When archaeologists excavating a Han Dynasty tomb near Changsha in 1971 opened the innermost of four nested coffins, they found the body of a noblewoman named Xin Zhui — who had died roughly 2,140 years ago — so perfectly preserved that her skin was still soft, her joints still moved, and her stomach still contained 138 melon seeds from her last meal, making it the best-preserved human body ever recovered from the ancient world

The Chinese hospital workers digging an air raid shelter in 1971 expected to find rock, soil, and possibly some inconveniently large tree roots. What they actually found, after their shovels broke through into an unexpected void, was a sealed wooden burial chamber containing a body that, when the innermost coffin was eventually opened the following [...] The post When archaeologists excavating a Han Dynasty tomb near Changsha in 1971 opened the innermost of four nested coffins, they found the bo