In addition to what we can contact and learn now, there are still many unknown pasts buried under the loess and between the mountains.
At the end of the 1990s, Heilongjiang surprised the ancient tomb, excavated a female corpse, with a black object between her legs, and experts unveiled her tragic experience.
Ancient tombs appear in the wetlands
This incident also begins with a tomb robbery story more than two hundred years ago.
On one night more than two hundred years ago, the village of Zhalong in Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, ushered in several mysterious figures.
I saw them sneaking through the village in night clothes, running quickly into the field, and then stopping under an old locust tree.
This is a group of grave robbers, and the reason they came to this place tonight is because they heard that there is a new grave under the earthen mound next to the old locust tree.
Schematic diagram of the stills
According to their spies, the tomb owner was buried on the day the village was very lively, the funeral procession was very long, looking at the cost, the family must be not rich or expensive, there are definitely a lot of valuable funerals.
Therefore, these tomb robbers moved their minds to make ill-gotten gains.
After looking around to make sure there was no one, they took the shovel and began to dig up and quietly entered the burial chamber.
There were indeed many valuable treasures in the burial chamber, and after they transported out all the valuable things, they stared at the gold-painted coffin in the middle of the tomb.
Generally speaking, the coffin is a valuable funeral object, and today the coffin is opened, and this trip is considered to be complete.
As they picked up the guy and prepared to open the coffin, a strange noise came out of the coffin.
Accompanied by the rapid tapping sound, there was also the woman's miserable cry, which frightened them a lot, and immediately threw the things in their hands and ran out quickly, and did not dare to turn their heads back.
What is even more bizarre is that soon after the tomb robbers escaped, they all died unexpectedly or mysteriously disappeared.
This strange incident also spread quickly in the local area, some people said that they were punished, and some people said that the tomb robbers must have bumped into something unclean underground.
All in all, the rumor that there was a ghost hidden under the mound outside the village of Zhalong spread in the local area for a while, and over time, this place became a forbidden place that no one dared to go to.
In the blink of an eye, it's more than two hundred years.
According to local people, strange things always happened in this cemetery, "there is a big earthen mound on the west side, and a meadow underneath, and there was a grave on top of that." When he came back from herding cattle, the sun was about to set, and he saw a woman on the grave, and there was a woman crying at the grave. ”
One day in 1999, several courageous villagers in Zhalong Village entered this place that has been regarded as a forbidden place for more than two hundred years in order to build a road for soil.
In order to leave quickly, they have been working intensively.
Just as the sun was about to set, the villagers waved their hoes to cut open a dirt bun, not wanting to dig up something strange.
"To take the soil is to dig out a green brick, and the child is afraid. I said there was a grave here. ”
However, driven by curiosity, the villagers continued to dig.
It didn't take long for a wall made of green bricks to emerge, and looking through the newly dug hole, there were two large coffins painted red and gold, startling the villagers.
A villager whispered in the darkness, could this be the haunted tomb in the mouth of the older generation?
Everyone trembled when they heard this sentence, and without saying a word, they turned around and ran.
The discovery of the old grave in the tugangzi soon went away.
When the village chief learned of this, he quickly reported it to the city.
I heard that a mysterious tomb was found in Zhalong Village, and according to the descriptions of the villagers, there are probably cultural relics in it, so the city attaches great importance to it.
Soon, the cultural relics management station in Qiqihar City sent archaeologists to Zhalong Village for investigation.
On that day, almost all the villagers in the village came to the cemetery to watch.
At that time, the police all came and surrounded the burial chamber to maintain order.
As soon as they entered the tomb, the archaeologists smelled a pungent smell and smoke, and they giggled in their hearts, because the situation inside was not optimistic, and it seemed that they had been patronized by the tomb robbers.
Based on the scattered copper coins found in the burial chamber, archaeologists have made a rough judgment on the age of this tomb, which should have been built in the Qianlong period at the latest, more than two hundred years after that time.
The burial chamber is placed with two coffins, and according to the shape and burial items, archaeologists concluded that this is a husband and wife burial tomb.
Judging from the appearance of the coffin and the burial costume of the tomb owner, the identity of the tomb owner should be either rich or expensive.
But the situation inside the coffin on the right frightened the archaeologists a lot.
Li Zhaoping said: "At that time, going in scared me enough, I said that this person opened his mouth, and the clothes on this body were torn very tattered, and layer by layer, after lifting out a special smell, straight to the nose." ”
Lying in the coffin is a woman's dry corpse, and it is very well preserved, although after more than 200 years, the skin, muscles, joints, etc. of the female corpse have not been damaged.
This female corpse was lying in the coffin, her posture was very distorted, her eyes were round, the black hole was hole, and her mouth was particularly wide open, even if it had become a dry corpse, it was not difficult to see that her expression was very painful.
Liu Yihong, director of the anatomy laboratory of Qiqihar City Hospital, said: "It is very strange, according to normal laws, we are engaged in human anatomy, (the corpse) is buried in the soil within two years, basically become white bone." ”
However, this dry corpse is so well preserved, Liu Yihong admits that it is difficult for them to judge what really happened to this corpse.
According to the laws of nature, after the death of an organism, bacteria and their own enzymes will begin to act.
In this way, the corpse will gradually decay until it becomes carbon dioxide and water, and the decomposition will accelerate under the high temperature and humidity conditions suitable for the propagation of bacteria.
Therefore, in ancient times, it was very difficult to ensure that the body did not decay, unless it was specially treated or under extremely dry conditions.
For example, the Egyptian mummy is that the mummified producer hollowed out the internal organs of the deceased, and the torso was specially dehydrated, and finally made into a mummy to preserve.
Another example is the loulan female corpse in xinjiang on the mainland, which is naturally dried and incorruptible for thousands of years in a dry and hot natural environment.
In the ice and snow of Siberia, people have also found frozen ancient corpses, and the reason for the preservation of corpses is low temperature and freezing.
However, the ancient corpse found in Qiqihar was located in a humid wetland, and the body was not specially treated.
So why, under such conditions, can also form dry corpses?
This surprising discovery surprised and confused archaeologists.
Li Zhaoping said to his colleagues around him, how did this woman die so painfully?
No wonder archaeologists have such doubts, because there are really too many mysteries in this female dry corpse.
The corpse is immortal and the tragic encounter
"Two meters seven from north to south, yes, continue the amount." Here, archaeologists are still measuring the burial chamber.
After the treatment, everyone carried the dry corpse out.
Lifted to the light to fix your eyes, the posture of the female corpse makes people shudder.
I saw that the woman's limbs were twisted, and her hands and feet were stretched out in an open shape, as if it was easy to grab something.
"Eyes wide open, mouth open, limbs bent upwards, in a struggle, arms open."
Based on the face and bones of the corpse, the archaeologists deduced that it was a young woman of about 25 years old.
Archaeologists carefully examined and found that there were three holes in her ears, and the number of earring holes was very indicative of her identity, because in the Qing Dynasty ordinary people could wear one or two earrings, while the noble gege could wear three, which meant that the young woman's identity was extraordinary.
In addition, among the burial items, there is also a men's dress that can prove her identity.
I saw that in the center of the front placket of the dress there was a square complement with a side length of about 40 centimeters, surrounded by auspicious clouds, hills, trees, flowers and plants, and a majestic golden leopard sitting in the center of the complement.
Judging from the archaeologists of this dress, the spouse of the female corpse should be a Sanpin military attaché of the Qing Dynasty.
In addition, archaeologists also found a wooden spirit tablet with a Manchu inscription, which translates to" as follows: "Seal the Coffin of morgen kyaw loams.".
Side-by-side with Mo's coffin is the coffin of the male tomb owner, located on the west side of the burial chamber, with a wide aisle between Mo's coffin and Mo's coffin.
The skin and flesh of the male tomb owner's face have been dried, and his appearance is clearly visible before his death, and all parts of the skin and flesh and organs from the neck down to the whole body have been decayed, except for some limb bones and vertebrae that are slightly better preserved, some other smaller skeletons are all eroded into powder.
A large number of corpse shells can be seen around the coffin and near the human skeleton.
The male corpse wore a total of 5 layers of clothing, and from its ornamental patterns, it can be judged that the deceased was a "three-pin military attaché" before his death, and once held the position of "deputy capital".
Moreover, according to the appearance of the male tomb owner, he should have died at the age of about sixty-five years old, and the burial time was at least thirty years later than moshi.
The Mo clan should be from a large family, and the position of husband is not low.
So why did she die so young in such a twisted position, while her husband was buried safely thirty years later?
What kind of secrets are hidden in her body?
To unravel the mystery of her, archaeologists continued to carefully observe and analyze the body.
Archaeologists found that although he was only twenty-five years old, Mo's teeth were only left.
As a young woman, this is very rare, and I don't know if it has anything to do with her becoming a dry corpse.
Could it be that the previous experts had made a mistake in her age judgment?
How could a twenty-five-year-old lady, like an old lady, have only one tooth left?
In the face of the archaeologists' doubts, the autopsy experts gave unexpected answers.
"It is possible that this deceased person may not be in good health before she was born, and I see that she is very emaciated." At that time, it was definitely necessary to eat Chinese herbal medicine, and often ate a large number of Chinese herbal medicine. ”
According to expert speculation, this Qing Dynasty noble Gege is likely to be frail and sickly before his death, relying on eating Chinese herbs to maintain his life for many years, and over time, it caused chronic poisoning of drugs and led to tooth loss.
But was chronic drug poisoning the real cause of her death?
Archaeologists found something strange on Mo's body, only to see a lotus-shaped black substance between Mo's legs, which was tightly attached to her hips.
Medical experts have conducted a professional test for this substance and found that it is an exposed placenta.
In connection with Mo's distorted death and frightened look, medical experts reasoned about Mo's death based on professional knowledge.
Generally speaking, after a person dies, before he is buried, he will be cleansed, his remains will be sorted out, and his limbs will be smoothed.
But Mo's limbs were twisted in the coffin, so there was only one reason for this: when Mo was buried, he was not dead at all!
Experts say the young Mo's should have died of severe shock during childbirth, a phenomenon known medically as "suspended animation."
When women give birth, if the placenta remains in the uterine cavity, it is easy to cause serious complications such as intrauterine infection, sepsis, and heavy bleeding.
That is to say, before dying, Mo's had already given birth to the child, but the placenta was not discharged smoothly, but still remained in the body, resulting in the phenomenon of suspended animation.
At that time, medical conditions and medical concepts were very backward, Mo's family did not know that she was suspended to die, and in that era, women who died due to childbirth were not uncommon, and the family thought that Mo's had died.
So she began to elaborate on her funeral, hurriedly entering the funeral and burying her.
Who knew that after the funeral, Mo Shi, who was originally a suspended animation, slowly woke up, and she found herself lying in a dark coffin.
The coffin was so low that she couldn't sit up or push open the coffin door.
So, Mo Shi began to scramble for help, breaking and scratching her left toe and left finger, and in her fierce struggle, the placenta that was originally in the womb also fell out.
Mo Shi struggled desperately in the coffin, but the thick and tight coffin blocked all the sounds inside, and no one could hear it at all.
Inside the coffin hung a circle of cloth, all of which were torn apart when Mo's stepping on the coffin, poor Mo's call should not be called every day, and the only oxygen left in the coffin was also consumed when she was desperately shouting, and in the end, Mo's could only struggle to die in pain and suffocation.
Therefore, after the excavation, her posture was so distorted, because she was struggling to die, not at all safe and out of breath.
The truth of Mo's death has been investigated, so why was she able to become a dry corpse in the climate of Zhalong Wetland, which is not suitable for dry corpses at all?
Experts say this has a lot to do with the Chinese herbs she used to eat.
Experts found white powder at the roots of Mo's ears, armpits, and the inside of his arm.
At first, some people speculated that this would not be the antiseptic powder that Mo's family got for her.
But this conjecture was quickly rejected.
Mo's fake death, to the time she was buried, she woke up, it is not difficult to see that from Zhang Luo's white deeds to the complete burial, it did not take too long at all.
Her family must have been in a hurry to carry out her funeral, so how could they have time to perform special treatment on the body?
For these powders, medical experts have given another answer, because Mo's life had taken a large number of Chinese herbs and tonics, the long-term retention of these drugs in the body triggered a series of chemical reactions.
Moreover, Mo's life is thin, the body fat is relatively small, in the process of shock for many days without food and water, so the surface skin is relatively dry, the abdomen and gastrointestinal tract is very clean, these may be an important reason for the formation of dry corpses.
After Mo's death, the water in the body is rapidly lost, so it forms a layer of yellow and white powder that can be seen today, which is roughly similar to the salt stains on the surface of the sun-dried salty mustard knots that we see in daily life.
Therefore, experts believe that according to this, it can be considered that this layer of powder stains on the surface of Mo's dry corpse is a medicinal stain that appears through the skin of the drug in the body.
In addition to Mo's own reasons, in fact, her burial chamber environment is also a very important factor.
Archaeologists once again came to the cemetery to explore, and they made new discoveries.
The entire burial chamber is made of green bricks, but also made of white ash and glue greasy gaps, the brick seams are very thin, and very tightly attached.
As a result, there was not a single bit of silt from the wetland in Mo's entire burial chamber, which was very firm and dry, and the coffin did not show any trace of moisture in the water.
Experts say it is rare for a burial chamber to be so well sealed in the entire Zaron region.
Because the Zhalong area of Qiqihar City, Heilongjiang Province, is a relatively well-preserved wetland.
Mo's cemetery is in the famous Zhalong Nature Reserve.
This is the high floodplain of the Uyur River, with many depressions, reeds, and extremely humid air, which is very suitable for red-crowned cranes.
Generally speaking, in wetlands with humid air, it is very unfavorable to the preservation of corpses, because the soil has a large water content and is easy for bacteria to multiply.
The reason why Mo Shi was able to be immortal for hundreds of years was that the rammed earth layer at the top of her tomb had played a great role.
On top of Mo's burial chamber, there is a very thick layer of rammed earth, which completely and tightly blocks the rainwater from the wetland from penetrating westward.
Moreover, although it is said to be a wetland, in fact, the Zalong area is in a cold semi-arid area, with a permafrost layer underground and a clay layer, so there is no worry about groundwater infiltration.
Under the action of internal and external factors, it has created the immortality of Mo's corpse for more than two hundred years.
A sad ending
Mo's death is undoubtedly the result of backward medical concepts and technologies.
If the doctors at the time could have found that her placenta was not discharged in time, perhaps Mo's would not have suffered a major blood collapse and caused suspended animation.
There will be no tragedy of a large living person being sealed in a coffin and suffocating to death in fear.
After analyzing the cause of Mo's death, no one could hold back a sigh and sigh for this unjustly dead nobleman.
Today, there are still legends about mo's dried corpses in the Zalong area.
In 2020, the children in the Zalong area heard a lot of ghost stories at night, or the women at night cried, and the children were trembling, they may not know that behind this ghost story, it was an ancient noble lady who died in vain.
For so many years, the study of mainland dry corpses has not stopped, and Mo's dry corpses are a proof of the long road, proving that in that era, there was once such a woman.
In 2021, there are still people who mention this past, about archaeology, about Mo's dry corpse, about the past and the future, about that period of history, and the glory of the Chinese nation.
In 2022, with the sound of firecrackers, the people of the Zhalong area spent a new year, and the development of the country in these years allowed everyone to witness the greatness of the motherland.
Resources
"The Death of a Young Woman"; Nature Exploration CCTV's "Approaching Science" column
"The Mystery of the Resurrection of Dry Corpses in Northeast Wetlands"; Beijing Science and Technology News
"The Moment of Exploration - The Mystery of the Resurrection" of the Thousand Years of Dry Corpses" TV show