A 300-year-old burial area, in which two bodies were reduced to skeletons while one was perfectly preserved, has left Chinese archaeologists baffled.
When one of the coffins was opened, the man’s face, experts say, was perfectly preserved.
However, within hours, the face began to turn black, and an unpleasant odor began to emanate from the body.
Mystified Chinese archaeologists are studying a 300-year-old coffin found with two others in which two of the bodies had been reduced to skeletons, but in which the third was almost perfectly preserved.
THE FIRST QING DYNASTY
The clothing on the body of the 300-year-old Chinese corpse indicates that he was a high-ranking official from the early Qing Dynasty.
The Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1912, followed the Ming dynasty and was China’s last imperial dynasty before the establishment of the Republic of China.
Under Qing territory, the empire grew to three times its size. The population increased from around 150 million to 450 million.
China’s current boundaries are largely based on territory controlled by the Qing dynasty.
The skin of the corpse, which has now been taken to the local university for study, also turned black.
The body is believed to be from the Qing dynasty.
It was unearthed on October 10 at a construction site in a two-meter-deep hole in the ground in Xiangcheng in central China’s Henan province.
Dr Lukas Nickel, a specialist in Chinese art and archeology at SOAS, University of London, told MailOnline that preservations like these were not intentional.
‘The Chinese did not do any treatment of the body to preserve it as is known from ancient Egypt, for example.
“However, they tried to protect the body by placing it in huge coffins and stable burial chambers.
‘So the integrity of the physical structure of the body was important to them. In ancient China, at least, one expected the person ᴅᴇᴀᴅ to continue living in the grave.’
Occasionally, Qing Dynasty bodies were preserved by the natural conditions around the coffin.
In this case, the body may have had a lacquered coffin, covered in charcoal, which was common at the time. This means that the bacteria would not have been able to enter.
Dr. Nickel added that if this were the case, as soon as air hits the body, the natural process would be for it to turn black and rapidly disintegrate.
When the Xiangcheng historians opened the coffin, they said that the man’s face was almost normal, but within hours it had begun to darken and an unpleasant odor had appeared.
The body was unearthed on October 10 at a construction site in a two-meter-deep hole in the ground in Xiangcheng in central China’s Henan province.
Historian Dong Hsiung said: “The clothing on the body indicates that he was a high-ranking official from the early Qing Dynasty.”
“What is amazing is the way time seems to be catching up with the corpse, aging hundreds of years in a day.”
The Qing dynasty, which lasted from 1644 to 1912, followed the Ming dynasty and was China’s last imperial dynasty before the establishment of the Republic of China.
Under Qing territory, the empire grew to three times its size, and the population increased from around 150 million to 450 million.
China’s current boundaries are largely based on territory controlled by the Qing dynasty.
Burial rituals in the Qing dynasty were the responsibility of the eldest son and would have included a large number of officials.
Professor Dong proposes an alternative theory for preservation. “It is possible that the man’s family used some materials to preserve the body,” he said. “Once it was opened up, the natural process of decay could really start.”
“We are working hard to save what is there.”
Historian Dong Hsiung said: “The clothing on the body indicates that he was a high-ranking official from the early Qing Dynasty.” What is surprising is the way in which time seems to be catching up with the corpse, aging hundreds of years in a day.
