What are the urban legends in Shanghai?

Source: Xijiang Moon

1982, Cheshire police in England suddenly received a report that a man named Peter? Ryan. Bart's man murdered his wife 22 years ago.

The local police know that Bart is totally gay, but both the Manchester police station and the church have Bart's marriage records, indicating that on March 28th, 959, Edwin? Ray Byrd and Marika? Maria? Furlan got married, and later Leibold unilaterally changed his name to Bart.

1960, their marriage record was suddenly interrupted, and at that time, Maria mysteriously disappeared.

Bart denied murdering his wife when summoned by the police. He said that Maria had been forcing him to give money and threatened to make trouble if she didn't give it.

On the day she disappeared, she went to Bart's cabin with her same-sex partner and forced her to ask for money again, so they made a scene.

Bart said that they finally reconciled and he drove his wife to a nearby city. On the way, he asked Maria to get off to buy him cigarettes, but she was a yellow crane and would never visit her again. The police lacked further evidence against Bart, so the case was deadlocked.

1, modern people who murdered the ancients

1983 may 13, two dredgers found an object that looked like a dinosaur egg while digging in the lindou swamp near Bart's house, but the result was quite different from their imagination. This is the skull of a European woman. According to preliminary forensic examination, the deceased was between 30 and 50 years old. There is still some brain matter in the crack of the skull, even an eye, and the visual nerve is still there.

Not only that, there is a scalp on this skull, and there is even black hair on the scalp. There is no need for chemical analysis such as bone analysis, and the skull age is further placed at 20 ~ 40 years old. Because the death is very suspicious and the skull looks relatively new, the police suspect that the woman was killed 20 years ago and the murderer may be near the scene.

After careful examination, forensic pathologists believe that this is the skull of a modern European woman, and the age of the deceased should be between 25 and 35. According to this conclusion, the police suspect that this is Maria's skull. The police summoned Bart again because a pea swamp with a skull was found near the back garden of the villa where Bart and his homosexuals lived.

The police took him to the lindou swamp and mentioned that a young female skull was found here. At this time, Bart, who was very relaxed, suddenly began to sweat, shaking and pale. He confessed to killing his wife and dismembering her body, and also pointed out the direction of burying the body.

At this point, Bart was formally charged with murder.

However, after extensive excavation in Bart's burial place and its surrounding area, the police failed to find any remains. Because the police could not completely prove that the skull belonged to Maria, the detection of this case was once again deadlocked.

Unwilling to give up, the police thought of further finding out the actual age of the skull, that is, before or after the skull belonged to 1960. At that time, only two laboratories in Britain could complete this complicated test, and one of them was Cambridge University.

The principle of this test is that all living things, whether human or other animals, whether trees or grass, have a very small amount of radioactive carbon-14 in their bodies. When organisms die, this carbon-14 begins to decay at a very slow but known rate.

Therefore, by examining the residual carbon-14 content in dead organisms, scientists can roughly determine the time of death of organisms. This test often takes about 1 month.

After the test results came out, it was a big surprise: the woman died in 4 10. Considering the error range, her death time should be between 2 10 and 6 10.

That is to say, this skull is about 1500 years old, but a modern man used it as evidence to confess that he murdered his wife after 1500 years. This is undoubtedly unbelievable.

Shortly after the discovery of the skull of Lin Dou's female corpse. 1984, a second mummy was found in lindou swamp. This male mummy was named Lindou II.

When Lindou No.2 was discovered, it was lying between two layers of silt, which indicated that Lindou swamp was a deep pool when he died. Lin Douer's arm was badly damaged, which shows that he was much earlier than Lin Dou's female corpse.

The remains of Lin Dou II include head, trunk and right foot. 1988 The remains of Lindou No.4 were found again, including the left leg and a part of the right hip, and the skin of the arm was intact.

Two other laboratories in Britain began to test the age of mummies because strange mummies were constantly excavated in the lindou swamp.

It is puzzling that the results of the examination of Lin Dou's male corpse by these two famous laboratories are quite different. After correction, the former concluded that the death time of Lindou II was in the early 6th century, while the latter believed that it was 1 century.

However, the result of carbon-14 dating method is even more amazing: Lin Dou II died in the 3rd century BC or 4th century BC. In other words, the gap between the above results reached 1000. So, who is wrong?

At present, many scientists believe that the carbon-14 dating method may have major defects, because it may judge a modern person as an ancient person. The root of this defect is that the dead body may have absorbed the components in the swamp, so the measured "dead body age" does not belong to the dead body, but belongs to the swamp.

In addition, the dating of swamp mummies must be carried out immediately after the mummies are discovered. If they are left for too long or the mummy is protected by chemicals, it is impossible to accurately determine the age of the mummy.

The dating of some mummies is disturbed by these factors, so some scientists think that many swamp mummies similar to Lindou II may not be the real bodies found.

However, ancient costumes and utensils have also been found in some places where swamp mummies were unearthed, which seems to indirectly prove that these mummies may also belong to that era.

According to this latest view, the Cheshire police in England summoned Bart again. The police believe that it is not important to find Maria's body. Importantly, the murderer confessed his crime, and the head characteristics of the mummified woman of Lindou were found to be completely consistent with those of Maria. In the end, Bart was formally brought to court and sentenced to life imprisonment.

However, the case is not over. All along, people have been vindicating Bart, saying that he confessed because he was depressed and abnormal. Some scientists think that the carbon-14 dating method can't have major defects, because environmental factors such as swamps can be completely determined and excluded. However, at this point, there are still obvious differences in the scientific community.

In other words, scientists can't give an exact explanation for the phenomenon of Lin Dou's mummy. Not only that, they may also create "unjust cases" such as "Bart killed his wife". What is more intriguing is that where is the real body of Maria? Is she dead or alive? These problems remain unresolved.

2. Strange and tragic death

Who is the swamp mummy? How did they die? Why did they die in the swamp?

In fact, swamp mummies are not only found in the linden swamp in Britain. In the past few centuries, human mummies, including men, women and children, have been continuously excavated in the dredging and excavation projects of peat bogs in northwest Europe, especially in Ireland, Great Britain, the Netherlands, northern Germany and Denmark, and the number is at least 1000. These mummies are collectively called "swamp mummies" or "peat people".

The earliest recorded swamp mummy was found in Holland in 179 1 year. However, it must have been found before, because someone dug swamp peat for fuel. Unfortunately, there is no written record of this.

The preservation conditions of swamp mummies are different, some have only skeletons, and some have complete bodies; Some have only limbs, and some have skulls. Carbon-14 dating shows that these mummies can be traced back to 8000 BC to the early Middle Ages, and most of them belong to around the first year of AD.

It is hard for many people to imagine that these seemingly lifelike and well-preserved mummies actually lived in such a distant age. Anthropologists say that these people lived in wooden houses at that time. They raise children, graze grain, make their own clothes, cook in the stove and make tools. The mummy's hair and clothes and the reconstruction of the mummy's face by scientists show modern people their original life scenes and their appearance.

No one knows exactly how the swamp mummies died in the peat swamp, but it seems that they or at least most people did not slip and fell into the swamp that is still a deep pool.

According to ancient records, the Nordic people in the Iron Age had the habit of offering sacrifices to people. They celebrate victory by killing the living, drive away the sick and wounded, and punish those who commit crimes or have "social defects" such as homosexuality. It can be seen from the mummified bodies in the swamp that they died extremely tragically.

1904, two naked bodies were found in a swamp in southern Holland. Because one of them leans on the outstretched arm of another mummy, and the latter is obviously male, the former without a head has long been considered as a woman.

Now I know that the former is also a male corpse. Carbon 14 dating shows that both of them died between BC 160 and AD 220. Among them, the rectum of the latter is exposed from the wound of the left chest, and the cause of death of the former is unknown.

1879, an adult female mummy was found in a peat swamp in Denmark, and the corpse was extremely well preserved. This woman died about 65438 BC+060 ~ 340 AD. Her limbs were chopped repeatedly and her right arm was separated from her body. Obviously, this arm was cut off before she was thrown into the swamp.

1897 the mummy of a girl was found in a peat swamp near the village of ide, Waterfront Province, the Netherlands. She died between 65438 BC and 070 ~ 230 AD. The braided band in her throat shows that she was strangled, and there is a wound near her left clavicle, probably caused by a knife. With the young girl with an intrauterine device, there is also a big but shabby wool cloak.

1938, a female mummy was found in another swamp in Denmark. The mummy was wrapped in a sheepskin cloak and tied with a sheepskin belt around her waist. She was obviously hanged, and the V-shaped hanging mark on her neck is still clearly visible. The belt that hanged her is still intact, with a sliding node on it. Obviously, this belt is a lasso.

The female corpse died in the pre-Roman Iron Age, that is, from 350 BC to 100 BC. 1950, where the female body was found, a male mummy named Torlund was also found. He died in 300 ~ 200 BC, estimated to be about 30 ~ 40 years old when he died, and was also hanged by a belt. Most of the mummy's body has completely rotted, but the head is intact and the beard around the mouth is still there.

Not only that, you can even see the palm prints on his palm and extract his fingerprints. His hair is still there, but it has turned red due to chemical changes. Analysis of his rectum shows that he ate oatmeal and some plant seeds available in winter or early spring before he died.

British historians believe that the Celtics who lived in tribal groups in Central and Western Europe around 1000 BC had a religious ceremony called triple death, that is, killing a person by three means at the same time as a way of sacrifice.

Celts don't think their gods are in heaven or hell. They think the entrance to other worlds is in swamps and other waters. People who are sacrificed usually die of their own free will. The reconstruction of the face of Torund's mummy by scientists shows that the face of the deceased was very calm when he died, and his eyes were closed as if he were resting in peace.

This is puzzling. Because strangled victims usually have terrible ways to die, such as tongue explosion, they may have had a fierce struggle before they died, but this is not the case with Torlund's mummy.

Forensic scientists also simulated the last hours of Lin Douer's mummy's death, showing that he knelt down on his own initiative before he died, and at the same time the axe was cut on his head one after another. After losing consciousness, he was hanged by the noose, and the murderer cut his jugular vein and drained his blood.

This is a typical Celtic triple death. This cruel way of killing also includes cutting throat and nailing stakes to the victim's wrists.

1942, two other mummies found in Denmark had craniotomy marks on their heads. The purpose of this operation may be to drain the blood from the brain or the deceased saw ghosts and gods.

In the center of one of the skulls, there is a hole with a diameter of 1.6 cm, which is connected with an elongated cut, probably caused by an axe. Surprisingly, craniotomy seems to be successful, because the inclination of the surgical hole shows the characteristics of recovery.

The craniotomy hole on the other victim's head is only 0.8 cm in diameter. These two men died around 3500 BC. Another male mummy found in Denmark 1940 died in 480 ~ 60 BC, and there was also a craniotomy hole on the left side of the parietal bone, with a diameter of 3 cm. Even more amazing, this man survived the operation because his parietal bone showed regenerative characteristics.

3. Why don't swamp mummies rot for thousands of years?

Why can swamp mummies go through thousands of years without rotting? And what is the difference between them and mummies?

There are some similarities in appearance between swamp mummies and Egyptian mummies, but they are essentially different.

There are written records of mummies in history, most of which were put in coffins, while swamp mummies came from cold, dark and humid European swamps.

At the same time, their preservation methods are quite different. Mummies are dehydrated by soaking in alkali (sodium oxide) and made by complicated antiseptic treatment, but swamp mummies are not.

Swamp is a special environment saturated with water. Walking on the swamp is equivalent to stepping on a "living carpet" made of moss.

This carpet floats on weakly acidic substances, which are mainly composed of water and peat contained in sphagnum. Peat swamp usually consists of two layers, namely, a relatively thin upper layer in which water can flow rapidly, and a relatively thick lower layer, which is made of peat.

Some peat bogs contain 2% peat and 98% water, while others contain only 85% water. The latter is harder and the lower environment is very stable, so that the substances in it are not affected by the changes in the upper environment.

Buried in the environment under the swamp, this substance can be preserved intact for hundreds or even thousands of years. At the same time, the chemical components in the mire also play an equally important role in protecting the substances in it.

Sphagnum (also known as Sphagnum) and peat seem to have antibacterial and bactericidal effects, and their liquids may contain a lot of organic acids and aldehydes.

In the past, sailors usually took swamp water with them when they went out to sea, because swamp water was less likely to produce algae than ordinary water.

During World War I, dry sphagnum was widely used by the army to dress wounds. In the folk, sphagnum is often used as medicine. Even today, gardeners often use peat to prevent rot and odor. Scientists have put forward several explanations for the mechanism of peat swamp.

Some people think that sphagnum will release a microbial agent, similar to the antiseptic bactericide released by cedar and juniper plants. Some people think that the liquid in the swamp is acidic, and there is no oxygen in the depth of the swamp, so it is difficult to form spoilage bacteria, and the swamp mummy can be preserved.

In other words, the strong chemical action of swamp water protected the corpse, that is, the tannic acid produced by moss tanned the skin of the corpse into leather. The swamp mummy is not so well preserved as the mummy's skin supports the fragile skeleton.

Now, scientists believe that the reason why the content of spoilage bacteria in peat bogs is extremely low is that metal cations and amino nitrogen cannot be obtained, but the cell wall of sphagnum has fixed these substances, and muscles, tissues and organs can only be preserved under such circumstances. However, not all swamp mummies have the same physical features.

In other words, they are not preserved in the same way. In some cases, all the muscles and skin have rotted, leaving only the skeleton. In other cases, all the bones have been decomposed, leaving only soft tissue and leather-like skin.

Scientists still cannot explain these differences. Not only that, forensic scientists and archaeologists are equally disappointed that peat bogs seem to be unable to protect important substances such as DNA at all.

So far, the phenomenon of swamp mummification is still a mystery to some extent.

Author: Jiangnan, source: Xijiangyue, especially stating that besides "original", other articles and materials come from various newspapers and magazines, Tianya, Douban, Guo Ke, Taiwan Compatriots Forum and other websites. Excerpts are only for reading and discussion, which does not mean that suspense records agree with their views.