Though death is a fundamental part of life, it's something that modern society has mostly kept out
of sight and out of mind. People pass away and are passed along. They're covered in sheets and
kept out of sight until morticians beautify them for their final public reveal. Then the casket is
closed, and that enclosure is literally stuffed into the ground and left impossible to access.
Because of our increasing distance from the reality of death, though, people are left with
plenty of curiosity, discussions, and speculation about what happens to the body after death.
Does the body putrefy into a mass of watery substances, or does it desiccate like a mummy?
What about mausoleums? Or types of coffin wood? Or a steel vault? Or methods of embalming? Do the
deceased’s health and age factors matter? Could you transform into a "bog person" like Tollund
Man in Denmark if only you sunk into a peat bog at the moment of death? Could your body,
in fact, absorb some crazy fungus and become an honest-to-goodness antagonist of the living in
the zombie apocalypse? The possibilities are enough to keep anyone up at night.
"One minute you're in bed with a knockout gal, or guy, and the next moment you're a compost heap.
Doesn't that bother any of you? Because it scares the living piss out of me!"
Well, we're here to put your mind at ease by removing the doubt and telling you exactly
what terrible things are going to happen to your corpse once you inevitably die.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to the state of a body. Certain biological facts,
though, let us create a glass window in the lid of a casket to see what would
happen to your body after ten years - excluding certain exceptions like
mummification (which involves removing the organs), and barring environmental factors
(a wet environment will hasten decay, and dry environment will slow decay, for example).
The first thing to know, is that the most dramatic decay happens within the first month, so
the difference between the body at a month after death and ten years isn't actually all that much.
For bodies that aren't cremated,
there's a specific pattern of events that typically happens in the United States.
First, the recently deceased pass along to autopsy techs, who may or may not
extract all of a person's organs. After this, a sutured body is passed along to an embalmer,
who undoes the stiches, replaces the organs, and injects a mixture of embalming fluid called
"cavity fluid" into various vessels. A sealant is placed over the sutures to
"prevent leakage" and sometimes plastic and powder are placed over the body, as well.
This is all before the mortician applies makeup, trims nails, and dresses the dead for burial.
During this entire time, the body is undergoing decay that influences what it looks like ten
years down the line. Within three days after death, in fact, the body undergoes autolysis,
when bodily enzymes eat their own cells. Blood pools in parts of the body closest to the ground.
Rigor mortis occurs and skin gets loose. And the abdomen? Generally, it turns lime-green.
After initial autolysis, the body bloats, exudes foul-smelling gases,
and releases fluid from the mouth and nose
(which according to National Geographic may be the inspiration for ancient vampire myths).
This occurs three to five days after death, and explains why wakes are typically held right away.
Then the decay begins to slow down. From eight days on, skin recedes from fingernails,
bodies start to look less human and more like decaying corpses, and flesh begins to decompose,
with cartilage, bones, and hair staying intact much longer than muscles and organs.
With no coffin or embalming, a body in the ground in nature takes eight to ten years
to totally decompose. If there is a coffin or embalming, the timeline is prolonged.
Decay sets in sooner in a wooden casket rather than a metal casket,
but sealing a casket can help keep out moisture and bacteria. On the other hand, this can cause
caskets to pressurize as decomposing bodies release gas. According to Trusted Caskets, wooden
caskets can distort in shape and even explode underground. As you can imagine, this definitely
won't help preserve the body - unless it somehow launches the corpse straight into the afterlife!
Coffins, just like people, eventually decay and return to the soil.
Long before then, though, the bodies inside them will largely be gone.
Ultimately, from one month on, we all more or less liquify at a similar rate.
Within ten years? Teeth, bones, and maybe skin or sinew are all that are left.
You know what they say: ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
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