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Rare green crystals found in 2,500-year-old tomb in E. China (2) |
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15:02, July 05, 2007 |
According to Wang Yarong, an academician with Chinese Academy of Social Science, a few white crystals were found in the Mawangdui Western Han Tombs (206 B.C.- 24) in central China''s Changsha, capital of Hunan province. Researchers said they were the result of crystallization of amino acid.
Discovered in December 2006, the tomb in Lijia village in Jing''an county in Jiangxi is 16 meters long, about 11.5 meters wide and three meters deep. It is believed to date back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-221 B.C.).
This is the largest group of coffins ever discovered in a single tomb in China, prompting cultural experts to dub the excavation "the most important archaeology project of the year".
Scientists say that the body tissue discovered in the coffins are human brains that have shrunk to the size of a fist but retained their original structure complete with two cerebral hemispheres, cerebel and brainstem.
"This is the first time such complete old brain structures have been found in southern China and they will be extremely useful for the study of humans in the pre-Qin era (770-221 BC)," said Zhu Hong, a palaeoanthropological expert from Jilin University.
Zhu said the unique burial style could explain why the skeleton and the brain tissue had been preserved so well in an area where the soil was acidic and unsuited to the preservation of human bodies.
[1] [2] [3]
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