Master Archaeologist

Chapter 182 How tall is Zhao Hu?

After taking out the jade bi, jade huang, and three sets of seals covering the jade clothes, Chen Han and the other five surrounded the "coffin" and began to clean up the jade pieces of the jade clothes.

It's easy to clean up this thing, but it's also difficult to say.

Because the silk threads and ribbons used to fix the jade pieces have all decayed, all the jade pieces were scattered in the coffin.

All archaeologists can only pick up the jade pieces one by one and put them into special boxes.

You can't just grab it one by one like grabbing something.

After all, no one knows if there are any other items mixed in these jade pieces, such as bone fragments of the tomb owner, such as the residues of hemp and silk fabrics lining the jade clothes.

Everyone can only extract them from the coffin one by one.

This process is actually very simple. It is nothing more than picking up the jade piece repeatedly, checking whether there is any residue on it, and then putting it into the box.

But there are so many jade pieces in the inner coffin!
It is conservatively estimated that at least there must be more than 2000 pieces.

Five people pick it up together, and only pick up twenty or thirty pieces in one minute.

It would take an hour or two just to pick up these pieces of jade.

As the jade pieces in the coffin gradually decreased, the situation of the owner of the tomb buried by the jade pieces gradually became clearer.

Although most of the bones of the owner of the tomb in Yuyi have decayed, only bone residue or powder remains.

However, the overall skeleton shape can still be seen. The burial style is to lean up and straight limbs, head north and feet south, face upward, slightly to the right.The upper limbs are slightly bent inward, put both hands together and press on Yuyi's abdomen, and the lower limbs are straightened.

It is different from the jade clothes that are often seen in museums after restoration, with hands stretched out on both sides.

In fact, when unearthed, most of the tomb owners in jade clothes had their hands crossed and placed on their abdomens.

Because that's what "sleep" looks like, not cold death.

"The skull of the owner of the tomb has been smashed by the collapsed wooden planks of the coffin. There is only a small amount of parietal bone left, and there is little mud in the remnant of the occipital bone. The facial bones are so fragmented that they are no longer recognizable."

Chen Han cooperated with Professor Li to clean up the important face while introducing the situation to others.

The facial bones are severely fragmented, which means that at least the owner of the tomb can't do 3D facial reconstruction like Mrs. Xin Zhui did.

There is no way to reproduce what the South Vietnamese monarch looked like.

"On the crown of the tooth, there is only an enamel shell left. There are more than a hundred small pearls adhered to the inside of the mandible. The diameter of the pearl is about 1 mm, and some of the pearls have traces of silk fabrics."

"This should be a small pearl ball wrapped in silk silk when encoffining, and stuffed into the mouth of the owner of the tomb to fill his stomach."

Rice Han is one of the ancient funeral rites.

From "Zhou Li·Diguan·Sheren".

According to the identity of the deceased, put the grain and shell into the mouth of the deceased.

Regarding rice, according to the "Zhou Li", "the emperor uses Liang, the doctor uses millet, and the scholar uses rice".

As for Han, it means "the son of heaven uses pearls to contain reality, princes use jade, doctors use jade, scholars use shells, and ordinary people use grains."

That is to say, the emperor wants to stuff precious pearls into his mouth, princes stuff jade, and doctors use beads that are not round, and Shi Saibei.

However, this Zhouli system basically collapsed in the Western Han Dynasty, and all the nobles who died, basically those who were able, would prepare a jade for themselves.

For example, Mr. Sui from the 168 Han Tomb in Fenghuang Mountain had a jade seal engraved with his private name in his mouth.

Strictly speaking, he actually overstepped.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the rites and music were broken, and the impact was still great.

But no one cares about this kind of thing, after all, after putting it in the mouth, the person is buried.

Compared with using the jade seal in his lifetime, secretly holding a jade seal after death is harmless.

"Zhao Hu, the owner of the tomb, had pearls in his mouth. It seems that he was indeed buried with the emperor's ceremony."

"Just, why is there only one coffin and one coffin?"

Chen Han is still brooding about the fact that there is only one coffin and one outer coffin in the main tomb.

However, with a width of more than 1.8 meters, such a tomb is considered very pocket-sized at the emperor's level.

If it weren't for the length of more than four meters, it wouldn't seem like a "Son of Heaven" was buried.

"Okay, let's discuss these things later."

Professor Li shook his head and said blankly: "Record."

"The residual bone of the mandible of the owner of the tomb is well preserved. The first and second incisors are maintained on the dental bed, and there is one pair of canines and one pair of first premolars."

"The left second premolar, 2 molars, and 1 wisdom tooth are all arranged in sequence."

"The wisdom teeth have grown, which shows that the owner of the tomb is an adult."

"The surviving skull also shows male skeletal features."

"Judging from the current situation on the bones of the owner of the tomb, the guess that the owner of the tomb is Zhao Hu, the second generation monarch of South Vietnam, should still be correct."

Although it is said that the ritual utensils, jade seals and private name seals of Emperor Wen of Nanyue were unearthed in the tomb.

But there is still such an extremely small probability that the owner of the tomb may not be Zhao Hu, Emperor Wen of Nanyue.

In case, if there is a woman lying in the coffin, wouldn't you be dumbfounded!
Fortunately, God didn't make such a ridiculous joke for everyone.

The owner of the tomb in jade clothes is a man.

That's basically stable.

On the other hand, Zhuang Yunpeng, who extracted the middle and lower pieces of jade together with Director Fu and Ling An, also reported in a confident manner: "The spine of the owner of the tomb is slightly curved."

"Most of the cervical spine is blurred and difficult to distinguish, only the outline of the thoracic spine remains, and 4 pairs of ribs can still be identified in the middle, which have been cracked and flattened."

"The preservation of the lumbar spine is poor, and mastoid marks can be seen on individual joints. There are still some traces of the scapula on both sides and the left clavicle."

"The owner of the tomb may have had some problems with his spine during his lifetime, maybe a little hunchback."

"The most important thing is that the outline of the hip bones of the lower body is still clear. Although the two femurs are cracked and most of them have been pulverized, the remaining traces of the patella, tibia, and fibula are already mixed and indistinguishable."

"but!"

"The tarsus of the right foot is still clearly identifiable!"

The tarsus, where the sole of the foot is located.

Once the position of the soles of the feet and the position of the head are determined, then the exact height of the owner of the tomb can be known!

Zhuang Yunpeng picked up a roll of soft ruler, starting from the top of the tomb owner's head, and pulled it all the way to the position of the tomb owner's tarsus.

"According to the measurement of the preserved skeleton traces, it is 170 centimeters long from the top of the owner of the tomb to the heel of the foot!"

"The height of the owner of the tomb is estimated to be not far from this!"

"The error is no more than two centimeters!"

Even with a slight error in the musculature, the height of the owner of the tomb, Nanyue Wendi Zhao Hu, should not exceed 172 centimeters.

This height is a bit short for modern people.

But for the ancients, especially the ancients before BC, it was considered very tall.

Regardless of the descriptions of some generals in history books, they are always eight feet tall.

Based on the Chu ruler of the Warring States period, one foot is 22.7 centimeters.

A man who is eight feet tall is actually only 184 centimeters.

And these are just examples!He is a well-known general who can be recorded in history books!
Yao Ming is still 2 meters tall. Is it possible that all modern Chinese people are more than two meters tall?

In fact, according to most of the unearthed ancient remains, the general height of men in the Western Han Dynasty was between 160-175.

For ordinary farmers, it is just over 1.6 meters.

Only nobles can hope to grow to more than 1.7 meters.

Those who can exceed 175 are sporadic and rare, and they are considered to be talented.

As for women, most of them are between 150-160 in height, and those around 155 cm are the most common.

For example, Mrs. Xin Zhui was 154 centimeters tall when she was unearthed.

This is still an aristocrat, the wife of Liehou, who has been rich and raised since she was a child!
And Zhao Hu is the monarch of Nanyue Kingdom.

These aristocrats usually eat and drink well, don't worry about eating and drinking, and they are not as tall as the current post-00s when they are well-nourished.

It is said that humans seem to have not evolved for thousands of years.

Actually no.

In the last 5000 years of human beings, the most significant evolution has been the average height.

Especially after entering the modern society, it can increase by five centimeters almost every 20 years!
In ancient times, this was something that was unimaginable!
The common people can't get enough to eat, don't eat well, and never get enough nutrition. How can it be possible for everyone to grow up big and tall?

(End of this chapter)