15. Ancient Technology, Science and Marketing
Our tour bus took us into the city of ChangSa at night. After resting overnight in the 5-star hotel, the Dolton, we embarked on sights of the city. Our first stop turned out to be the Hunan Provincial Museum that has a very interesting archaeological dig collection called MaWangDui.
Mawangdui is an excavation site that consists of 2 hills with a saddle in between - hence the name literally means 'saddle mounds'. In 1972-74, it was discovered that there were 3 well preserved tombs of a Marquis(Li Cang), his wife(Xin Zhui), and a third person who is probably his son.
A detailed description of the site can be found in: http://www.answers.com/topic/mawangdui
As I toured through the collection of artifacts from almost 2000 years ago, a few items strike me as particularly worthwhile to mention. First, this photo shows the large tomb itself that is technologically very advanced. It uses layers upon layers of various wood materials, culminating in the huge wood planks shown, tightly fitted to preserve the body. Outside, layers of charcoal and clay were used to drain away the moisture. Indeed, the body was so well-preserved that a normal autopsy was conducted. The intestines were all still intact and they show it in a chloroform-filled jar!
Among the artifacts are many musical instruments from this ancient time - wind, percussion and string instruments. The amazing thing is that they have already devised a set of pitch pipes to standardize the frequencies and for tuning the instruments. Keeping in mind this is about the time of Christ and well before the word 'acoustics' was even coined.
Next, look at this gift box. Again, 2000 years ago, form-fitting individualized packaging for decorative purposes has already been invented!
Finally, we came across a set of manuals about how to conduct surgery of the inner guts, including the importance of maintaining a clean environment to reduce infection. That is advanced medicine way before western medicine started surgical techniques.
It seems to me sometimes we tend to think that science and technology were all invented in the west. This exhibit clearly shows that that is a myopic view.
Mawangdui is an excavation site that consists of 2 hills with a saddle in between - hence the name literally means 'saddle mounds'. In 1972-74, it was discovered that there were 3 well preserved tombs of a Marquis(Li Cang), his wife(Xin Zhui), and a third person who is probably his son.
A detailed description of the site can be found in: http://www.answers.com/topic/mawangdui
As I toured through the collection of artifacts from almost 2000 years ago, a few items strike me as particularly worthwhile to mention. First, this photo shows the large tomb itself that is technologically very advanced. It uses layers upon layers of various wood materials, culminating in the huge wood planks shown, tightly fitted to preserve the body. Outside, layers of charcoal and clay were used to drain away the moisture. Indeed, the body was so well-preserved that a normal autopsy was conducted. The intestines were all still intact and they show it in a chloroform-filled jar!
Among the artifacts are many musical instruments from this ancient time - wind, percussion and string instruments. The amazing thing is that they have already devised a set of pitch pipes to standardize the frequencies and for tuning the instruments. Keeping in mind this is about the time of Christ and well before the word 'acoustics' was even coined.
Next, look at this gift box. Again, 2000 years ago, form-fitting individualized packaging for decorative purposes has already been invented!
Finally, we came across a set of manuals about how to conduct surgery of the inner guts, including the importance of maintaining a clean environment to reduce infection. That is advanced medicine way before western medicine started surgical techniques.
It seems to me sometimes we tend to think that science and technology were all invented in the west. This exhibit clearly shows that that is a myopic view.
posted by thisandthat at
2:42 AM
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