Inside the tomb, experts found an intact male body. (Photo: Kknews)
In the first half of 1975, when excavating a Western Han Dynasty tomb in Phoenix Mountain, Jiangling District, Hubei Province, the archaeological team found an intact male mummy that had not decomposed.
According to the writings inside the tomb , the deceased had the last name “Toai”, from Duong Ly, Giang Lang district. His title during his lifetime was that of five great doctors. He was buried in the 13th year of Emperor Wen of Han, in 167 BC, more than 2,100 years ago. Thus, this male mummy is 100 years older than Tan Truyen’s corpse.
The male mummy dates back more than 2,100 years ago. (Photo: Kknews)
When archaeologists just pried open a small gap in the coffin , an extremely unpleasant smell came out, then a red liquid flowed out . They immediately caught up to 4 bags full of liquid from the coffin.
As soon as the coffin lid was opened, everyone was stunned. Inside the coffin was a white, plump male mummy, with no hair on his body, skin with good elasticity, and all joints could move. Inside the dead man’s mouth was a milky white jade seal, with the word “Toai” engraved on the seal.
Thanks to the solution inside the coffin, the body has never decomposed. (Photo: Kknews)
Not long after, the corpse changed, its skin began to darken and thin quickly. Seeing this, experts immediately conducted an autopsy on the body. The autopsy results showed that the deceased was about 60 years old, weighed 52.5 kg, had a body length of 1.67 m, all 32 teeth were complete, and his airway was not obstructed.
The brain occupies 4/5 of the skull cavity, weighs 970 grams, and the blood vessels on the meninges are still clearly visible. Experts also identified nearly 12 pairs of cranial nerves and that the deceased had blood type AB. It can be said that this archaeological discovery has provided a lot of valuable data for research on the Western Han Dynasty.
However, the archaeological team was not happy for long when experts Ha Tuong Quan and Tran Dung suddenly developed a strange illness, with large pimples all over their body. give up. More strangely, the people participating in the excavation all suffered from strange diseases.
A jade seal engraved with the word “Toai” representing the name of the deceased was found inside the mouth. (Photo: Kknews)
What kind of toxic gas did the experts inhale that caused such terrible harm? Many superstitious people believe that experts have been cursed by the tomb . They were punished for disturbing and excavating the mummy’s tomb.
However, the culprit was the male mummy preservation solution. Because the entire corpse was soaked in mercury sulfide, which has antibacterial and preserving effects, it was still very intact. Because the time of excavation was summer and it was very hot, when the coffin was opened, the mercury sulfide solution immediately evaporated. And experts accidentally inhaled high concentrations of heavy metal vapor, so they encountered such complications.
