Master Archaeologist

Chapter 86 Every Incorruptible Ancient Corpse Is A Unique Case

A pair of 2000-year-old double-pointed square shoes, in Chen Han's eyes, is nothing but amazement.

2000 years ago, there was no cotton cloth, and these shoes were made of more primitive linen.

Silk shoes made of embroidered brocade instead of full of patterns.

This pair of square shoes with double pointed heads and raised heads woven with hemp thread was considered a style that was not as good as the top but more than the bottom in the Western Han Dynasty.

Basically, it is a kind of shoes that can be worn by the lower-level officials and civilians.

Businessmen, low-level officials, and low-level nobles all use and wear these shoes on a daily basis.

In Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb, there are square shoes with double pointed heads unearthed at the same time.

Of course, Mrs. Xin Zhui is the wife of Liehou, and there are more advanced green silk shoes made of silk in the tomb.

Moreover, two pairs of silk socks made of silk were unearthed.

In Tomb No. 168 of Fenghuang Mountain, apart from the pair of square shoes made of linen with double pointed heads, only a pair of high socks also made of linen are still intact.

Of course, this does not mean that Mr. Sui, the owner of the tomb, can no longer afford silk products.

In fact, among the 21-30 centimeters thick sediment piled up under his body, many of them were silk fabric sediments.

In other words, when he was buried, there should have been a lot of silk items in the coffin.

And the clothes on his body should also be made of silk.

Because Mr. Sui was completely naked when he was unearthed, without any clothes to cover him.

This meant that the clothes he was wearing were rotting and decomposing.

The shoes made of linen are still there, but the clothes are decomposed. Obviously, there is only one possibility, that is, the clothes he is wearing are silk fabrics that are more high-grade than linen.

But it is a pity that the silk fabrics in the coffin are very poorly preserved, and there is no complete silk fabric left.

At most, there are only a few fragments of brocade, silk, and yarn, and the two highly damaged yarn crowns in the outer coffin.

Some of the linen, which is even more resistant to corrosion, is already rotten.

When Mr. Sui was unearthed, when cleaning his body, medical experts cleaned some yellowish-white, unidentified substance similar to silk floss, but with a strong tensile strength.

After Kong Jianwen's judgment, it was determined that these unknown substances were hemp fibers that had been decomposed.

This object should be a crown hat worn by Mr. Sui when he was buried, but unfortunately it has been broken down by time.

"Among the accumulations in the coffin, some remnants of shoes, socks, skirts, and clothes, both silk and linen, can be found."

"It's going to be very complicated and meticulous and patient to get the debris out of the buildup."

Kong Jianwen frowned and looked at the foul-smelling accumulation at the bottom of the coffin, feeling very headache.

But after thinking about it, he felt much better again.

"Compared to cleaning up, the follow-up restoration is even more difficult. Let's just pack up these accumulations and send them to the Jingzhou Cultural Protection Center, and let them extract and restore them."

"We just extract some cultural relics that still have a complete shape and are relatively complete as a whole."

Industry specializing in surgery.

They, a group of field archaeologists, have no room to maneuver in the face of damaged and decayed silk fabrics.

The best way is to pack the whole thing up and send it to a cultural relic restoration agency for professionals to extract, strip and restore it.

Kong Jianwen made a decision immediately.

Pack and transport the entire inner coffin to a professional silk fabric restoration institution!

Of course, before that, they had to conduct a preliminary inspection and pick out the complete cultural relics from the coffin.

"Come, come, don't look at it, let's go up together, and find out if there are any complete cultural relics in the coffin."

"Be careful with your actions, don't cause secondary damage!"

Kong Jianwen greeted everyone, and Chen Han hurried up, put on a mask and gloves, and started groping in the coffin.

two hours later.

"Teacher, this coffin is full of rotten deposits. Except for the double-pointed square shoes you found earlier, there is no complete silk or linen!"

Chen Han withdrew his hand that was pulling inside the coffin with a melancholy expression.

The past two hours were definitely the most failed two hours of his life so far.

Facing the terrible stench, Chen Han carefully searched the coffin for two hours, but he couldn't find any valuable cultural relics.

Instead of rotting silk, there is rotting linen.

Occasionally there are one or two pieces of fabric the size of a palm, but they don't make up a complete outfit.

Compared with the 20 layers of silk clothes on Mrs. Xin Zhui, and the plain gauze gown that shocked the world.

The funeral objects in Mr. Sui's inner coffin were miserable. They were all rotten and clean, and not a single piece of clothing could be found.

"Tomb No. 168 in Fenghuangshan is far inferior to Mawangdui Tomb No. 1 in terms of deep burial, airtightness, and lack of oxygen."

"And the coffin has been soaked in water for a long time."

"All the silk fabrics buried with him were completely decayed. How could Mr. Sui preserve them so well?"

"This is so unreasonable!"

Chen Han was extremely puzzled.

The situation of Mr. Sui is completely different from the situation of Mawangdui Tomb No. 1 that he learned in school.

There is actually a very scientific basis for Mrs. Xin Zhui's body to be preserved so well.

And not just the remains, but all the funerary objects in the coffin are well preserved.

There are a large number of silk fabrics in Tomb No. [-], including silk, silk, silk, yarn, brocade, etc., all of which are well preserved.

Even a plain gauze gown that shocked the world was unearthed inside!

This plain gauze gown is woven from finely reeled silk, and is made of plain weave with square holes interwoven with single warp and single weft. The silk strands are extremely thin, light and exquisite, and the holes are even and clear.

The most important thing is that the whole garment weighs only 49 grams, which is as light as smoke and as thin as a cicada's wing!
Even while achieving lightness and thinness, the whole dress is also colorful and colorful!
but!

As the highest level of weaving technology in the Western Han Dynasty, it is still the pinnacle of weaving technology.

This dress is also very, very difficult to preserve.

To achieve lightness, it must not use more silk. Most of the places are only woven with two thin silks.

Even in daily wear, it is easy to be damaged or scratched.

Its perishability is about the same as that of ultra-thin stockings.

Moreover, silk is a natural polymer fibrin, a protein.

Protein is a substance that is very easy to oxidize and deteriorate.

This plain gauze gown was buried in the side box of the coffin. As long as there is a little oxygen, let alone 2000 years, it will rot and disappear in 50 years!

But this dress has been preserved for a full 2000 years, and it is still intact, and it doesn't even need any repairs.

Of course, modern people do not have the level and technology to repair it.

The silkworms that make this kind of plain gauze gown have evolved long ago and can no longer spit out such light silk.

What's important is that such perishable silk fabrics can be preserved intact, but Mrs. Xin Zhui's body is not as well preserved as Mr. Sui's.

Because corpses are more perishable than silk!
But something miraculous happened.

In Mr. Sui's inner coffin, all the silk fabrics were rotted, and none of the silk fabrics survived, but his body was well preserved.

This abnormal scene was really hard for Chen Han to understand.

"The human body is a mystery."

Kong Jianwen sighed.

He said thoughtfully: "Any corpse that can survive for a thousand years is a unique case."

"It is the superposition of various accidents, coincidences and luck that such a small probability thing will happen."

"So every non-rotten ancient corpse cannot be treated according to common sense."

"If you really look at it according to common sense, there should be no incorruptible corpses."

"Xiao Chen, don't think too much. Even the group of biology and medical researchers can't understand these things, so let's not worry about them."

"Let's seal the coffin. I'll contact the Xi'an Silk Fabric Restoration Center and let them take over the subsequent restoration and processing of the inner coffin deposits."

(End of this chapter)