China's Mummy: Lady Dai

             The last few weeks we have been working on a project, which we have to make it accessible to the general public. As a team we chose to talk about mummies found in China. Lady Dai, this incredibly well preserved woman, remains one of the most famous mummies because of its unbelievable amount and value of grave goods surrounding her and because she is the best preserved mummy ever found. A way that she has been accessible to the general public is by a documentary. I think that documentaries always find a way to show the scientific information beautifully; I am a fan. Vulgarization of the information remains the most interesting point of the documentaries, but they also find a way to present those in an exciting way.

          For this particular documentary, they present the cultural background of her life as well as her incredible grave. They show how well preserved she was, describing her as the "world most perfect mummy". In fact, her body remained in a state of conservation that forensic anthropologists find on an individual whom past away a few months ago. They also explain how each artifacts were represented in the society and there symbolization. From her grave goods, archaeologists have concluded that she had lived only with the most luxurious food and objects. 

        Furthermore, the documentary explains the context of her findings and all the process over connecting the dots around her surprising state of conservation. In general in China, because the country changes so fast, the people recover archaeological site from construction site. While working in Changsha, people found an incredible tomb over 2000 years old never touched before. During the excavation, archaeologists have been stunned about how carefully concealed the tomb was. Four wood boxes, a layer of concrete, and a layer of dirt consisted Lady Dai tomb.

Simply, Lady Dai is an incredible bridge for explaining the history of China.

For more information here's the link to the documentary: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/diva-mummy/

Also, in a few days there will be a blog on China's mummies; here's the link: http://mummycase.blogspot.ca