The collection consists of fully 100 vases, varying in date from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. When found they were filled with calcined bones, the ashes of a former humanity.

When a visitor to a Cambridge museum tripped over his shoelaces he smashed a set of 17th Century Chinese porcelain vases into pieces. Conservators have now pledged to glue them back together, but how?