Why don't some bodies excavated in archaeology rot?

This problem involves the knowledge of corpse preservation. The embalming of corpses is mainly due to embalming treatment, which is related to the way of burial. Relevant explanations are divided into domestic anti-corrosion and foreign anti-corrosion:

A, domestic corpse antiseptic treatment:

1 archaeological discovery

1972, when Mrs. Xin Zhui in Mawangdui Han Tomb reappeared in front of the world after spending more than 2,000 years underground, the whole world was in awe of the exquisite anti-corrosion technology in ancient China. Mrs. Xin Zhui used her fresh face and elastic skin to let the world know the subtlety of wet corpse preservation.

2. Records in ancient books

Ancient nobles not only emphasized the manufacture of coffins, but also required the use of camphor, pine and cypress, paulownia and other materials with aromatic insect-proof effects, and also had certain depth requirements for tombs, which was nothing more than delaying or avoiding the process of corpse corruption. The ancients thought that "golden jade breeds cold", and burying a corpse with golden jade can keep the corpse from deteriorating. There is a saying in the Biography of Han Yang Wang Sun that "the mouth contains jade, but the jade doesn't melt, and the depression is dry wax", so there is a saying of jade clothes and jade coffins.

What is the antiseptic effect of today? The king of Chu died in the jade coffin, but it was actually just a pile of bones; Mr. and Mrs. Liu Sheng's jade clothes protected themselves, leaving only a few decayed teeth; Emperor Wanli of Ming Shenzong was even naked. The decomposition of bacteria is the main cause of corpse corruption in tombs. Bacteria are divided into aerobic bacteria and anaerobic bacteria. In order to inhibit the activity of aerobic bacteria, in addition to sterilization, the corpse must be sealed to prevent air from entering. In this respect, China people reached a fairly high level in the Western Han Dynasty.

3, the specific process

Before the funeral, the deceased should bathe his body with fragrant soup and then scrub his body with wine. Xiao Zongbo, the official in charge of the sacrificial ceremony of the Zhou royal family, has two kinds of servants. The former cooks soup with tulip grass and makes wine with black millet, while the latter bathes the body with fragrant soup and millet wine. This not only makes the body "fragrant and beautiful", but also has a certain disinfection effect. The spraying of wine is more conducive to accelerating the oxygen consumption in the coffin after sealing and establishing anoxic conditions. Binding the body tightly with clean underwear and quilts also helps to isolate the air and inhibit the early corruption of the body. The coffins used in Han Dynasty are of high quality. The walls, top and bottom of the coffin are all made of one piece of material. The inside and outside of the coffin are painted, and the lid of the inner coffin is sealed with adhesive paint, so that the coffin has good air tightness. In addition, there was a custom of using mercury and arsenic to prevent corrosion in ancient China. After chemical identification, Mawangdui female corpse has two obvious characteristics: one is mercury treatment, and the other is soaking. The sediment of coffin liquid (formed by external water vapor infiltration) contains a large number of components such as mercury sulfide, ethanol and acetic acid, which plays a role in fixing the cells of the corpse and becomes the key factor for the body discovered not to rot.

4. Funeral customs

Feudal nobles attached great importance to thick burial and regarded thick soil as the best shelter. Their graves are deep and big, and they are asked not to breathe. In such an environment, the mausoleum can be effectively isolated from the outside air and kept at a constant temperature without being affected by climate change. Let's see how this closed ancient tomb has changed in the long two thousand years. At the beginning of burial, the environment in the tomb allows spoilage bacteria to grow and multiply, but the oxygen in the tomb is rapidly consumed due to the oxidative decomposition of a large number of organic substances such as birds, fish, meat and eggs in the funerary objects, and because the inner coffin and the tomb are sealed, an anoxic environment is formed in the tomb, thus inhibiting aerobic bacteria. At this time, only anaerobic bacteria played a role in the process of corruption, but they could not be popular, because protein, fat and organic acids produced by the decomposition of silk buried with the corpse gradually turned the environment in the coffin into acidity, which led to the inadaptability of anaerobic bacteria and their final death, thus finally stopping the process of corruption of the corpse.

Secondly, foreign countries take ancient Egypt as an example to explain the preservation of corpses:

In BC 10 century, when mummification technology was the most mature, first-class embalmers gathered together to make mummies according to the following steps:

First, a 10 cm long incision was made on the left side of the abdomen of the corpse with a flint knife, and all other internal organs except the heart were taken out. One by one, they were washed with wine and spices containing myrrh and cinnamon, and then put into a ritual burial bottle. The burial bottle is carved with alabaster, and the lid is carved into a jackal shape to put the stomach, the baboon head bottle to put the lungs, and the falcon head to put the intestines and head liver. This kind of bottle is a souvenir of today. Because people at that time thought that the heart was the root of feelings, they stayed where they were. The embalmer also cleaned the abdominal cavity of the corpse with aromatic asphalt to decompose the remaining soft tissue. Then he took away the brain. He used a hooked tool to pierce the skull from the nostril of the deceased, and hooked out the brain marrow inside, and then poured fragrant tar and spices to rush out the residual tissue in the skull. Finally, the resin is poured into the cranial cavity through the nostril to prevent the skull from being deformed when it is accidentally squeezed.

After thoroughly cleaning the corpse, the embalmer buried all organs and corpses in a powder pile soaked in alkali (a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate, equivalent to the components of washing alkali and baking powder today) and discharged water. Bodies and organs should be buried in alkaline powder for about a month. After taking out, each part should be washed with perfume and spices. The embalmer must carefully wrap all parts of the body from the trunk to each finger from the beginning to avoid damaging or losing small parts such as nails.

Then, the antiseptic wrapped the dried internal organs with linen one by one, put them back into the abdominal cavity, filled them with sawdust, linen, tar or mud, and sewed up the incision.

Because hair will inevitably be damaged, we need to repair some wigs; Put an artificial eye in the eye socket, and then carry out full-body plastic surgery to revive the dead. This work is the most time-consuming.

In plastic surgery, the embalmer carefully cut many small mouths in various parts of the body and filled flax filler from the skin. Of course, the face and neck of the corpse should be the same as before, and the mouth should be covered with linen to make the cheeks full. Finally, the embalmer will dye the face and whole body of the deceased with ochre dye (the male deceased is red and the female deceased is yellow). After dyeing, you can wrap the body. The body was tightly wrapped in linen coated with rosin. The archaeologist opened the cloth bag and found that the total length was over two kilometers. Amulets and scarabs (or scarabs) are usually placed on mummies and bandages. In particular, you should put a statue of dung beetles on your chest, engraved with prayers, begging the dead to receive a fair trial in the underworld.

It takes an embalmer about 70 days to wrap the body and mummify it.