The mystery of the 170-year-old girl's body does not disintegrate

The local police thought that the body belonged to a young woman who was killed recently. In fact, she had been lying there for about 170 years, almost intact despite not being embalmed.

During construction, workers in a construction site in Queens, New York City - the United States found an elaborate carved iron casket. They opened, discovered that a girl's corpse was in a state of decomposition but looked like it had just died a few days ago.

Upon arriving at the scene, police initially suspected it was the remains of a recently missing young woman who was a victim of a murder. But the results of the inspection were completely unexpected: she died from the mid-19th century !

The photo restores the face of a 170-year-old non-disbanded coffin - (photo: LIVE SCIENCE).

Archaeological foreman Scott Warnasch of the New York Medical Examination Office, who takes on the task of understanding and restoring the mysterious corpse, said he immediately noticed the iron pieces of the coffin - the type of coffin in the 19th century, was excavated in New Jersey.

The corpse had no sign of mummified chemicals but it was possible that the closed iron coffin made "sleeping beauty" impossible to disintegrate.

The body belonged to a young woman of about 25-30 years old, 1.6m tall, African-American, dressed in 19th-century silk nightgowns, knitted hats and long-sleeved socks. She was also bathed and groomed carefully before being buried in an expensive coffin. In addition, her skin was so well preserved that they could detect traces of smallpox lesions on the forehead and chest - possibly the reason she died.

However, this finding caused the excavation to be delayed. Archaeological team must wait for the US Agency for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to confirm that the smallpox virus on her body is no longer active.

Earlier, the archaeological team had to take MRI and CT scans to check the girl's biological profile. The reconciliation of population records in the 1950s shows that the body could belong to 26-year-old Martha Peterson . The girl is taken to eternity in a formal and loving ritual, despite smallpox and her relatives know that it is dangerous.

The coffin, designed by Mr. Almond Dunbar Fisk, patented in 1848, is a completely sealed box, which enables people to transport corpses to long distances without noticing the smell of decomposing corpses. out.

This coffin is very popular with the upper class of the 19th century. But perhaps Mr. Fisk himself did not expect the device to embalm a human body for 170 years without being damaged.