According to the "Mawangdui Han Tomb", in January 1972, archaeologists began to excavate the Mawangdui Han Tomb, and three months later, a huge coffin appeared, and the four "anti-embalming measures" that appeared during the excavation process made experts full of "expectations" for the corpses inside the coffin! In the early morning of April 29, the wife of the first generation of the Western Han Dynasty, Changsha Yihou Licang, the corpse of a noblewoman named Xin Chai, revealed her "true face", she still had a good face, her facial features were clearly recognizable, her hair was bright, her muscles were elastic, her limbs and joints could move, and it was unbelievable that she had been sleeping underground for more than two thousand years! So the "Mummy of China" shocked the world!
Coincidentally, in July 2002, a Western Han Dynasty tomb was discovered on the southwest outskirts of Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, and the archaeological team found China's third well-preserved wet-type ancient corpse of the Han Dynasty - "Ling's Huiping"!
Although "Lady Xin Chai" was unearthed before, "Ling's Huiping" still attracted great attention from experts because she was too mysterious!
The construction site surprised the ancient tombs of the Western Han Dynasty
According to the "Lianyungang Daily": On July 7, 2002, when an excavator master was working on the construction site on Huayuan Road on the southwest outskirts of Lianyungang, he dug out a complete coffin, which looked quite old, and the excavator master immediately stopped the operation and reported to the relevant departments, at about 5 p.m., the staff of the Lianyungang Municipal Cultural Management Office rushed to the site, and after preliminary exploration, they concluded that this should be an ancient tomb of the Han Dynasty.
The next day, the staff of the Cultural Affairs Office and the museum staff came to the construction site again, this time they brought a professional archaeological team, the archaeological team immediately carried out protective excavations, and soon four well-preserved coffins were exposed in the ancient tomb, from the perspective of shape, this is a "one cave, two rafters and four coffins tomb", the archaeological team will bring the four coffins back to the Lianyungang City Museum, ready to open the museum.
Ancient coffin surprised the "big white leg"
Archaeologists numbered the four coffins in order from 1 to 4, and then opened the lid of the coffin in order, coffins No. 1 and No. 2 contained only white bones and a small amount of funerary goods, but when the staff opened the third coffin, the expected white bones did not appear, and what came into view was a tan coffin, suddenly! A snow-white leg floated out of the coffin, "It's a wet corpse", the expert shouted, and then shouted "Quickly cover the coffin"!
The appearance of "wet corpses" is not trivial, before this, only two bodies have been unearthed in the country, so the coffin must be opened with perfect preparations, so as not to damage the wet corpses!
After everything was ready, the staff opened the coffin again, and took out the "wet corpse" in it, and after the doctor identified it, this "wet corpse" was female, 1.60 meters tall, about 40 years old, the skin of the corpse was basically intact, the muscles were elastic and tough, and the nerves and internal organs were basically preserved.
A copper seal of the turtle button found inside the coffin shows her name as "Ling Shi Huiping"!
The mystery of identity
The discovery of "Ling's Huiping" excited the experts, but what followed was a deep doubt, first of all, what is her identity? The white bone in Coffin No. 2 is the owner of this Ancient Tomb of the Western Han Dynasty, and a copper seal of the turtle button was also found in its coffin, but the handwriting on it has been worn and cannot be recognized.
However, the inside of the coffin of the male owner is engraved with the word "Donggong", according to the "Book of Han", "Donggong" is a person with a reputation, which shows that the status of the owner of the tomb is not low, not rich or expensive, in addition, in the Han Dynasty, only officials above the Taishou are eligible to use the bronze seal of the turtle button, so it seems that the male owner should be a high-ranking official in the Western Han Dynasty, and the rank is at least above the Taishou.
But what is strange is why "Ling's Huiping" is also eligible to use the turtle button copper seal? Could it be that she was also enfeoffed? What is even more puzzling is that this Ancient Tomb of the Western Han Dynasty is relatively simple, with only more than 80 funerary items, and most of them are not valuable, which is extremely inconsistent with the identity of the two people, how can there be such a simple tomb for high-ranking officials above the hall!
The mystery of the incorruptible body
The mystery of identity aside, the most puzzling thing for experts is why the body of "Ling's Huiping" is not decomposed, the reason why the body of "Mrs. Xin Chai" is not decomposed is because the six sides of her coffin are surrounded by more than 10,000 kilograms of charcoal, and then the composition of silica, aluminum trioxide, iron oxide white paste mud layer, the outermost is a thick pile of soil, the preservation environment and conditions are quite good, but "Ling's Huiping" tomb in addition to a layer of white paste mud there is no other means of embalming, why can her body not rot?
Experts at first thought that the tan coffin liquid in the coffin had antiseptic effect, but after testing, the pH of these coffins was 7.55, which was weakly alkaline, and the coffin also contained hemoglobin, which was completely different from the acidic coffin in the changsha Mawangdui tomb with a pH of 5.18, in other words, these coffins not only did not have an antiseptic effect, but were extremely suitable for the survival of bacteria!
If this is the case, why is "Ling's Huiping" able to keep the body intact in this coffin? In addition, of the four coffins, Coffin 2 is still her husband, why is she the only one who can not decay?
brief summary:
Although there are still many unsolved mysteries on "Ling's Huiping", and even its identity is a fog, there is no doubt that this "wet corpse" is as valuable as "Lady Xin Chai", and is the supreme treasure of the Chinese nation, and we must be careful and properly protected!
As for the fog shrouded in "Ling's Huiping", we don't need to be too anxious, and now we can't "reveal" it only because the conditions are immature, and with the progress of science and technology, there will be a day when the truth will come out!
References: "Mawangdui Han Tomb", "Book of Han"
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