If you are more familiar with or interested in archaeological content, then our country's famous Mawangdui female corpse must be your "favorite", because the Female Corpse of Mawangdui is too confusing, and it is because the discovery of this female corpse directly detonated the world archaeological community.
It is surprising to know that under the rule of ancient feudal society, a female corpse was so well preserved.
And we have not fully studied it until now, and the mysteries hidden in it continue to tempt archaeologists around the world to explore and think.
Ma Wang piles up female corpses
Every discovery of ancient corpses will trigger countless speculations among the people, which makes many times we have to lament that the wisdom of the ancients is indeed too powerful.
Next, the author will introduce you to the magical "ancient corpse" in addition to Mrs. Xin Chai in Mawangdui, although this ancient corpse is not as long as Mrs. Xin Chai of the Western Han Dynasty, but this ancient corpse also has great value to pay attention to, because this ancient corpse has also experienced more than 700 years but has not decayed.
What is even more breathtaking is that in the archaeological process, this ancient corpse did not find a little thing like the effect of antiseptic liquid, and some very strange things are often found in the mausoleum, such as the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Hunan, when people opened the coffin at that time, the stomach of the female corpse became larger in an instant.
This is puzzling. However, this same thing is repeated again in this mausoleum.
This makes archaeologists completely lose their basic judgment of this ancient corpse, and can only continue to explore this specific reality combined with the history of the time to find answers!
The tomb comes from the Yuan Dynasty and was found in Yuanling County, northwestern Hunan.
Occasionally, I saw the ancient tomb exploration triggered by the jade hairpin
One day in the 1980s, Zhang Qiumin, a farmer in Shuangqiao Town, Huaihua, Hunan Province, who lived in the countryside and needed to rely on land to earn a living, went to the mountains to dig sweet potatoes with a hoe as usual, and such "agricultural activities" were completely out of the question for him, and every time he could harvest a full harvest, but it was very strange that this day was not smooth in the process of ploughing the land.
It was something that could have been solved very quickly, but it was very difficult in the process of advancing that day, shoveling for half a day without seeing the shadow of sweet potatoes, but making myself more and more tired.
As a result, Zhang Qiumin could only sit on the side in frustration and gasp for breath. But just as he was about to take a nap, suddenly a bright light shone on him and he couldn't open his eyes at all.
At this time he immediately stood up and walked towards the "luminous body" and began to pull, and after a while a jade hairpin appeared in front of his eyes, and he immediately picked up the thing, blew it with his mouth, and wiped it with his clothes.
Jade hairpin
After shaking his mind, Zhang Qiumin realized that he had picked up the "big treasure" today, so he collected the hoe and returned home with the jade hairpin.
At home at night, Zhang Qiumin took out the jade hairpin and studied it carefully, realizing that this jade hairpin may be a precious cultural relic of the country, although this thing may be valuable, but it will be more important for the value of the country's cultural heritage.
Therefore, after thinking about it, Zhang Qiumin still made a decision to hand over the jade hairpin to the local museum.
In fact, even if Zhang Qiumin sold the jade hairpin, no one would know, but Zhang Qiumin now has a higher normative system in his heart, and he knows what he should do and what he should not do. This is really touching.
Later, this jade hairpin was sent to the hands of Xia Xiangjun, the curator of the Yuanling County Museum, who knew that this thing was amazing as soon as he saw this jade hairpin, and said that he attached great importance to this matter and wanted to go to the local area to explore the truth.
After hearing the news, the local cultural relics department immediately dispatched to the same place to see the situation, and Xia Xiangjun and Chen Yong, two archaeologists, rushed to Yuanling County overnight, because they knew that after the cultural relics were discovered, protective excavation was the top priority, absolutely could not be destroyed, could not be neglected at all, and had to race against the clock.
Sure enough, after rushing to the scene, the antiquities department found that it was indeed an ancient tomb, and the sealed sarcophagus on the outer layer of the tomb had been exposed, which was very serious for the protective excavation operation.
It was a sweltering heat in July, and the temperature reached thirty-nine degrees, which undoubtedly added to the difficulty of the excavation work, and during the excavation of the cemetery, the smell of decay constantly flowed from the cemetery.
Excavation of ancient tombs
The excavation of the tomb is very difficult, in addition to the smell of decay that makes people collapse, the location of this tomb is also very special, located in the red sand rock layer, the soil is very hard, and the excavation is very difficult.
The usual excavation work could not be carried out at all, so it could only be used with an electric hammer afterwards.
In the process of excavation, a robbery hole was found, which is different from what we watched on TV, and the tomb robbers will encounter successive mechanisms in the tomb during the exploration process of the tomb, and the appearance of the robbery cave in reality can only indicate that the tomb may have been "destroyed" or "stolen". This filled the hearts of the excavators with concern.
Before archaeologists saw this exquisite jade hairpin, after a cursory analysis and speculation, they all determined that the owner of this ancient tomb must be rich or expensive, which can certainly make great progress in archaeological research.
And if the tomb robber succeeds in robbing the tomb, how many cultural relics will be left? How much value will the remaining funerary products be, which makes archaeologists very worried.
As the excavations expanded, the village began to become more lively, with at least 5,000 people inside and out.
People are looking forward to what rare treasures will appear in this ancient tomb.
Under the advance of the excavation work, the tomb slowly appeared, and the robbery cave that was previously worried by archaeologists was also "self-destructive", because the robbery cave was only twenty centimeters, probably because the red sand rock soil was too hard, and the thieves had no way to open the robbery hole.
So this means that the tomb should still be preserved.
After a period of excavation effort, the tomb began to be fully revealed, and archaeologists were once again surprised that the tomb had two coffins!
Two coffins painted with dragon and phoenix motifs, well preserved!
This coffin is very special, and there are multiple layers of sarcophagus on the outside of the inner coffin.
Director Xia said: "The material of this sarcophagus is similar to the current cement, and the production method of the layer of sarcophagus on the outside of the inner coffin is also very similar to the current method of pouring the concrete as a whole. ”
It is obvious that the method of making this coffin is very time-consuming, labor-intensive, and consumable, so does this mean that the identity of the tomb owner is noble?
However, from the other side, if he has a noble status, then why is the burial so shallow and single in form, and this tomb does not have any anti-theft measures at all, Director Xia said: "This is a very complex problem, the reasons that will lead to such coffin arrangements are also different, the only way to reveal the secret is to open the coffin." ”
Coffin
And with the opening of the coffin, a strange event occurred, and a fresh peach branch appeared in the hand of the owner of the tomb, yes, it was fresh as if it had just been picked! This made everyone who saw it on the spot marvel!
But unfortunately, this scene was not recorded by photography, because soon the air poured in, and the peach tree, which was still sprouting green buds, quickly withered, and changed from fresh branches and leaves to black blobs in an instant.
There was no way to save the peach branch, so the archaeological team had to focus on the female corpse.
And this does not look at the unknown, a look really has a big discovery mile.
The female corpse was not completely decomposed. For the scene of seeing the female corpse at that time, Director Xia later described it this way: "The coffin is basically full of coffin liquid, that is, water. The female corpse and funerary goods were soaked in brownish-red coffin fluid. Female corpses have begun to take on the characteristics of corruption. The coffin was full of muddy corpse fluid. ”
And this is actually what archaeologists can think of, because after a long period of consumption, a female corpse cannot be so intact.
It was far better to have only white bones, so archaeologists immediately began to carry out rescue excavations of the burial items in the coffin.
After a period of rescue, more than a hundred funerary items were excavated, and if we were to say in terms of quantity, this female corpse must have been a large family before she died!
However, what happened next was frightening, and after the coffin was opened, the female corpse's abdomen swelled rapidly, like the bulging process of a balloon.
But after a while, it quickly dried up again, and it was super rapid decay, turning into a black blob like the peach branch before. And this series of changes really scared the excavators not lightly.
Decomposing tomb corpses
In addition, people feel strange that this female corpse also "sticks out" her tongue after it, although archaeologists are well-informed, but they really rarely see such a scene, such a sudden phenomenon makes them puzzled.
In order to thoroughly find out the truth about the female corpse, the archaeology team invited medical expert Li Yanchun, who explained the "body movement" and "tongue spitting out" of the female corpse, which she believed was caused by the lack of embalming treatment during burial, resulting in parasitic bacteria.
This aerobacterium released a lot of gas when it corroded the corpse, which led to a large amount of gas preservation in the body of this female corpse!
After the coffin lid was opened, the environment that had been sealed well was broken, and a huge pressure was generated, making the female corpse's stomach become swollen and flushed out the female corpse's tongue.
Originally, due to the corrosion of the long years, the body of this female corpse had become very fragile. This time the gas also leaks out, and the corruption will accelerate sharply!
With funeral goods
And here, even if there are some regrets, archaeologists are finished looking for evidence on the "female corpse", and this is only the premise of this tomb.
If you really want to penetrate this distant truth, only the owner of this tomb will give the answer!
Unlike the cave, the mystery of the tomb owner's life
In the coffin of the female corpse, 7 pieces of "Zhiyuan Pass Treasure Banknote" banknotes were found, which were divided into "Two Shiwen", "Wu Shiwen" and "Sanbaiwen", which were well preserved.
There are also two pieces of "advertising" wrapping paper printed on clay paper, which were printed by a shop in Tanzhou (now Changsha) in the Yuan Dynasty to sell its own products.
Although the scale of this tomb is not large, but only according to the funerary products to judge, the owner of this tomb must be from the upper class.
At that time, a rafter excavated from the tomb of the female corpse was judged from the inscription "Mrs. Tan's", which can indicate that the female corpse is "Tan's".
But there are some foggy flowers, in ancient times the status of women was very low, even if you look for the relevant records of the history books, most of them are not aware of the end.
With the exception of this rafter clue, archaeologists have not found any information about the owner's clue in the coffin of the female corpse.
Thus the main information about this tomb can only come from another coffin.
So the experts in charge of archaeology carefully opened the cover of the second coffin, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a spirit tablet made of nan wood floating in the coffin, which was crucial for finding the information of the owner of the tomb.
According to the local saying, as long as the person has this "real estate certificate" after death, the owner of the tomb can own his own house.
As a result, the attention of archaeologists began to focus on the tomb owner.
According to the later memories of Director Xia, when he saw the body of the owner of this tomb, he really felt very flustered, and it looked very scary.
The body of the tomb owner
The body of the owner of the tomb is not as decayed as the other female corpse, the body of the owner of the tomb looks very complete and shiny, and the limbs can still be moved.
A glance at the past looks like a person who has just been buried, not at all like an ancient corpse of seven or eight hundred years old, just like a sleeping living person.
The owner of this tomb is 1.78 meters long and 78 years old.
There are 133 pieces of burial objects, mainly silk fabrics, including more than 40 pieces of intact clothes, mattresses, shoes, socks, quilts, etc., as well as large sheets of silk, brocade, aya and embroidery, in addition to gold, silver, copper, lacquer, wood, porcelain and other utensils.
Archaeologists are very excited about such a well-preserved ancient corpse, as if they have seen another "Tomb of Mrs. Xin Chai". In order to prevent the tomb owner from corrupting like the female corpse, experts quickly embalmed the tomb owner's body.
It's just that there is a question that is really puzzling, obviously the female corpse next to it, "Mrs. Tan's", is also from a tomb, and the coffin has not been significantly damaged, why the female corpse quickly decayed after opening.
And the owner of this tomb still has a relatively much time to inject preservatives into the experts, why is this?
So does this mean that the "Lady Tan" next to her is an ancient woman with a relatively low status, which causes her body to be more "rough" when it was placed at that time, resulting in more vulnerable to violation and threat.
In this regard, Dr. Li Yanchun gave an answer: "In fact, the two coffins are the same, but the conditions for bacterial parasitism are not the same, because the subcutaneous fat of women is thicker, so the water in the body is also a little more, compared to the breeding of male bacteria, it is easier to breed, because it can provide bacteria with sufficient water and nutrition." This is also an important reason why "Mrs. Tan" decays, but the "tomb owner" is like a sleeping living person. ”
Moreover, the owner of this tomb died at the age of 78, and he was already old, and there was no fat, so it was more conducive to preservation.
After the archaeologists have disposed of the corpses and burial items, the next thing they have to explore is which dynasty the tomb belongs to, how many years it has been, and what is the identity of the tomb owner.
Tombs
If we look at it in terms of appearance, this tomb is indeed ordinary enough, without any special features, and there are no obvious traces of dynasties, so archaeologists have also made difficulties.
But fortunately, after the spirit tablet was deciphered and cracked, the answer was given, "Dayuanguo, Jiangnan Hubei Province, Chenzhou Road Yuanling County, Dongguan Jinghefang, the separated scholar Huang Chengcun." That is to say, the owner of this tomb is called Huang Chengcun, and the female corpse next to it, "Lady Tan", is his wife.
In addition, the spirit plate also records that the owner of the tomb was born in the Southern Song Dynasty and died in the ninth year of Yuan Dade, that is, in 1305, which is 717 years ago.
After that, experts began to search for Huang Chengcun's identity in the historical materials of the Yuan Dynasty at that time.
Later, it was confirmed that Huang Chengcun was the Zhizhou in charge of Yuanling County in the Yuan Dynasty, and we are now the local mayor.
Hats off to the archaeologists!
This time, the excavation of the Yuanling Yuan Tomb is of great significance for mainland archaeology, and we immediately protected the tomb owner after discovering it, without creating more risk of decay and damage to the body, which is different from the tragic lesson of being exposed for a year when Mrs. Xin Chai was unearthed without protection.
In addition, the tomb unearthed a number of intact clothing and silk fabrics, including banknotes and advertisements, which are of great significance for the study of the silk weaving industry, printing industry, and commercial and monetary development history of the Yuan Dynasty.
And from these, we can also see the prosperity of the economy of Changsha at that time, as if we can immerse ourselves in and touch the lives of people at that time when we watch.
And these are also the significance of archaeology, archaeological work is an important cultural undertaking for us, archaeology can reveal the origin and development of Chinese civilization historical context, show the major contributions of Chinese civilization, but also carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, to enhance cultural self-confidence to provide strong support!
After Huang Cheng was excavated in 1985, he was transferred to Beijing in 1987 for exhibition and cultural exchanges, which caused a sensation in the archaeological community around the world! Today, Huang Chengcun is preserved in the Yuanling County Cultural Relics Exhibition Park, although it is not as exquisite as it was unearthed, but people who go to see it are amazed that this ancient corpse is completely preserved!
It is only a little regrettable that Mrs. Tan has not been successfully preserved like Huang Chengcun, otherwise the "long-awaited" husband and wife non-decomposing wet corpse in the archaeological community will appear.
But don't worry, as long as there is the unremitting efforts of outstanding archaeologists on the mainland, the mystery of ancient tombs, ancient cultures, and ancient ruins will be unveiled one by one, which is an inevitable historical law. Hats off to the archaeologists!
bibliography:
The Great Socio-Political Significance of Archaeological Work
"Huang Chengcun and his wife's joint burial tomb is a cultural relics protection unit of Hunan Province"