Chinese Scientists Depict 1,000-year-old Mummies

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Chinese Scientists Depict 1,000-year-old Mummies

Scientists from Jilin University in Northeast China's Jilin Province have completed the portraits of two 1,000-year-old corpses with the aid of three-dimensional viewing technology.

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Mummy Simulation in China's Changchun

Scientists from Jilin University in Northeast China's Jilin Province have completed the portraits of two 1,000-year-old corpses with the aid of three-dimensional viewing technology.

The two mummies - one male and one female - were unearthed from the Astana-Karakhoja burial ground in Turpan in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The male is about 45 years old with the well-kept beard, hair, eyebrow and even eyelashes.

"The most difficult part in depicting is how to obtain the precise data of the skull without moving the corpses," said Professor Zhu Hong from Jilin University.

They finally chose using a set of special needles to measure the parenchymy, which took them four days.

Astana-Karakhoja burial ground known as the "Underground Museum" is 40 kilometres southeast of Turpan. The royal dead of Gaochang, one ancient kingdom in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and noble officials were buried here.

The dry climate preserved the bodies and artifacts perfectly.

Dried-up corpses remain complete and intact, which contribute much to the study of anthropology, genetics, history and ethnology.

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