Technology offers journey into ancient world

Standing under a giant LED dome, visitors to Hunan Museum in Changsha, Central China’s Hunan province, immerse themselves in a journey of the immortals dominated by mythical creatures imagined by people from about 2,100 years ago.

In the underground world, two colossal whales swim in dark waters while a towering giant hoists the entire earthly plane. Above, in the human realm, mourners gather for solemn burial rites, praying for the departed to transcend into celestial beings. Meanwhile, in heaven, mythical guardians stand vigilant, illuminating the path forward.

Welcome to the digital exhibition, The Art of Life: Multimedia Exhibition of Mawangdui Han Culture, where you can experience the vivid imaginations and artistic expressions regarding the universe and life of people from the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). It’s an innovative, digital endeavour by Hunan Museum to showcase its archaeological findings of the Mawangdui Han Tombs, where 3,000 pieces of treasured artefacts and a well-preserved female body dating back over 2 millennia were unearthed in 1972. Recognised as one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century, it has attracted widespread attention both domestically and internationally.

The exhibition, opened on June 8 and running until next February, uses technologies such as naked-eye 3D and holographic projections to offer an immersive experience and a visual feast inspired by artefacts found in the tomb of the Marquis Dai’s wife, Xin Zhui, whose un-mummified body was so well-preserved that medical experts were able to perform a full checkup, gynecological examination and autopsy. Many exquisite items, such as embroidered silk, lacquerware, musical instruments and wooden figures, were also unearthed from the tomb.

“I think it’s an exploration for a museum’s future archaeological exhibitions. Transforming from viewing real relics to an immersive, theatrical and virtual experience, digital exhibitions can break the boundaries of time and space,” says Duan Xiaoming, director of Hunan Museum. “It’s easy for such exhibitions to tour across the world.”

The exhibition took three years to prepare and is co-organised with the Digital Library of China and US’ Massachusetts-based Harvard FAS CAMlab, an art team established by Eugene Y. Wang, an art professor at Harvard University.

“Life is a question that humanity has been pondering for thousands of years. The Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) people’s concept of the cosmos and life, to some extent, are from the same perspective as those in the 21st century,” says Wang, explaining why they chose “life” as the theme of the show.

The tomb of Xin Zhui offers a glimpse into the funerary practices and cosmological beliefs of the Han Dynasty. The elaborate burial goods and the design of the tombs reflect the importance of the afterlife and the desire for immortality.

Apart from the painting on the T-shaped funeral banner mapping out an ascending journey to heaven, symbols, patterns and paintings on the four nested coffins also show vivid imagination regarding a safe passage to the afterlife. The painting on the third coffin used bright colours to depict the sun, mountains and auspicious animals, such as the dragon, tiger and deer. It illustrates the journey of a soul travelling through darkness into the eternal realm. The innermost coffin is adorned with feathers, symbolising the hope that they would aid the deceased in ascending to immortality.

The exhibition used all these elements and turned them into a visual feast, “an artistic and abstract way to tell the stories of the Han Dynasty tombs”, says Lyu Chenchen, associate director of Harvard FAS CAMlab.

“It is a distillation of the Western Han Dynasty’s cosmology and view of life. We aim to enable audiences to look beyond the surface and engage more deeply with the conceptual world of early Chinese civilisation, to glimpse the spiritual world of the people of that era and their artistic imaginations,” Lyu says.