Master Archaeologist

Chapter 177 Where's My Golden Hazel?

In the inner coffin of the owner of the tomb, the most indispensable thing is jade.

First of all, ten pieces of jade bi were placed on the chest and abdomen of the jade clothes. This is the most typical burial system for princes and kings in the Western Han Dynasty.

If you don't put more than five pieces of jade on your body, you are ashamed to say that you are a prince.

In addition, there are jade walls and jade huangs on both sides of the coffin.

There is a jade huang at the front, middle and back positions on the left side respectively, and a small jade bibill corresponding to it on the right side.

This adds up to 13 pieces of jade bi and 3 pieces of jade huang.

Not yet finished, because the width of the inner coffin is very wide, so after putting down the tomb owner in jade clothes, there is still enough space on both sides to place other things.

Among them, the most eye-catching ones are the 10 iron swords!
These 10 iron swords are placed between the waists on both sides of the jade clothes, 5 pieces on each side.

The 3 pieces on the left are on the top and the 2 pieces are on the bottom. The arrangement is relatively neat and the position has not been moved.

The one on the right is a bit messy, obviously because the coffin was hit when the boulder fell, and the relics in the coffin were thrown up by the shock, causing some of the utensils to shift greatly.

Of the 10 iron swords, 6 are jade swords, of which 1 is on the right and 4 are on the left.

The so-called jade sword means that the sword heads, sword ornaments, and sword grids are all made of jade, which is very luxurious and high-end.

Obviously, these 10 swords are not swords for actual combat, but more for the effect of ceremonial swords.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Emperor's Sword and the Prince's Sword were still very popular.

As long as they are nobles, no matter if they are the officials and public servants below, or the lords, princes and kings above, or even the emperor, they usually never leave their swords when they go out.

After all, the atmosphere of the Western Han Dynasty was very martial.

Especially before the dismissal of all schools of thought and the exclusive respect for Confucianism, the Western Han Dynasty was completely a democratic country before BC.

There is no way, the old Liu family has been facing the crisis of the Huns' invasion for more than 60 years from Liu Bang to Liu Che.

In severe cases, even on the walls of Chang'an, you can see the beacon fires of the Huns' invasion.

The emperor of the later Ming Dynasty guarded the gates of the country. In fact, the Western Han Dynasty had already done this.

Emperor Han Gao, Emperor Wen Wen, Emperor Jing of the Han, and Emperor Wu of the Han were basically bullied by the Huns and humiliated by the Huns.

If your common people and nobles don't practice martial arts, if you don't practice your martial arts all the time, if you are always ready to fight the Huns, then the country is in danger of overthrowing at any time!
It is also because he has been holding his breath, thinking about killing the Huns from top to bottom, and did not let the horse go back to the mountain.

This is the last 60 years of Emperor Wudi Fen V of the Han Dynasty, who washed away the humiliation of the high emperor Bai Climbing the mountain and made great achievements in bringing the Huns to the ground.

At that time, it was popular for a gentleman to hold a sword, including the Confucianists at that time, and they never left their swords.

Although it is difficult for a nobleman of the Nanyue King level to go into battle and kill the enemy himself.

But there should be a saber, a ceremonial sword, that is still essential.

Of course, there are more than 10 jade swords in the coffin!

On the head and under the feet of the jade clothes, there are also exquisitely carved jade ornaments.

Under the pair of shoes, there is a pair of bi-linked birches, and a piece of jade ornaments on the top and sides of the head cover. On the top is a blue and white jade carved beast head ring. The right side is a tiger head with gold hook and jade dragon, and the left side is openwork Piece shaped like a phoenix pattern.

In addition, an openworked dragon pattern jade bi and a openworked dragon and phoenix pattern heavy ring jade pei were also covered on the mask.

On the jade pendant, there are 8 gold pieces of apricot-shaped vertebral flowers, arranged in an orderly manner, and each gold piece has a pair of small holes for threading on the top, bottom and both sides.

Chen Han pointed to these pieces of gold and said, "These pieces of gold decoration should be a mask sewn on silk, right?"

"That's the so-called resting eyes."

"Rituals·Scholar's Funeral Ceremony": "Using the temple to close your eyes, two feet square, wrapped in thongs, and grouped together."

The so-called scarf refers to the black scarf that covers the face of the dead, which is mainly used to cover the face after death, which is often called a face covering later.

It is made of black, two feet square, with belts at the four corners, and the red lining is filled with cotton wool.

This is a funeral etiquette system that originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

"Hey, something is wrong."

After seeing this covering, Chen Han suddenly reacted.

These 8 pieces of gold are sewn on the silk by the method of stitching.

Because the condition of the tomb was not well preserved, all the silk objects were completely rotted, without leaving any traces, only the eight perforated gold pieces remained.

Then the problem is coming.

"Professor Li, the jade robe with golden strands, the jade robe with golden strands, where did the gold strands on the jade robe of the owner of the tomb go?"

Chen Han waved his hands, and finally realized why he always felt something was wrong after seeing the jade pieces in the golden jade clothes in the coffin.

"Even if the golden thread is broken, it will still exist in the coffin!"

"Gold is a very stable metal, it's only 2000 years, it's impossible to disappear!"

Regardless of the treasures in the coffin, he stretched out his hand and scratched a few times among the scattered jade pieces in the coffin.

It was white and clean.

Not to mention golden thread, I haven't even seen silver thread or copper thread.

The custom of embellishing jade and collecting corpses in ancient China began to be popular in the Warring States Period, and evolved into using jade clothes as burial clothes in the Western Han Dynasty, thinking that this could prevent corpses from decomposing.

By the Eastern Han Dynasty, a complete set of hierarchy for using jade clothes had been developed and formed.

According to the different identities, the threads used are also different.

Emperors and empresses can use jade clothes sewn with gold thread, that is, jade clothes with golden thread.

The princes, kings, first-generation princes, nobles, and princesses used silver thread jade clothes.

The great nobleman and the eldest princess wear jade clothes with copper strands.

However, this system was not fully formed until the Eastern Han Dynasty, and it already existed in the Western Han Dynasty.

There was no such a perfect system in the Western Han Dynasty, so all the top-level golden jade clothes were found in the tombs of the princes and kings of the Western Han Dynasty.

For example, there are two cases of King Jing of Zhongshan Liu Sheng and his wife Dou Wan.

A piece from Xuzhou Western Han King Chu.

One by Liu Xing, King Xiao of Zhongshan, and one by Liu Xiu, King Huai of Zhongshan in the Western Han Dynasty.

They are all vassals and kings, and they all use golden jade clothes.

This has led to the general opinion in the archaeological circles that the princes and kings in the Western Han Dynasty should all use jade clothes of the same level as the emperor.

It is not as clear as the Eastern Han Dynasty, only silver jade clothes can be used.

This is also the reason why Ling An exclaimed the golden jade clothes as soon as he found the jade pieces.

This Nanyue king's tomb is from the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and there were not such detailed rules and regulations at that time.

The elder brother of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also used the golden jade clothes.

So everyone preconceived, thinking that the king of Nanyue was also wearing a gold-threaded jade robe, and didn't think about it.

Now, after seeing these 8 gold pieces with wire holes, Chen Han suddenly realized.

Gold does not decay!

Even if the gold-threaded jade clothes in the coffin were scattered, there should be a pile of gold-threaded jade clothes!

To take a step back, if there is no golden thread, there must be copper thread and silver thread.

Otherwise, how could the thousands of pieces of jade on the jade clothes be connected together?

Professor Li, Director Fu and others looked at each other back and forth with Chen Han, and there was a bit of solemnity in their eyes.

"Find!"

(End of this chapter)