Resurrection!!

Nice title eh?? Haha....gee, I can't believe it has been yonks! Since the last time I actually care enough to update my wittle blog. And I can't believe despite how lazy I have been, there are people still visiting it!! Makes me feel ashamed!! Haha.....Been busy lately but still, no excuses!!

Anyways, just like the title, I stumbled upon this very interesting documentary on youtube.



The documentary is in Chinese. Lucky for Chinese readers out there ;).

Mawangdui is an archaeological site, situated in Changsha, China. The saddle-shaped hills contained the tombs of a family of 3 (father,mother and son) from the Western Han Dynasty, dating back to almost 2000 years ago (206BC-24). The tombs belonged to the 1st Marquis of Dai, his wife and their son.

The tombs are very grand and complicated as well. Out of the 3 tombs, only tomb No. 1 is well preserved with everything intact just like when it was first buried back in the days. The excavations yield many surprises. From silk products, silk books, silk paintings, lacquer works, potteries, bamboo slips used for writing, weapons, herbs and most surprising out of the lot, is a body so well preserved, the skin is still flexible after 2000 years!!

The body of (Marquisate) Lady Dai is so well preserved that an autopsy was performed on her body. When disinterred from the tomb, her corpse was complete and the whole body was still moist and supple. Some of her joints could move; her organs and surrounding tissues were still intact, and the skin still flexible; she was as if she had been buried yesterday. Upon autopsy, doctors discovered that she had honey melon prior to her deathas honey melon seeds were discovered in her stomach.


Along with her body, food offerings were also found in the tomb. The food offerings were placed on colourful potteries and mostly painted in red or black. Meat skewers, fish, soup,desert and many more, all well preserved and looked just like they were made yesterday. The mouths of the containers were tightly sealed with grass and mud and bamboo brands with the name of the food tied on the outside of the containers' necks. Most amazing of all, they found a piece of pottery containing chinese lotus soup with the soup and lotus roots slices still intact. The archaeologists were amazed. The silk clothes from lady Dai's tomb are in a variety of styles and of fine workmanship. One of the most outstanding representatives, is a silk coat which is as light as the mist and as fine as gossamer. It is 1.28 meters (about 1.40 yards) in length with a pair of long sleeves, but weighs only 49 grams!! Amazing!!

The sarcophagus of lady Dai covered with a colorful silk painting. It is the best preserved painting of its kind of Han Dynasty, with the highest artistic value in China. It is in the shape of the English letter 'T', so people also call it 'T' silk painting. In fact, this kind of silk painting was called 'long narrow flag' in ancient times and used only for funerals. It was held by the person who headed the funeral procession and then draped over the coffin when burying the dead. This particular silk painting from the tomb can be divided into three parts. The upper part depicts the heaven, the middle part depicts the earth and the lower part depicts the afterlife. Heaven shows the final journey of the dead into the afterlife. Earth shows the wealth and nobility of the dead when he/she was still alive. The whole painting is symmetrical and colorful with fine depiction, reflecting the lofty painting skill in the Western Han Dynasty. All the mysteries, strange animals and mysterious signs in the painting present us with a romantic world with its own sense of symbolism. As yet no one has been able to interpret its real meaning.