Scientists still have not been able to explain the mystery of the ancient tomb with 46 bodies of young girls buried under the king, all of which are luminescent.
Until now, the ancient tomb site in Shuikou, Jing’an district, Jiangxi province, China is still a big question for Chinese archaeologists.
At the end of December 2006, some locals used explosives to break rocks to build highways. A strange sound came from deep underground. When the explosions rang out, they noticed that the sound was uneven and assumed that there were abnormal voids underground.
People around quickly came to see the area that had just exploded, when there was indeed a hole about 13m deep, inside was an ancient tomb with an area of 160m2 and many valuable artifacts buried dating back to about 2,500 five.
When tracing the identity of the tomb owner, archaeologists were surprised to discover 46 identical coffins.
This discovery caused a great shock in the archaeological world, because it is extremely rare to find so many coffins that are thousands of years old.
More surprisingly, archaeologists realized that the bodies inside were not normal, these 46 bodies were covered with crystals.
The crystals are all crystal-clear, emitting an emerald-like glow when placed in the dark, the largest being up to 8.5cm long. No expert present at the scene at the time had ever witnessed such a strange phenomenon.
After checking, the archaeological team confirmed that these were the remains of young girls aged between 16 and 20 years old and were all naked when buried. Next to the girls are many textile-related items.
Most likely, this ancient tomb is the resting place of King Chuong Vu of Tu – a small vassal state that existed from the Xia Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty. From the number of bodies, burial status and age of the girls, it can be judged that they died due to funeral custom.
Because of the desire to go to the afterlife with beautiful clothes and a luxurious life, the king ruthlessly forced the royal tailors to die with him. These palace maidens eat poisoned watermelon.
Why are their bodies glowing? Compounds that make up the luminescent crystals in the coffin include ferric phosphate (FePO4) and several unidentified fluorescent substances. It is possible that the poison inside the body for 2,500 years was transformed into a luminescent substance like when it was exhumed.
However, this hypothesis has not been proven by scientific research, so the phenomenon of luminescent corpses is still a big question for archaeologists.
