Was she 800 million years old?

[Ninurta]

I've heard of the Tisulsky Princess before, but this is the most information I've seen regarding her. A few years ago, I went searching the internet for more information, and there was not much to be had. All I could find was her name, associated with Russia and 800 million years old. This is the first mention I've seen of the find location or coal.

Not matter what, it's a great story!!

How do seams of coal actually form?  Does anyone 'really' know?  Are they ever in a viscous to liquid state ... capable of flowing?  Does anyone 'really' know?

It forms by the compression of peat in an anaerobic environment.

Plants grow, live, die, and fall in "swampy" environments. Over time, their own weight compacts them into denser and denser layers, squeezing out the moisture and leaving only the carbon component of the original organism. It's estimated that it takes 2 feet of leaf litter to make one foot of compacted peat, and 20 feet of peat to make one foot of compacted coal.

Now, these same coal swamps where to coal is forming are subject to periodic flooding and transport of minerals from higher ground - clays and silt and the like, which, when deposited over the peat/coal leaves a layer of stone over time as it too gets compacted under the weight of subsequent layers. That is where the slate and shale found between coal seams comes from.

Although liquid is present, they are never really in a viscous or liquid state. They are more in a "spongy" state. I've walked on peat bogs where I could see the ground "roll" and "wave" with every step as the spongy layer of peat floating over the liquid layer of water beneath it caused the ground itself to ripple. You could feel the ground beneath your feet quake, ripple, and spring as the water beneath it caused the surface layer of peat to displace. It was like walking along on a semi-solid pond.

So there is potential there for the sarcophagus to have been buried beneath the coal or peat by digging or burying, or it could have been there long before the coal even formed, with the coal layers forming above it over time.

800 million years ago, the land on Earth was barren, devoid of any life at all. All of Earth's life at the time was in the oceans. It wasn't until around 550 to 540 million years ago that life migrated from the oceans and puddles onto dry land starting with plants (see "Rhynie chert" for the very first land plants) and graduating to insects and later amphibians. This means that the Princess, if 800 million years old, had to come from somewhere other than Earth, which is not entirely impossible.

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