We fell into conversation after I had finished talking one day and he asked me to have lunch. He and Mike Stedman outlined their plans for a series of documentaries on ancient China, and asked for my views on likely topics.
Without hesitation, I said "start with the tomb of Xin Shui at Mawangdui".
Xin Shui was wife to the Marquis of Dai, a fief of the Han Emperor. She died in the spring of 168BC and 2000 years later, during the height of the cold war, Chinese authorities opened a shaft into a hill in the suburb of Mawangdui to construct a bomb shelter. They came across a thick deposit of charcoal, then sticky white clay, concealing a multi-roomed wooden building.
Archaeologists were summoned, and what they found amazes.
The Han Chinese believed that to enjoy a life everlasting, you had to take all you needed with you. This naturally involved preserving the body for eternity. Xin Shui was interred within 20 layers of silk clothing and four airtight coffins in the central chamber of the tomb.
One surrounding room contained food: a tray with lacquered plates, dishes, chopsticks and rice. Containers were opened to reveal stored food — eggs, birds and favourite recipes. Another chamber contained her divan, walking stick and a little stage supporting models of her musicians, dressed in silk. Her zither lay there, strung with silk strings.
Then there was a room with sealed boxes, in which lay her clothes — including superb silk dresses, her slippers, gloves and lacquered boxes for her cosmetics.
When the archaeologists came to peel away the silk garments she wore in death, they found a perfectly preserved body, for the airtight tomb had halted all bacterial decay.
In the Changsha Museum, we could look down into the ice cold room to see Xin Shui, and I chatted with the doctor who had undertaken the autopsy.
She had died aged about 50 of a heart attack brought on by her sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle and diet. Her last meal had included melon seeds that place her death in springtime. Her limbs were still supple and her blood was of type A. As they continued with the autopsy, the doctors were able to peel away her wig to reveal her own hair.
When she was buried, a silk tomb banner was placed over the outermost coffin showing Xin Shui holding her walking stick and attended by servants. Above her she is guided through guarded portals into heaven, but below lies the torments of hell.
The Pure Science documentary The Diva Mummy is available on YouTube.
