Posted on 12/08/2007 7:28:19 PM PST by blam
Ancient bamboo slips reveal tomb owner's identity
On December 6 over 200 bamboo slips inscribed with ancient Chinese characters were discovered packed in a silk bag tucked into the Xiejiaqiao No.1 tomb in Hubei Province. The tomb is over 2,200 years old.
The ancient documents were found nine days after archaeologists uncovered a 2.46-meter-long coffin wrapped in four tiers of embroidered silks. Amazingly, the shroud has remained intact underground after thousands of years.
"Tombs from the Han Dynasty have been found in many places across the country, but it is rare to find such a well-preserved one. This will provide valuable historical data for studies in archaeology, history, zoology, botany and historical textile science," said Wang Mingqin, head of Jingzhou Museum, at a press conference on Thursday, as reported by the Xinhua News Agency.
The bamboo slips revealed the identity of the tomb owner. She was an aristocratic woman named "Hui" who lived during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220).
According to the documents, the woman was the mother of four officials of noble rank. She was buried on November 28, 183BC. Archaeologists found an intact skeleton inside the coffin. The coffin itself was decorated with woodcarvings that still remained discernible after thousands years of humidity and erosion.
About 200 cultural relics were also unearthed in the four coffin chambers. Items included bronze ware, lacquer work, wood and pottery, according to a statement by the Xinhua News Agency on December 6.
Archaeologists opened the coffin on November 29. It was filled with black liquid and spotted with white maggot shells. Archeological cleaning procedures are expected to last for more than two months. Investigations into the bamboo slips and the cause of death are continuing.
(China.org.cn by Wu Jin, December 7, 2007)
GGG Ping.
Wales gets its 29,000-year-old 'lady' back
Last Updated: 1:11am GMT 09/12/2007
A 29,000-year-old skeleton has been returned to its rightful home in Wales after being kept at Oxford University since it was discovered in the 1820s.
The Red Lady of Paviland got its name because it was buried with red ochre, but it was later discovered to be the remains of a man. It has gone on public display for the first time at the National Museum in Cardiff.
The skeleton is nine times older than Tutankhamun and the earliest formal human burial to have been found in western Europe. It was discovered in 1823 by the Rev William Buckland, a geology professor at Oxford University, who led an excavation at Goat's Hole Cave at Paviland on the Gower peninsula.
Ornaments and mammoth bones were also found, which have provided evidence about ritual, wild animals and the spread of man through Europe.
Twenty-two of the Gower's 95 caves are thought to have given shelter to pre-historic hunters 30,000 years ago.
Probably this is real. But if it turns out to be a hoax like Piltdown Man was, somebody will have been bamboozled.
“It was filled with black liquid...”
ewww.
Don’t want to be on that clean up detail.
X-Files?
I don’t know. But if that carving on the side of the coffin winks at me one more time, I swear, I’m gonna shoot it.
The writer was English challenged.
Oh let us do help!
Ichor: (def.) n. watery fluid discharged from wound; fluid supposed to fill veins of Greek and Latin gods. ichorous, a. ichorrhoea, n. discharge of pus-like fluid.
So its Chinese Ichor not "black liquid."
That leads us to the old Chinese Proverb:
"Woman who lay in wet coffin, End up eating Ichorish.
black ichorish is ickory.
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Thanks Blam. |
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Haven’t read it yet, but I’m betting it doesn’t say “Joseph of Arimathea” on the bamboo slip.
A grandson shows up to help move the coffin from a to b, and the coffin wasn't water-tight, as advertised.
He got drenched by his dissolving granddad's precious bodily fluids.
And yes, I think he sued...
[singing] Hui, Hui baby, Hui, Hui baby, Hui, Hui baby...
LOL
I suppose Barrymore from then on was his own granpaw!
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