Astonishing 2,000-year-old mummified ‘sleeping beauty’ found

Remains of a 2,000-year-old mummified ‘sleeping beauty’ have been found buried under a Russian reservoir in Siberia, in lavish clothes and gifts for afterlife.

Laid to rest in a silk shirt with a pouch of nuts on her chest, the 2,000-year-old woman was accidentally mummified by her solid stone tomb that preserved her body. The woman was found buried by a team of archaeologists from St Petersburg’s Institute of History of Material Culture.

The archaeologists found numerous high-value items buried with her, including a Chinese-style mirror found in the woman’s make-up box and a gemstone buckle on a beaded belt. The items were placed next to her possibly to accompany her to her afterlife, reported Siberian Times.

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Institute’s deputy director Natalya Solovieva said, “On the mummy are what we believe to be silk clothes, a beaded belt with a jet buckle, apparently with a pattern. Near the head was found a round wooden box covered with birch-bark in which lay a Chinese mirror in a felt case”.

Archeologists believe that she was a young ‘Hun woman’ and by analyzing the remains, they wish to understand more about her life. Archaeologist Dr Marina Kilunovskaya said, “The lower part of the body was especially well preserved. This is not a classic mummy - in this case, the burial was tightly closed with a stone lid, enabling a process of natural mummification”.

The grave was found on the shoreline of the River Yenisei when a reservoir went through a great drop in water level. Despite being underwater for decades, the grave’s contents were preserved. The scientists say the woman was buried around 2,000 years ago.

The Hun-style vase found near her remains pointed that the woman was a member of the nomadic group that dominated central Europe and Asia between fourth and sixth centuries AD. Two Hun vases were found, each containing a funeral meal to go with the woman’s chest pouch of pine nuts, likely to be food offerings for afterlife.

Restoration experts have already started to work on the mummy and find more information on her life and times, wrote Daily Mail.