Master Archaeologist

Chapter 165 Armory

as a military aristocrat.

In Zhao Hu's tomb, there is absolutely no shortage of various bronze and iron weapons, as well as chariots and horses.

Yes, chariots and horses are also a kind of weapon.

From the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States period, chariots have always been the most important weapon of war for all vassal states.

Equivalent to a modern tank.

The Butan Synergy, which Europeans only started playing in World War I, was not the first European to create.

In fact, since the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese have already used chariots to cooperate with ordinary soldiers.

The infantry and tank coordination in the Western Zhou Dynasty used one vehicle to match 72 infantry and organized them into one vehicle.

The chariot charged in front, and the infantry quickly followed behind. With the help of the chariot's rampant power, they waved spears and halberds to harvest the lives of the opponent's soldiers!
On a chariot, the crew is generally 3 people.

The one on the left is responsible for commanding and long-range shooting, wearing light armor, known as Jiashou.

The person on the right holds a long dagger and is responsible for attacking nearby enemies and clearing obstacles for the chariot.

The pre-lower center is called the participant, that is, the driver.

Generally, in a chariot, the person on the left is the most honorable, the one in the middle is just the driver, and the one on the right is responsible for protecting the left one.

This is also understandable, why Chinese people respect the left.

You know, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the princes and nobles also had to go to battle in their own cars.

And they are all on the left, responsible for command and long-range shooting.

This is why the nobles of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties paid great attention to archery.

Among the children of the nobles, they also like to play "throwing pots", a game related to shooting.

Because from the princes to the scholars and officials, they are responsible for long-range shooting when they go to the battlefield.

How can you call yourself a noble without mastering superb archery skills?
Archery, since the Xia and Shang Dynasties, has been a skill that a nobleman must master.

As for the Zhao family of Nanyue Kingdom, as a military aristocratic group inherited from the Qin Kingdom, it is impossible for them to practice less in martial arts.

You know, when Qin Shihuang was young, he practiced archery, commanding and driving chariots a lot.

Therefore, in addition to ritual vessels, daily necessities, and decorations in the Xier Room, the most funerary objects left are the carriages and horses.

The types of unearthed chariot and horse utensils include: titles, scorpions, umbrella handle hoops, bow caps, danglu, network pipe decorations, tassel seats, belt buckles, foam nails, copper rings, faucet shaft decorations, and disc decorations, a total of 13 large ones. Class 1350 pieces!
Except for 4 sets of iron titles and scorpions, the rest of the chariot and horse utensils are all bronze.

There are more than 1000 pieces of accessories for chariots and horses alone, enough to assemble four super large chariots.

It is estimated that Tianzi drives a big chariot of the same level as Liu, so he can use so many accessories.

With these accessories in hand, as long as enough time is given to the cultural relics restoration department, the four carriages can be fully assembled and restored.

But the materials used must be new wood.

But this is enough for modern people to have a glimpse of the chariots of the Nanyue Kingdom!
Besides the chariot, the most unearthed individual weapon is not a dagger or a halberd, but an arrowhead!

Zhao Hu, as a monarch, obviously did not fight with long spears and long halberds.

If he wanted to practice martial arts, of course he wanted to play archery like other nobles.

And arrowheads are ancient arrowheads.

As the top nobleman in Nanyue Kingdom, the arrowheads used by Zhao Hu are naturally extraordinary.

A total of four arrowheads of different styles were unearthed in the west ear room.

Among them, type 1 is the most typical arrowhead of the late Warring States period, with a total length of 5.3cm, a triangular cross-section, and a narrow blade that is very sharp.

The real thing is very long, it doesn't look like an arrow at all, but like a knife.

This is also the characteristic of arrows in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The arrows are very long, so that the lethality is large enough.

There are more than 1 types of Type 300 alone.

There are also Type 2 with barbs and wings, Type 3 with a cylindrical shape and a length of up to eight centimeters, and Type 4 with blood grooves, which is shorter in length but has the highest lethality.

There are four to five hundred arrowheads in total.

During the Western Han Dynasty, or before the Han Dynasty, princes and nobles, including the emperor, preferred to go hunting when they had nothing to do.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also hunted deer in Shanglinyuan.

These nobles would definitely not go up to fight their prey hand-to-hand when hunting, they could only use bows and arrows.

Obviously, these arrowheads should have been used by Zhao Hu during his lifetime.

When they were unearthed, they were all placed in a wooden "Yaytao".

Dust, a utensil made of wicker or bamboo strips.

Unfortunately, buried deep in this acidic soil, these wooden utensils are the most vulnerable to damage.

Most of the yams are rotten, and you can vaguely see patterns painted with lacquer on them. When they are intact, they should be very exquisite.

Moreover, several layers of silk were pasted on the surface to protect the burial.

It's a pity that there are only a few fragments of these silks left, which are rotten.

Of course, arrows alone are not enough.

In addition to arrowheads, 160 arrow shafts were also unearthed.

These 160 arrow shafts can be preserved, most likely because these arrow shafts are not pure wood or bamboo.

Most of the arrow shafts in ancient times were made of bamboo or wood, and balsa wood was generally used for wood.

Because only in this way can the arrow become lighter, so that it can shoot farther and more accurately.

But the 160 arrow shafts in Zhao Hu's tomb are not made of pure wood.

The main body of the arrow shaft is made of a slender round bamboo pole, but a slender iron rod is inserted in the middle of the bamboo pole.

This iron rod, called the "arrow collar", is used to insert it into the arrow shaft made of bamboo tube, and is bound to the arrowhead with hemp rope.

In this way, the connection between the arrowhead and the arrow shaft can be more firm and not easy to fall off.

Arrow shafts have always been difficult to preserve among funeral objects.

In most of the ancient tombs of the Western Han Dynasty and earlier periods, when arrow-related artifacts were unearthed, most of them only had arrowheads.

The remaining arrow shafts and arrow feathers are difficult to maintain.

In this tomb, which was already in a poor state of preservation and the burial objects were extremely decayed, a fairly well-preserved arrow shaft was actually found, and it was made of iron and bamboo.

For archaeologists, this is simply a surprise.

What is even more surprising is that the arrow collar was forged from iron, which shows that the Nanyue Kingdom should have mastered the forging process of iron weapons to a certain extent at that time.

Didn't wait for them to be sure.

On the second day after the discovery of these arrow collars, the staff of the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology found an iron sword next to the pile of bows and arrows!
The style of this iron sword is a typical Chu-style sword in the Warring States Period, not the Qin State style.

But the material used to make it is made of iron, not even ordinary wrought iron, but more advanced steel!

A sword made of steel has the elements to truly surpass a mature bronze sword in an all-round way.

Both sharpness and durability are stronger than bronze swords.

The location of Nanyue Kingdom determines that they will definitely absorb many smelting craftsmen from Wu, Yue, and Chu regions.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the level of metal smelting in these three places was leading in the world!
However, the colleagues of the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology never found a second iron sword, not even a bronze sword.

It can also be seen that although the Nanyue Kingdom had mastered the advanced iron weapon forging technology at that time, it could not be fully popularized.

This iron sword may already be Zhao Hu's treasured sword.

So far, all the weapons buried in the west ear room have been cleared out.

Except for the chariot and horses, there is only an iron sword and a bunch of arrows.

It can't be said that there are very few, but considering Zhao Hu's status, this "arsenal" is still a bit shabby.

　recommend a book~
　　


(End of this chapter)