The Mawangdui tombs are excavated

In 1972 to 1974, archaeologists excavated three tombs of the Han dynasty at Mawangdui, a mound outside Changsha in Hunan, China. In the first lay Xin Zhui, wife of the Marquis of Dai, who had died around 163 BC; her body, wrapped in 20 layers of silk and sealed in four nested coffins with charcoal and white clay, was so well preserved that her skin was still elastic and an autopsy was possible. The tombs held lacquerware, hundreds of silk garments, a painted banner, maps, and silk manuscripts including the oldest known copies of the Daodejing and medical and astronomical texts.

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