Baffled Chinese archaeologists are studying a 300 year-old coffin found with two others in which two of the bodies had been reduced to skeletons, but in which the third was almost perfectly preserved.
When it was opened by historians at Xiangcheng in Henan province, central China, they said the man’s face was almost normal but within hours it had started to go black, and a foul smell had started to come from the body a few hours later.
In addition the skin on the corpse that has now been taken to the local university for study and preservation work had turned black.
The body was unearthed on October 10 on a construction site in a two meter deep hole in the ground.
Historian Dong Hsiung said: “The clothes on the body indicate he was a very senior official from the early Qing Dynasty. What is amazing is the way time seems to be catching up on the corpse, ageing hundreds of years in a day.”
The Qing Dynasty followed the Ming dynasty and was the last imperial dynasty of China before the creation of the Republic of China.
Dong added: “Its possible the man’s family used some materials to preserve the body, but that once it was opened the natural process of decay could really start. We are working hard though to save what there is.”