The key reason is that the protection of the body was very strict at that time, which ensured the sealing of the coffin and the complete protection of the body itself. In fact, the reason is the social atmosphere at that time. Mrs Xin Zhui was born with a silver spoon in her mouth and made some contributions to the times. Of course, part of it stems from her youth and beauty, so it is not difficult to understand that after her death, her body will be strictly protected and treated by the technology at that time.
1972- 1974 The Mawangdui tombs are one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the 20th century. More than 3,000 precious cultural relics and a well-preserved female corpse were unearthed in the tomb. Among them, lacquerware as bright as new represents the highest level of lacquerware industry in the early Han Dynasty. Gorgeous and soft silk shows the amazing achievements of textile technology; Romantic and magical silk paintings; Fragrant silk calligraphy inherits the knowledge and wisdom of the sages; The immortal female corpse for thousands of years is a miracle in the history of human antisepsis.
First of all, the coffin was buried in a sealed environment. Furthermore, the coffin liquid contains mercury, which has certain antibacterial effect. Third, the body was embalmed, and the old lady took the elixir before her death, which also played some anti-corrosion role after her death.
To sum up, it is nothing more than three points: deep burial, sealing and hiding, and not stealing. Very good sealing: first of all, the sealing of the coffin. Each coffin board of the female corpse of No.1 Han Tomb was cut into a whole piece of catalpa wood, and the boards were locked with mortise and tenon joints, and the boards were repeatedly painted. The tightness of the plate and the coverage of the paint film basically block all the channels that may enter the air. This coffin is also covered with four layers.
More than 2 100 years, the body is intact, the body is moist, the skin is covered completely, the hair is still, the lines of fingers and toes are clear, the muscles are elastic, and some joints can move, almost similar to fresh corpses. It is the best preserved wet corpse in the world, and it is also a living witness to the culture and life of the upper class in China during the Han Dynasty. This is the first wet corpse with a long history found in the world, which shocked the world after being unearthed.
A thousand-year-old female corpse, Mrs. Xin Zhui
The true history of Mrs. Xin Zhui is as follows:
Legend has it that Xin Zhui got married at the age of sixteen, and her husband's family is Jiangxia Wang Fu. At that time, Han Xin led a heavily besieged city, and Xin Zhui's husband committed suicide. Xin Zhui's confrontation with Han Xin not only didn't kill him, but made Han Xin fall in love with this brave woman.
Then Xin Zhui went through a series of things in order to be with Han Xin. In order to keep Han Xin, he promised Liu Bang to enter the palace and have children. Because Liu Bang killed Han Xin, Xin Zhui fled with Zhong Xing, and the child born in the process of escape was cheated away by Liu Bang's concubine.
In desperation, Zhong Xing entrusted Xin Zhui to Li Cang. After they got married, Xin Zhui gave birth to two children for Li Cang, but he missed his eldest son, Emperor Han Wen. Later, Li Cang was named Prime Minister of Changsha, and Xin Zhui was the Prime Minister's wife.
In 202 BC, Xin Zhui was still 16 years old, in the prime of her life, just on the day when she was going to marry Jiangxia Wang Fu, just in time for the siege of Han Xin. Unwilling to surrender, the whole family committed suicide. Except Xin Zhui, he didn't want to die, and he was full of yearning for life. She bravely opened the door, walked up to the arrogant Han Xin and said, "Why did you let a woman die with her on her wedding day?"
Han Xin faced her speechless. He was stunned by the girl's beauty. But what he did was different from what he thought. Xin Zhui was still demoted as a female prisoner, but Han Xin liked this beautiful and stubborn woman.
He pursued this woman with his heart. When two people were in love, he was discovered by Liu Bang. He also fell in love with Xin Zhui and thought that Xin Zhui and other stunners should be his own. Just as the two of them were pursuing Xin Zhui at all costs, they were designed by Zhong Limei, an old minister of Chu State, which plunged Xin Zhui into a great conspiracy.
Zhong Limei encouraged two people to kill Xin Zhui, fanning the flames and making the situation out of control. Han Xin lost Xin Zhui, and began to be full of longing for power, and his pursuit of power was extremely strong. Finally, stingy Lv Hou designed a trap and executed Han Xin. Xin Zhui didn't know that this was done by Liu Bang, and he lost hope in life.
Just then, Han Xin's man Zhong Xing rushed into the palace and rescued Xin Zhui. But Xin Zhui is pregnant at this time, and this is the future emperor of China. When Xin Zhui died at the age of 50, Wendi gave his mother a royal funeral.
The excavation of Mrs. Xin Zhui
Mrs. Xin Zhui is a female corpse that has been dead for more than two thousand years, but she still hasn't rotted. It is also the first time in the world to find a complete female corpse with a history of more than 2,000 years. Mrs Xin Zhui's discovery shocked the world, so she got the reputation of "Sleeping Beauty in the East".
When Mrs Xin Zhui was first unearthed, she looked like a new dead body. Her skin is still soft. Her skin is light brown. In addition to the strong air pressure formed by spoilage bacteria in her stomach after her death, her eyes were prominent, her tongue was spit out and her rectum fell off.
Mrs Xin Zhui's subcutaneous tissue is still soft and elastic, and some joints on her body can move. She still has nose hair on her nose, and the eyelashes on her eyelids have not all fallen off. The tympanic membrane of her left ear is intact, and the lines on her fingers and toes are very clear. When unearthed, Mrs Xin Zhui was1.54m tall and weighed 34kg..
Mrs. Xin Zhui of Hunan Provincial Museum
Mrs Xin Zhui is in Changsha Museum.
The ancient corpse of Mawangdui Han Tomb refers to a female corpse found in a Han Dynasty tomb in the eastern suburb of Changsha, Hunan Province in 1972. Is the wife of Changsha Prime Minister Li Cang.
Some people regard Mawangdui as the underground cultural treasure house of the Chinese nation, and westerners call it the "Pompeii City" of the East. Although underground cultural relics appear constantly, Mawangdui's cultural glory remains undiminished, and its uniqueness in many fields makes it a well-deserved national treasure.
Digging the background:
In the early 1970s, it was the preparation period of "digging deep holes, accumulating grain extensively and not seeking hegemony". On July 30 this year, a military hospital not far from Mawangdui chose two mounds with high terrain to excavate the air-raid shelter. When the medical staff were drilling and probing, a chill suddenly emerged from the hole. Someone filled the hole with water and the injected water spilled out.
As a result, various versions of skeptical comments spread locally. Facing the incredible strange phenomenon, the military hospital reported the situation to the Hunan Provincial Museum, which opened the curtain of archaeological excavation of Mawangdui Han Tomb. In order to uncover the mystery of the ancient tomb, archaeologists have done a lot of complicated preparations.
1972 At the beginning of the year, archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of China Academy of Sciences and the Hunan Provincial Museum began to excavate the eastern mound, excavating Kaifeng soil, and exposing a rectangular tomb with inclined mound and four steps. After further excavation, a layer of white gypsum was found.
After taking out the white gypsum mud, a large amount of charcoal was excavated. After removing the charcoal, a yellow bamboo mat was found. Archaeologists carefully uncovered 26 bamboo mats buried deep underground, and a huge tomb was completely displayed in front of people.
How many people died in Mawangdui Han Tomb?
The ancient body of Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb, which has been preserved for more than two thousand years, is a very rare and unique body. Her appearance is intact and her soft tissue is elastic. Weighing 34.5 kg, the internal organs are dry and contracted, but the appearance is complete and soft. This archaeological discovery has caused a sensation in the world. No wonder there are exaggerated legends saying that "old woman" looks like life "and" looks like death ",and even Hong Kong and Macao compatriots ask" Why not save her! "
In fact, the body found was not without corruption, but corrupted to a certain extent and was interrupted and preserved. What is displayed in front of the audience is a "giant view" female corpse, which is a corruption phenomenon in the early stage after the death of the tomb owner.
After death, due to hypoxia, cells autolyse, leading to tissue autolysis. Bacteria in the corpse and bacteria outside the corpse multiply rapidly in the corpse and secrete a large number of enzymes that decompose organic matter, leading to the decay of the corpse. In the process of corruption, a large amount of gas is produced, which squeezes the whole body tissues and internal organs, causing swelling, mouth opening, tongue spitting, exophthalmos and proctoptosis. Forensic medicine calls these early corruption phenomena "macro-view". If the deceased is pregnant and has a "macro view", gas pressure may push the fetus out of the vagina, which is called internal delivery. Of course, this lady in her fifties has no such problems.
Since bacteria can cause the corpse to rot, why can't the corpse rot completely and be well preserved?
Corpse corruption requires the participation of spoilage bacteria. The survival, reproduction or death of spoilage bacteria are closely related to temperature, humidity, oxygen, pH and nutrients. In order to prevent the corpse from rotting, in addition to chemical drugs or physical methods to kill bacteria, changing the living conditions of corrupt bacteria can also prevent corruption. During the Western Han Dynasty, the working people in China took measures such as deep burial and sealing, which made the physical and chemical conditions in Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb not conducive to the growth and reproduction of bacteria. Therefore, after a certain degree of autolysis corruption, the growth of corruption should be stopped in time to form a sterile environment to preserve the corpse.
According to the investigation of archaeologists, it may be that the ancients bathed the corpse with fragrant soup and wine, which made the corpse dirty and "fragrant" and had a certain disinfection effect, and sprayed wine when buried. Alcohol and acetic acid were detected in the coffin liquid, but there was no record of soaking the corpse with wine in the coffin in the history of our country. After bathing, the body was tightly wrapped by as many as 20 layers of silk and linen fabric, which not only isolated flies and insects from contacting the body, but also filled the coffin, resulting in little air in the coffin and a three-layer coffin with good sealing conditions outside. All coffins are sealed with paint, and in the case of sealing the corpse, a small amount of air in the coffin is quickly consumed by the early corrupt corpse, forming an anoxic state; A large number of funerary objects, including food, are stored in the coffin chamber, which consumes the oxygen in the tomb. Spoilage bacteria live in such extremely limited air conditions. With the exhaustion of oxygen, they delay or stop reproduction and growth, or die, or stop growing in the form of spores. Anaerobic environment inhibits the growth of aerobic bacteria, while anaerobic bacteria multiply and continue to rot the corpse. However, due to the accumulation of more and more metabolites, the growth of anaerobic bacteria is inhibited.
In order to illustrate the lack of oxygen in the tomb, we also introduce an interesting circumstantial evidence: when the coffin was opened, the complete bodies of five small insects were found in the funerary objects. These insects were also buried alive with funerary objects more than 2 100 years ago. In the grave, there is air, humidity and nutrition to sustain life. Why do insects die? It is obvious that the air is exhausted and the insects suffocate. This shows that after the formation of hypoxia in the tomb, the corruption process was delayed and stopped.
When the corpse stops rotting, of course, the rotten part can't be recovered, nor can the rectocele that has been formed, while the uncorrupted tissue can be preserved, still maintaining the shape of organs, viscera and even the whole body. The best preserved tissue is "connective tissue", and the ultrastructure seen under electron microscope is very rich and close to fresh state.
In order to ensure the tightness of the tomb, the walls around the tomb are built with thick white paste and mud to prevent groundwater from infiltrating. In this way, the body was buried 20 meters underground, and kept under the constant conditions of low temperature, constant humidity, sealing, light avoidance and no major earthquake for more than 2 100 years. If this constant condition is destroyed, the body cannot be preserved. For example, Tomb No.2 and Tomb No.3, which were also buried on Mawangdui, were buried during the period from Lu to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, with the same geographical conditions and basically the same burial methods. However, the tombs No.2 and No.3 were stolen or the tombs were not tightly sealed, resulting in the corruption of the bodies.
There is also a saying: there are some antiseptic drugs in the coffin, so the body will not rot, which is entirely possible, such as testing the coffin water and finding mercury and ethanol in the coffin water. The ancients used mercury as an antiseptic measure, but it was scientifically proved that mercury had no antiseptic effect. Is it preserved with Chinese herbal medicine? It has not been confirmed yet. Our country is an ancient civilization, and many ancient bodies have not been excavated. Let the study of unearthed ancient bodies prove the explanation of chemical drug anticorrosion measures!