Master Archaeologist

Chapter 11
When he found that there was a child's skeleton under the young woman's skeleton, Chen Han's expression changed from relaxed and comfortable at the beginning to a slightly serious one.

Chen Han and his small team of four are in charge of No. F4, which is a house site. "F" stands for "house", and 4 stands for the fourth house site discovered.

According to common sense, finding bones in the house site is already something that is not quite right.

According to archaeological findings, at least in the Paleolithic period, humans have had the concept of "burial". When members of the tribe die, they are usually transferred to a special "cemetery" for burial.

When many Paleolithic and Neolithic sites were unearthed, special burial areas can be found.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, no bones will appear in the house site.

The discovery of the bones meant that the young woman, with the child under her, died in the house and was left alone.

Until thousands of years later, layers of loess buried the house and their bones in the ground, and nothing changed, just like back then.

It's so weird.

"Is this the trace of a fracture?" Su Sa, who had been observing the skeleton, pointed to the chest and back of the female skeleton that had just been cleaned up by Chen Han.

It can be clearly seen that several ribs in her chest are broken.

This shows that there is a high possibility that this female skeleton did not die naturally or because of a disease, but an unnatural death!
Or maybe her death happened as a result of violent intervention!

But at this hour and a half, there is no way for everyone to confirm.

After all, this skeleton has been buried in the ground for thousands of years.

No one can tell whether the fracture of the ribs was caused by geological changes or other factors later.

It's really hard not to think of the fracture found at the position of the rib.

Zhang Jianbo adjusted his glasses, and speculated: "Could it be that the staff of the early exploration made a mistake. This is actually not a house site, but a sacrificial pit?"

"Young women and children, this is very suitable for the form of sacrificial burial?"

"Come on." Zhuang Yunpeng rolled his eyes, and looked at Zhang Jianbo with a look of foolish eyes: "Old Zhang, this is a site from the late Neolithic period."

"Sacrificing human beings only became popular in the Shang Dynasty. At most, some animals were buried in the Neolithic Age. I have never seen living people being buried."

"In that era, every healthy human being was a valuable labor force of the tribe. How could it be buried by the ruling class!"

"Even the slaves of the defeated tribe are not so extravagant that they can be buried!"

"Damn!" Zhang Jianbo slapped the back of his head, and said a little funny: "I dug too much under the Shang and Zhou tombs, and I didn't turn my mind all of a sudden!"

Zhang Jianbo is from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences [Shang and Zhou Archaeological Research Office], and he is usually in charge of excavating some tombs from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties.

In his previous work, he often came into contact with the sacrificial pit, so he immediately thought of this.

It was a little joke.

Well, the doubts on this skeleton probably won't be able to answer for a while.

But in archaeology, there are too many situations where the excavated things make people look confused. It is obviously unrealistic to find out on the spot.

Sometimes a small archaeological discovery requires several months of research and various arguments before the situation can be clarified and a report issued.

Zhuang Yunpeng picked up the camera hanging on his chest, and took a few high-definition photos from multiple angles of the skeleton composed of adult women and children. After archiving, everyone dispersed and continued to excavate.

When the whole day's excavation work is over, all four have gained a little.

In addition to the skeleton that Chen Han was in charge of, Su Sa also found a pottery lying on the ground, which looked like a pot.

Zhang Jianbo found a stone ax in the corner, a very primitive tool.

Zhuang Yunpeng made the biggest discovery. He was lucky enough to unearth a piece of jade!
Although the whole picture has not been cleared yet, it is impossible to determine what kind of artifact it is.

But made of jade, no matter what it is, the value is very high.

Because of the cultural connotation of jade, it has become an important part of Chinese people's aesthetics since ancient times.

The "Jade Culture", which originated in the early Neolithic Age and continues to this day, is a unique feature of Chinese culture that is different from other civilizations in the world.

The jade culture with jade as the central carrier not only deeply influenced the ideology of Chinese people, but also became an indispensable part of Chinese culture.

The patriotic and national integrity of "rather jade is broken".

The fashion of unity and friendship of "turning into jade".

The selfless dedication character of "moisturizing with warmth".

The perfect journey of "white jade flawless".

"A gentleman is like jade" has both virtue and character.

Jade has become a representative of a gentleman, a symbol of rank and status, and the most important part of the "ritual system".

Chinese characters have created nearly 500 characters of Congyu, and there are countless words made of jade. The treasures in Chinese characters are all related to jade.

The word "jade" is a beautiful and noble word in the eyes of the ancients.

In ancient poetry, jade is often used to describe and describe all beautiful people or things.

And all of this stems from the Chinese ancestors in the Neolithic Age, who were the first to discover jade, appreciate jade, and use jade!

However, in the Neolithic period, especially in the period before the bronze smelting process was mastered, the production of jade was not generally difficult.

Even making jadeware is already the highest skill that the ancestors of the Neolithic Age could master.

As the saying goes, stones from other mountains can attack jade.

It's just that attacking jade is as difficult as attacking a city.

In the era when there were no metal tools, the ancestors could only use granite to produce primitive tools by grinding stone tools.

Then use these simple stone tools to mine natural jade for grinding, drilling, and finally further processing by hand until the carvings are carved, so that complex, delicate and beautiful jade can be made.

It will take at least several years from cutting and making to completion!

A jade article at that time was almost equivalent to a "lithography machine" today, and it was the pinnacle product of human craftsmanship in the same period!
Every Neolithic jade that can be preserved to the present can be called a national treasure!

These jade wares from the Neolithic Age not only retain traces of age and time.

It also records the humanistic features of that ancient era, and even the artistic connotation that has spanned thousands of years.

Zhuang Yunpeng's discovery of a jade was already very exciting and exciting for him.

Caressing the smooth and moist body of this jade vessel, feeling the infinite wisdom and pinnacle craftsmanship of the ancient ancestors, even gave him the illusion of traveling through time and space.

Thousands of years ago, this piece of jade was picked up from a stream by a Chinese ancestor at the Lajia site, and it took several years to polish, drill, and carve it into an exquisite jade article.

Thousands of years later, that highly skilled ancestor has long been submerged in the long river of time, and no one still knows or remembers him.

However, the jade wares he once made still exist in the world after the changes of time and years.

Let the Chinese people thousands of years later be able to admire his proud work and have a glimpse of the beauty of art thousands of years ago!

Perhaps this is the significance and romance of archeology.

(End of this chapter)