Many things in the world cannot stand the test of time, no matter how gorgeous and beautiful they were, but with the passage of time, they will eventually return to dust, such as the human body, which cannot withstand the ravages of time, so it is difficult for the body to remain intact after death. As far as we know, to keep the body incorruptible, it is necessary to use certain drugs, such as formalin, but the ancients did not know this, and because the body soaked in formalin would turn black and ugly, few people were willing to do so.
It is precisely because of this that a complete dry corpse becomes more archaeologically valuable. For example, China has unearthed two complete dry corpses, namely "Mrs. Xin Chai" and "Yingpan Beautiful Man". Mrs. Xin Chai was a prime minister of the Qin Dynasty, more than 2100 years ago, but when she was unearthed, the body was not decomposed, the skin texture was clearly visible, and even some joints could be moved, which was very magical, so it was later preserved in the museum.
The beautiful man of Yingpan is even more peculiar, he is a very famous dry corpse in our country. In 1995, the Xinjiang archaeological team found a group of Han Dynasty tombs in the Yingpan site in Weili County, Xinjiang, and excavated a well-preserved dry corpse from it. When it was unearthed, it did not look special at first, but when the archaeological team looked closely, it found that the dry corpse wore a mask on its face and wore extremely gorgeous clothes.
The dry body was buried alone in a painted wooden coffin covered with a very colorful blanket, which looked valuable. But what can really be seen that this corpse is extraordinary is the clothes he wears, that is, a red robe against the human and beast tree pattern, the clothes are mainly composed of red and yellow, divided into two layers. One of them has a triangular curlew tree pattern on the left placket, which looks gorgeous.
Not only that, but there are also colorful patterns on the sleeves of the clothes, which are embroidered with various patterns, such as sacred trees, animals and character patterns, etc., of which most of the character patterns are strong men, holding weapons in their hands. After research, it was found that the above sacred tree is the pomegranate tree we are familiar with, and the meaning of pomegranate in our country is very beautiful, there is a red fire, the meaning of prosperity, so many ancients are extremely fond of pomegranate trees.
From the clothes, it can be seen that he should be a person with a very high status in front of him, some people think that he may be a rich businessman, and some people speculate that he may be a dancer based on his gorgeous costumes, although his true identity has not been corroborated, but one thing is certain, he is not a Central Plains native. Because he wears a delicate hemp mask on his face, the mask is painted with some very exotic patterns, and the true face under the mask is very beautiful, but it is also very exotic.
Archaeologists also measured his body and found that he was 1.8 meters tall, about 25 years old at the time of his death, and could be said to be a typical rich and handsome man, so he was also known as the "Yingpan Beauty Man". This dried corpse fused with different cultural elements of China and the West, and was buried on the inevitable road of the Silk Road, which shows that the diversified cultural exchanges between China and the West at that time have been integrated.
Today, Yingpan Meinan has become a national first-class protected cultural relic, and the ancient tomb where the dry body was unearthed is known as one of the top ten archaeological discoveries in the country, because the robe he wears is too precious, so the robe is also listed as a prohibited cultural relic. Like the dried corpse of Mrs. Xin Chai, it has become a national treasure of Our country, providing great reference value for the study of China's ancient history. Experts can find out more things that happened at that time from him, so that future generations have a better understanding of the Han Dynasty.
There are many ancient tombs unearthed in China, but there are very few bones that can be completely preserved, most of the corpses have been corrupted after thousands of years, so the Beautiful Man of Yingpan has become more archaeologically valuable, but the reasons for his identity and why he was buried on the Silk Road still need to be further studied and explored.