What are the reasons why a human body would not decomposed after years of being buried?

Question

Yesterday I saw a case of a gentlemen who was buried 60 years ago and when his son went to do some maintenance, on the grave his father's body was the same way it was when they buried him. What is the scientific reason for this? I have seen more cases like this before I have just never search about it.

Answer 1

Plain and simple, the environment. Sometimes there are natural preservatives in soils, sometimes it's the temperatures such as freezing them into mummification, or even heating them into mummification. Limestone is a natural salty preservative that can embalm a body. It's very naturally occuring, and can happen many different ways. Like frozen food stays good when sealed in the cold, or dried food stays good on a shelf.

~Meg

Answer 2

we come from the earth we retunr to the earth... maybe the casket wasnt sealed correctly where it trapped or allowed mositure n air to get trapped in .  I dont know anything is possiable now days..  i know they can inject liek they do popes n stuff with liquid somehting to preserve  the body

Answer 3

The human body decomposes largely due to the fact that when we die, our immune systems no longer fight off bacteria in our body and the surrounding environment. When we refrigerate/freeze meat, we are slowing the growth of this bacteria.

Occasionally a person will be buried in an environment, which for one reason or another, is unsuitable for the bacteria to multiply and break down the body very well. Examples of these environments are cold places, like permafrost, or under glaciers. Low oxygen wet places, such as peat bogs, or very dry places, such as the Andes or certain deserts.

Also, many bodies are embalmed. This is the process of removing most of the internal organs and blood and pumping the body full of some type of preservative, such as formaldyhide.

An amazing example of body preservation can be found with the Diva Mummy, from china, which is 2,000 years old and was preserved in an unidentified fluid which let her looking as if she died recently.

Answer 4

Embalming, like how they always do in funerals because how else do you keep a body in perfect condition and not rotting for a whole week before the burial, or climate conditions that could naturally preserve the body.

Answer 5

Bodies are preserved when the temperature and humidity are stable. It is when the temperature and/or the humidity fluctuate that bodies decompose.

Examples: Egyptian mummies: consistently dry

Bog man: consistently wet.

Ice age mammoth: consistently frozen.

Answer 6

Occasionally, the flesh of a body will be converted into adipocere as a result of bacterial action.  This can make the body look well preserved even though it's actually been converted into a different substance.

Answer 7

Maybe they are mummified in someway, preserved.  This could happen with ice, or like the Egyptians.  Ive also seen saints that have died and been preserved like alive.  That one I can not explain.  I believe it is the thoughts they kept in their mind, and their connection to God that preserves them.

Answer 8

All the things that Meg posted.  Hermetically sealed and embalming are two more.  When they took Abraham Lincoln's body out of his sealed coffin for whatever reason, he had been dead for 100 years, he was intact.  There was a little mold on the lapel of his coat, but otherwise, he looked just like the day he died.