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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 4350118" data-attributes="member: 2205">That depends on a lot of factors.  We've got fossils that are literally hundreds of millions of years old, after all.  On the other hand, you can have bodies that don't even last a few weeks before scavengers and microbes reduce them to nothing.Exposed to elements?  Not very long, I'd say, unless they were extremely deeply carved.  Certainly a lifetime measured in centuries at best.  Not thousands of years.Some protection from the elements, and you can go a lot longer, though.  Cool dry caves in arid regions, for example---stuff can mummify naturally and last practically forever.</blockquote>