Why opening the tomb of China's first emperor could end in TRAGEDY?

The Tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, was found in mid-1974. At the time, farmers found pieces of a human figure made of clay and, from there, archaeologists arrived at the tomb.

The piece of human figure turned out to be part of a large field with thousands of life-size statues, of the most varied shapes: soldiers, war horses and other humans and animals.

However, Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum was never opened. And doing so is of great concern to archaeologists.

‘Don’t touch, it’s art’

Before we talk about the emperor's eternal resting place, let's talk about the found field. The group of "clay men" found by archaeologists was called the terracotta army and his function was to guard the mausoleum.

Archaeologists have studied warriors and other clay representations a lot. However, they did not disturb the tomb, which has not even been opened since the emperor died in 210 BC. W. It's like the meme says: "don't touch, it's art".

And it's not that they don't want to, it's because they're afraid.

Why are archaeologists afraid of the tomb of China's first emperor?

Firstly, because an excavation could damage some parts of the tomb, and that could mean the loss of historical information. Even a small sliver can reveal (or not) some very important part of the emperor's history.

The technology available today, however delicate and cautious it may be, is still too invasive for the site. One of the proposals, according to the IFLScience website, is to use muons, a subatomic product of cosmic rays.

This technology could allow archaeologists to see through structures, as if they were seeing an X-ray of it. However, this is not yet a concrete possibility, possibly due to costs.

But that's not the only reason for the fear of digging.

The tomb has traps everywhere.

This is not movie talk Indiana Jones, no. It's very serious. The ancient Chinese historian Sima Qian wrote an article 100 years after the emperor's death. According to the text, the tomb is full of traps to kill any intruders.

The text says that there are arrows ready to shoot and mercury was used to simulate rivers that were mechanically flowing in the mausoleum. This has been proven with scientific studies. The information shows very high amounts of mercury at the site.

Will we ever be able to find out what's inside tomb of China's first emperor?

Graduated in Social Communication at the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.