There is a little girl in Italy that died about one hundred years ago that looks almost as if she is just sleeping. Is it normal for embalmed corpses to stay preserved for so long, or is she a special case? What is the decomposition process like for embalmed bodies?
Also, why does the meat at the grocery store not feel stiff, like it was in rigor mortis?
Not going to search on the first question, but rigor mortis only lasts about 72 hours. According to wikipedia, rigor mortis must be addressed by the meat industry because how a carcass comes out of it affects meat quality.
I’ve talked to a few funeral directors, and I’ve read some on the subject.
Modern embalming does essentially nothing effective after the first week or so. To really preserve a body would require an embalming solution so strong that the body would look very unnatural at the funeral.
Sometimes there will be a body that encounters unusual local conditions, that will preserve the body in a very remarkable way. Sometimes this preservation will degrade very quickly in the presence of fresh air.
One way that bodies can be preserved is by the formation of adipocere, although nobody would call that “almost sleeping.”