Ancient tombs are always surrounded by a mystic halo. When archaeologists discovered a modern object in a 400-year-old Chinese tomb in 2008, even skeptics began to believe in mysticism. For some, it's proof of the possibility of time travel. Others wonder how plausible this case is.
A group of archaeologists and journalists filmed a documentary at the excavation of a sealed Ming dynasty tomb in Shanxi, southern China. When one of the coffins was cleared of earth, a strange find was discovered.
“When we were clearing the dirt from the coffin, a piece of stone fell and there was a metallic ringing,” said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Museum, according to the Daily Mail. “We lifted the object and saw that it was a ring. When we cleared it of soil, we were shocked: in fact, it was a watch in the form of a ring."
The strange metallic object was a gold ring with a dial on the front. The hands on the watch indicated 10:06. The most striking thing is that on the back there was an inscription in English Swiss or Switzerland.
Swiss Made is a relatively modern product label that stands for “Made in Switzerland”. How did an item that was made not earlier than 1848 end up inside a tomb of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)? The state of Switzerland has been known under its current name since 1848. Before that, it was called the Swiss Union.
Ring watches became popular in Europe after 1780. It is believed that the earliest ring watches belonged to the English queen Elizabeth I, she ordered them in 1588. In addition, in 1755 the Parisian watchmaker Caron made a ring-watch that was wound with a key … But in China during the Ming era, they were not known. However, the Swiss watch was not found on the outside of the grave, but inside the coffin.
How did they get there?
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Theories
The most fantastic version is that the ring was dropped by time travelers. Others believe that the strange artifact was dropped by someone in the last century, was carried away by shrews or other rodents, and ended up inside a grave.
It is possible that the "sealing" of the grave was not as reliable as the Chinese officials and archaeologists reported. Maybe the grave robbers found her. Although, according to reports, none of the ancient Chinese artifacts in the grave were damaged or stolen, as is usually the case in such cases.
Or maybe this whole story is just fiction? Be that as it may, this find gave food to the imagination of many people who tried to understand how this unusual artifact ended up inside the grave.