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What conditions, if anything, can stave off decomposition in damp earth? > “A few weeks or months after death, the body was still ‘fresh,’” Dr. Skóra said.
by datameta 3y ago
What conditions, if anything, can stave off decomposition in damp earth?
> “A few weeks or months after death, the body was still ‘fresh,’” Dr. Skóra said.
- throwaway290 3y agoLife is probably one
- adolph 3y agoYes, if one considers individual cells as having somewhat independent life from the human body as a whole, then probably many cells could continue to "live" if kept safe from various microbial varmints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_immortality
- speed_spread 3y agoLack of oxygen. Anaerobic conditions exist in peat, which also happens to be quite damp.
- shever73 3y agoAnaerobic conditions preserve the body. After a while, the damp would have contributed to the formation of adipocere.
- civilitty 3y ago> adipocere That's the first new NSFL search term I've run across in years. Bravo, sir!
- yetanotherloser 3y agoNot Safe For... Luncheon? If that is your initialism then... bravo.
- queuebert 3y agoNot Safe for Life is the usual definition
- QuercusMax 3y agoAppears to mean "fat wax" in Latin.
- 082349872349872 3y agosee https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300164817/vampires-burial-and-death/ https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300164817/vampires-buria...
- jaclaz 3y agoBasically, clay or any other condition/material that insulates the body from oxigen (ground burials or sealed tombs). I wouldn't dare to say that weeks or month after death a corpse can still be "fresh", but in some places when/if you open a buried coffin after 5 years or so it is not rare that there has been not enough decomposition to allow the transfer of the body to an ossuary. There are "aerated" tombs devised to accelerate the decomposition: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/2/3/37 https://www.mdpi.com/2673-6756/2/3/37
- cm2187 3y agoOn the opposite side I remember that researchers were (cautiously) harvesting the original strain of the spanish flu and performing a modern autopsy on its victims by opening lead coffins which preserved well enough the body after a century.
- jaclaz 3y agoI think you are referring to Sir Mark Sykes (BBC made a documentary on that a few years ago): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sykes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sykes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sykes#Exhumation_for_biological_research https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Sykes#Exhumation_for_biol... but it seems like the attempt was not successful, the lead coffin was broken and the body was not as well preserved as it was expected.