Cosmic rays may be used to scan the sealed tomb of China’s First Emperor — long rumoured to contain deadly traps and an ancient map with liquid mercury rivers.
Buried under a 249-feet-high pyramidal mound, the tomb lies within a necropolis in Xi’an’s Lintong District, and is famously guarded by the Terracotta Army.
They were found scattered to the tomb’s eastern side, in order to defend Qin Shi Huang from death in the Eastern states that he had conquered in his life. Each statue was brightly painted once before.
However, the colours of most soldiers faded from the exposure to the dry Xian air after proper conservation techniques were developed.
Chinese officials are reluctant to let the tomb be excavated until they have the ability to preserve any artifacts inside.
However, new proposals would see subatomic particle detectors placed beneath the 2,229-year-old tomb to map out the structure’s layout in three-dimensions.
Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) succeeded in conquering and unifying the whole of China in 221 BCE, creating an empire that lasted for some two millennia.
He also started construction of the Great Wall of China and established a network of roads throughout China.
He was buried in a lavishly decorated grave that was found in 1974. It has been the inspiration for many films and videogames, such as Indiana Jones installments and The Mummy.
Cosmic rays may be used to scan the sealed tomb of China’s First Emperor — long rumoured to contain deadly traps and an ancient map with liquid mercury rivers
The 249-foot-high pyramidal mound, which is pictured here, will be buried beneath the tomb. It’s located at the center of a necropolis within Xi’an’s Lintong District. One famously guarded and protected by the Terracotta Army
Each statue had once been brightly painted and was found in large numbers to the east of the tomb. However, exposure to the dry Xi’an air before appropriate conservation techniques had been devised meant that most of the soldiers’ colours faded after recovery — as seen in the examples pictured
Chinese officials are reluctant to let the tomb be excavated until they have a guarantee that the artifacts inside will not be destroyed. The map shows the necropolis complex. This was modeled on the Qin capital Xianyang. In the center of the image is the tomb mound, which can be seen with both the outer and inner walls. Terracotta Army was interred in an easterly ‘garrison’ between Emperor Napoleon III and his conquered states.
When high-energy cosmic rays (white line) from space interact with Earth’s atmosphere, they create a shower of subatomic particles — including some called ‘muons’ (solid orange lines) which form from the rapid decay of pions (solid yellow lines)
The interaction of high-energy cosmic light rays coming from space with Earth’s atmosphere creates a cloud of subatomic particles.
The scanning technique — ‘muon tomography’ — works like an X-ray, with detectors measuring the rate at which muons are absorbed by the material they pass through.
As bones absorb X-rays more than flesh, to make contrast on a radiograph of the body’s structure, stone and metal also block muons.
In 2017, the same method was used to uncover a hidden chamber measuring 98 feet in length within the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The muon-scanning technique has been proposed by physicist Yuanyuan Liu of the Beijing Normal University and her colleagues, who normally use cosmic rays to investigate dark matter at the China Jinping Underground Laboratory, which is the world’s deepest cosmic ray facility which is buried some 3.7 miles under the Sichuan province.
According to the Times, ‘China is an ancient civilisation that has had a long history. There are many cultural relics in China that need archaeological research.’
“The traditional geophysical methods in archaeology can only be used to non-intrusively detect the interior structure of large artifacts such the imperial graves.
They concluded that “The use of muon absorption imaging in the archaeological field could be an important addition to traditional geophysical methods.”
The group built models from historical and archaeological data about the mausoleum in order to test their idea.
These were then placed on top of muon detectors and buried in the ground to prove that the models could be imaged.
The team stated that preliminary imaging results proved the viability of using muon absorption imaging to image the underground chamber in the mausoleum for the first Qin Emperor.
Funding for the feasibility studies was provided by central Chinese government.
Based on their tests, the team have concluded that — to scan the real-life tomb — at least two muon detectors, each of which is about the size of a washing machine, would need to be placed in different locations within 328 feet (100 metres) of the tomb’s surface.
These are not the first times that scientists and archaeologists have attempted to map Qin’s inside using non-invasive techniques.
Unfortunately, many approaches are not suited to mausoleums.
Gravity anomaly detectors are good at detecting changes in density underground — but such are easily affected by environvenmental disturbances and their range is limited to a small area.
More than 8200 earthenware sculptures are kept in the necropolis around the unopened Tomb. These were discovered by farmers first found 1974.
Pictured: Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE), who succeeded in conquering and unifying the whole of China in 221 BCE, creating an empire that lasted for some two millennia
Ground-penetrating radar, meanwhile — a favourite of archaeological geophysicists — suffers from a too limited depth to be of much use here.
The studies were able to reveal that the underground structure was at least partially preserved and extends some 98ft below the pyramidal mound.
According to archaeologists, there’s a chance the chambers below ground may be still functional. Certainly, no evidence has been found that graverobbers have ever succeeded in tunnelling their way into the tomb.
Qin Shi Huang — or Zheng, King of Qin, as he was formerly known — began his wars of unification in 230 BCE with an assault on the state of Hán. Qin was also aided in his fall by natural catastrophes. He fell next to Zhao, Qin’s northern birth state. Here, it is claimed that he sought revenge for those who had wronged him as a child. Qi in 221 BCE was the final state to fall under Qin.
Geophysicist Yang Dikun of the Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen — who was not involved in the present study — told the South China Morning Post that the latest proposal to scan the Emperor’s tomb was feasible.
He commented, “The detectors of muon that we have built and used for fieldwork are so small now they can be carried about by a child.”
However, Dr Yang warned, the cosmic ray approach is not without potential challenges — the main one being that the detectors have to be physically emplaced underneath the mausoleum complex without damaging it or the artefacts within.
He also said that it required patience. Muon tomography, unlike other imaging methods, is not instantaneous. The detectors must continue operating until enough particles are collected for analysis.
In fact, simulations by Dr Liu and her team have suggested that — to produce a clear image of the tomb’s structure — the detectors would need to be left in place for at least one year.
Acta Physica Sinica has published all the findings.
The tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huang is buried in the middle of a 249-foot (76 meter tall) mound, located in the northwest China’s Xi’an’s Lintong District.
Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) succeeded in conquering and unifying the whole of China in 221 BCE, creating an empire that lasted for some two millennia. His lavish burial site — unearthed in 1974 — has inspired both films and video games, including instalments in both The Mummy (left) and Indiana Jones franchises (right).
China’s Terracotta Warriors: An 8,000 strong army of statues created to defend the First Qin Emperor
These 2,000-year old figures were given personalities and were coloured.
Terracotta Army, a funerary form, was buried in the graves of Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor) in 210-208 BC. Its purpose was to guard the Emperor in his final days.
It is undoubtedly the most well-known archaeological site on the planet. The site was accidentally discovered in 1974 by some villagers, and has been under excavation since then.
It was a remarkable feat in mass-production that each figure got an individual personality even though it wasn’t meant to be portraits.
These figures are different in their heights depending on the roles they play, with the highest being the generals.
According to current estimates, there were more than 8,000 soldiers and 130 chariots carrying 520 horses. There are also 150 cavalry horses. The majority are still buried.
Site has been home to figures such as terracotta acrobats and bureaucrats, bronze birds, musicians, and even musicians since 1998.
These were created to entertain Emperors in the afterlife. They are crucial to understanding his efforts to maintain control over the world in his final days.