Mawangdui Tomb Site

The Mawangdui tomb complex in the eastern suburbs of Changsha is where, in 1972 and 1973, Chinese archaeologists excavated three Han dynasty tombs dating to around 168-160 BC. The tombs belonged to Li Cang, the Marquis of Dai, his wife Xin Zhui (Lady Dai), and their son. The preservation of Lady Dai's body — intact and flexible after two thousand years — and the extraordinary quality of the grave goods made this one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century.

The actual tomb mounds are visible at the site, now a public park. The grave goods and the body are housed in the Hunan Provincial Museum, about seven kilometres west, where they should be seen. The tomb site itself is modest — the mounds are substantial earthworks but the excavated shafts have been filled — but for those who want to stand where the discovery was made, it is worth the visit. There is a small on-site museum explaining the excavation process. The site is accessible by metro (Line 5); the park is open daily.

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A story
When archaeologists opened the innermost coffin at Mawangdui in 1972, they expected mummified remains at best. What they found was a body whose skin was still pliable, whose joints still bent, and whose internal organs were intact and dissectable. The preservation was so complete that pathologists performed a full autopsy and identified her cause of death — heart disease, probably triggered by eating melon while already ill — from the undigested seeds in her stomach. No tomb in the world, before or since, has produced comparable preservation under natural conditions.

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