Master Archaeologist

Chapter 169 Silk and Satin

Dragonfly eyes.

And it is very likely that it is the dragonfly eyeball that has been preserved until now in the middle of the Warring States period.

Although there were not more than 100 pieces unearthed in one breath like the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, there was only one shabby one.

But don't look at where the tomb of Zeng Houyi is.

Hubei!
It has been a major archaeological province since ancient times, and it is rich in cultural relics from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Moreover, it is also the province with the most unearthed bamboo slips in China.

For Hubei, it is not surprising that an extra dragonfly eyeball may be unearthed.

But for Guangdong, which is short of cultural relics before the Han Dynasty, this dragonfly eyeball is too precious.

I have never seen it before, nor have I owned this thing!
And not only glass beads, but also ten small pieces of other glassware were unearthed in the same tomb!
The unearthing of this batch of glassware immediately ignited the enthusiasm of the staff of the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology.

No, their enthusiasm was already extremely high.

Some of the lacquerware, woodware, and pottery that were unearthed next, even they are a bit contemptible.

Vision is high!

As in the past, discovering some lacquered woodware of the Han Dynasty would take a long time to be excited, and it will no longer appear on the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology.

They grow.

There are many benefits to growing up.

At least the action of digging and cleaning is much faster.

Before, no matter what cultural relics were cleaned up, everyone had to gather together, observe, point out, and discuss.

Now, ordinary lacquered woodware, pottery, and even bronze ware are taken for granted by everyone.

After cleaning it out, put it in a hanging cage, and hang it directly out of the west ear room without looking at it too much.

There is a bit of the temperament of a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Social Sciences.

Zhuang Yunpeng, who saw this scene, was also very emotional.

To be honest, in the past few years as a doctoral student in the Academy of Social Sciences, he has trotted seven or eight projects with Kong Jianwen.

Most of them are from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the last one is also from the Qin and Han dynasties.

He has seen all kinds of bronze wares, pottery wares, lacquered wood wares, and jade wares.

From being nervous and yelling at the beginning, to getting used to it later.

He has also experienced this feeling.

It's not that he never thought that if he went back to work in the Cultural Relics Institute in his hometown in the future, he might no longer be able to contact various tombs and ruins from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties like he was in the Academy of Social Sciences.

Although, his Ph.D. direction is Xia, Shang and Zhou archaeology.

But his hometown is in the three northeastern provinces.

There are no tombs and sites from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in that place.

However, there are quite a few Neolithic cultural sites such as Hongshan Culture, Xiaozhushan Culture, and Xinglongwa Culture.

If nothing else happens, if he returns to work in the three eastern provinces, he should spend years in these Neolithic cultural bases and carry out long-term cleaning work in units of ten years.

If you say tired, you won't be tired.

This kind of mature Neolithic archaeological base already has perfect excavation methods.

I usually clock in and go to and from get off work from nine to five.

But the days are definitely going to be a lot boring.

Perhaps five or ten years later, if he encounters a tomb from the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties in the three eastern provinces, he may behave worse than his colleagues from the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology.

In the past, he had no choice, so he comforted himself that it would be good to go back to his hometown to work, eat public meals, and be free.

There is no need to travel all over the country all year round, up and down the mountains, like at the Academy of Social Sciences, with heavy burdens and heavy tasks.

But now that someone has chosen, Zhuang Yunpeng's thoughts immediately changed 180 degrees.

Especially seeing colleagues from the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology just excavating a tomb of a Nanyue king, they were so excited.

It also greatly motivated him.

You must work hard to stay in the Academy of Social Sciences!
Young people, you still need to see more of the world!
The excavation of the West Ear Room did not take half a month as Zhuang Yunpeng expected.

Although they did dawdle a little in the first few days, some were dazzled by the dazzling array of funerary objects.

But in the next few days, the researchers of the Guangzhou Institute gradually started to work, and the speed of excavation and cleaning quickly increased.

Although there are relatively few tombs before the Qin and Han Dynasties in Guangzhou, there are still many tombs after the Qin and Han Dynasties, especially those after the Song Dynasty.

In terms of field archaeological experience, there is still no shortage of people from the Guangzhou Institute.

In other words, the staff of every archaeological institute and archaeological team in China do not lack field archaeological experience.

No way, Versailles said a little bit, there are too many tombs buried underground in China.

There are also countless tombs dug by tomb robbers in the past dynasties.

There is really no shortage of practical experience in archaeological institutes around the world.

After getting used to the wide variety of funeral objects in the Nanyue King's tomb, the colleagues in the Guangzhou Institute quickly picked up the pace.

Bronze ware, jade ware, lacquered wood ware, pottery, stone ware, gold, and silver ware were all cleared out one after another, packed and sent to the warehouse of the Guangzhou Museum for temporary storage.

In addition, there are some silk fabrics, which gave everyone a big surprise.

Although it is said that the environment in the tomb is acidic, it is easy to corrode organic matter.

But there are so many things, there can always be a little bit or two preserved.

Every burial object is wrapped in silk and silk.

Most of the silk has decayed, but some fragments remain.

These include ordinary silk, superfine silk, rusty silk, black oil silk, and Zhujuan, five different kinds of silk.

Among them, ordinary silk has been unearthed in the largest amount, not only used to wrap utensils, but also many of which were stored in whole bolts.

Although it was broken when it was unearthed, the general outline of "one horse" is still clearly visible.

These ordinary silks are brownish-yellow, 30 cm long, 25 cm wide, and 9.5 cm thick.

Because it is rolled into one piece, experts specially invited from the Silk Research Institute also measured the thickness of each layer of rolls individually.

And the measured data is even more astonishing!
Only 0.077 mm thick!
Not even 0.1 mm!
Such a batch of 9.5 cm thick silk was wrapped in more than a thousand layers!

Although many silk fabrics have been unearthed in Mawangdui Han Tomb and other Western Han tombs before, many of them are even better preserved than those in the Nanyue King's Tomb.

But when everyone saw such a thin layer of silk with their own eyes, they were still amazed by the super high craftsmanship.

The thickness of less than 0.1 mm, such a thin and light silk, is more than 2000 years ago handicraft!
The silk culture of the Chinese nation deserves to be famous all over the world!
As far as this craftsmanship is concerned, let alone foreigners, even Huaxia's own people have to admire it!
"Different silks have different thicknesses. The thickest is the embroidered silk, which is 0.16mm thick because it needs to embroider patterns."

"The thickness of the black oil silk is the thickest, and the appearance is dark and shiny. It may have been used to make a coat, so the thickness reached 0.25 cm."

"There are also a lot of Zhu Juan unearthed, that is, on the basis of ordinary silk, cinnabar is used as a dye, and after a special process, the rolls become red."

"The thickness of a single layer of this Zhu Juan is about 0.231 millimeters, and the weight of one cubic centimeter is only 2.4 grams!"

"In addition to silk, a batch of Luo, yarn, brocade, silk, and silk floss have also been unearthed!"

Chen Han, Kong Jianwen and the others listened to the introduction of colleagues from the Guangzhou Institute of Archeology in astonishment.

There are so many silk products in the Nanyue king's tomb.

Moreover, the craftsmanship of these silk products is so superb!

"This West Ear Room is simply a treasure trove of silk products from the Western Han Dynasty!"

"It's a pity that these silk products are all rotten, and the only remaining fragments are fragments, and the largest fragment is no bigger than a palm."

"I can't imagine how shocking it would be if these silks were well preserved!"

"Silk satin, silk satin, this time I finally know what silk satin is."

(End of this chapter)