kingdom, Third Century BCE to First Century CE. This is the first show in the United States ever to focus exclusively on Mawangdui. (The show will be at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art from September 19 to December 13.) Presented here is a selection of excavation images, as well as finds from the burials that are in the exhibition. Lady Dai's tomb was unquestionably the most impressive of the three. Not only was it intact, but her body, discovered in the innermost of four nested lacquer coffins, was so well preserved that medical experts were able to perform a full checkup, gynecological examination, and autopsy. Willow Weilan Hai Chang, director of the China Institute Gallery, is the project director who organized the Noble Tombs exhibition. In an interview with ARCHAEOLOGY ("Digging Up China's Best Exhibitions"), she discusses her own memories of excavating along the Yangtze River and how they inspire her work today.

by Eti Bonn-Muller