Experts excavated two coffins from a family tomb from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) on the eastern ring road and found that they held a married couple. The corpse of the wife remains intact from its appearance, while the husband's body has decomposed into bones.

The experts attributed the different conditions of the bodies to the different wooden materials of the coffins. The wife's coffin is better made than the husband's.

The size of the woman's body is 1.52 meters, which indicates that she was 1.55 to 1.57 meters tall before her death, the experts said. They believe the woman died at the age of about 60, according to studies of her teeth and bones.

The experts did not find many belongings buried with the coffins. People of the Ming Dynasty were not buried with many valuable items because they had come to know that valuables in tombs attracted thieves, said the experts.

The tomb was built with a mixture of sand and sticky rice, which was widely used in the area since the Ming Dynasty and could preserve bodies in the humid conditions of Guangdong, according to the experts.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2002)