1 yr. ago • 95%

Archaeologists are too scared to open the tomb of China's first emperor because they fear booby traps

www.businessinsider.com Archaeologists are too scared to open the tomb of China's first emperor because they fear booby traps

An ancient Chinese historian wrote that the tomb is filled with mercury and crossbows ready to fire.

44 comments

They mention high mercury levels as a trap or from wine that the emperor drank, but neither is likely (they often used to add lead to wine as a sweetener, but not mercury AFAIK). But, mercury contamination in tombs, especially in Asia, is very common from the heavy use of the deep red pigment cinnabar, also called vermillion, which is mercury sulfide.

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- Faik the worry isn't from wine the emperor drank (though I think the consensus is he did take a hell of a lot of mercury as medicine believing it'd give immortality). It's the described artistic floor map of China (at the time) with the rivers of liquid mercury suggested as being real by the high mercury readings.
  
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- They mention that they think rivers were recreated in the tomb using mercury.
  
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  That’s the story I’ve always heard. They use mercury to form rivers.
  
  Their real concern is they’ll destroy thing.
  
  The Terra cotta army was painted. The paint fell off once exposed to air.
  
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- I’ve heard of lead being used as sweetener for the Romans but never the Chinese
  
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- Dude the emperor used to take his boat out on a lake of mercury.
  
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  Well clearly that's why he's dead now.
  
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Fear of damaging the tomb, as mentioned near the end (archaeology is a destructive process in many cases, and there's always new technology coming that could have told us more if we hadn't disturbed something) is definitely a thing. I also think there's a worry that it's not what they think it is and there will be great disappointment. It's not thought to have been looted in antiquity, but that also doesn't mean it wasn't.

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Only the penitent man will pass.

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- "I" not "J".
  
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- And what else? I'm a very lonely man.
  
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Alright so how about we build an air tight enclosure around a small part of the door, just big enough to get, say, a small drone through. A mechanical part of this enclosure would be saws or something to breech the door. Would probably want to draw a vacuum in the enclosure first just in case.. maybe the enclosure could act as an airlock so researchers could access the drone for charging, upgrading, repairs, and whatnot?

I heard of this tomb when I was really young and ever since I've kinda used it as an engineering exercise in my head. Sometimes I draw things out for myself but this is the first time I've ever told anyone about it lol

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- The solution will definitely require one or several bots or drones of some sort, but even the act of getting the bot inside might trigger a trap that damages the room itself. I suppose the archeologists will eventually have to request resources to set up a combined team that involves engineers.
  
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  Why not drill in some area you are pretty sure isn't very significant and just feed a scope in and have a look around?
  
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Where are all the archeologists inspired by Indiana Jones when they finally got a chance for adventure?

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- Why would anyone even be an archaeologist if it wasn't to live out their Indiana Jones fantasies?
  
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- Still sat behind their screens excavating their sinuses and daydreaming
  
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I've never heard of an archaeologist too scared of a new endeavor. (I have no friends and fewer archeologist friends.)

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- Does that mean you have some archaeologist enemies?
  
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  Those would be... arch enemies then.
  
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  "So once again, Jones, what was briefly yours is now mine."
  
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Well, they definitely don't need to worry about crossbows.

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- Well, there are still the other classics: Floors that drop away to unseen depths, swinging blades, large round boulders, mimics...
  
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  We can only hope
  
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- So just snakes then?
  
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  Snakes with crossbows.
  
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  Yep, but the snakes are also going to be extra crunchy
  
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I think they are mostly afraid of the lake of mercury killing them when they open the door.

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They just need to bring a rogue to check for traps.

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"The formidable and ambitious Qin Shi Huang was the first to rule a unified China, and historical reports suggest he became obsessed with drinking mercury in a misguided quest for eternal life.

He often drank wine laced with mercury and might have died of mercury poisoning at the age of 49, the BBC reported."

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- Yes and they also made rivers of mercury.
  
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  Permanently Deleted
  
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Meh I would be willing to go in with some kinda chemical protection suit. No way those crossbows are still working.

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I'm certain this could be done safely

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- Yeah, but that wouldn't make click-baity articles.
  
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Do they really think crossbows are still going to be under tension

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- You could keep some strong acid in some kind of sealed glass container
  
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  You could also keep strong acid on paper tabs, sealed, wrapped up with dessicant and put in a dark cold place like a freezer
  
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- Honestly, I would expect spike traps, those might be deadly indefinitely
  
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He saw them coming from a thousand years away.

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Hehe booby

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Booby twaps

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- "That's what I said, 'booty twaps'!"
  
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