Master Archaeologist

Chapter 196 Go Underground and Continue to Serve the Monarch

A group of people from the Archaeological Institute of the Academy of Social Sciences were busy in the east room.

On the opposite side, the staff of the Guangzhou Institute of Archaeology were also fighting indoors on the west side.

The size of the west chamber is basically the same as that of the east chamber, otherwise the overall chamber would not be symmetrical.

The tomb chamber, which is also more than seven meters long and 1.62 meters wide, seems a bit too slender.

The entire tomb is made of sandstone masonry, and the walls on all sides are piled up sandstone blocks.

As a result, some sandstone loosened and fell into the tomb after a long time.

A piece of sandstone on the top of the partition wall on the north side of the doorway broke and fell into the tomb, and accidentally hit the head of one of the martyrs in the tomb, causing the bones of the head to be broken to pieces.

Why do you say "one of them"?

Because compared to the east room where the martyrs were buried, the ones buried in the west room are all those of lower status!

After Director Fu led people into the east room, he looked around, and the first thing he saw was a pile of bones on the ground!
Moreover, the specifications of these people's sacrifices are obviously of the lowest level. Like the musician in the west ear room, they don't even have a coffin, and they are placed directly on the wooden floor.

Of course, the original planks on the ground have decayed.

However, after the wooden planks decayed, there was still a one-centimeter-thick black rotten ash that was evenly distributed on the entire floor of the tomb chamber.

Inside the tomb, the five martyrs located in the southern half are relatively obvious.

Although they don't have coffins, their skeletons are well preserved.

Five people were martyred in a southwest-northeast oblique arrangement, with their heads and feet staggered in opposite directions, and a bronze mirror was placed beside them.

The first human sacrifice is located at the southernmost end of the room, with its head facing northeast and feet facing southwest, and its skeleton is poorly preserved.

Only part of the skull, teeth, vertebrae, ribs, humerus, and femur remain. The residual length from the foot to the head is 1.25 meters, and the height cannot be determined.

However, due to a bronze mirror covering the face, part of the facial bones and teeth have turned into a patina, which is relatively well preserved.

His burial objects are not many, only a bronze mirror and a jade ornament.

Because the teeth were relatively well preserved, Director Fu and others easily identified that the deceased was in his early 20s and was buried at a very young age.

However, the sex of the deceased could not be identified because some of the bones were incomplete.

The second person is located next to the first person, but the head orientation is reversed, that is, the head faces southwest and the feet face northeast.

The skeleton of the second victim is even smaller, only a few broken limb bones and a few teeth.

However, because the limb bones are still there, the human figure can probably be seen, which is relatively easy to identify.

The person who died was also unable to tell the gender, but judging from the remaining teeth, he should have been an adult when he died, and all the deciduous teeth were replaced by permanent teeth.

His burial objects are even rarer, only a small piece of gold ornament was found on his head, which should be a headdress hanging on his forehead.

The next third person died, and continued to return to the burial position with the head facing northeast and feet facing southwest.

The burial of this person was supine and upright, and the skeleton was relatively well preserved.

Part of her skull and teeth are covered under the bronze mirror, the cervical spine is not perpendicular to the spine, the sacrum and pelvis are basically preserved, the leg bones and toe bones are also partially preserved, and the bones of the right hand are roughly visible.

Her residual length is about 1 meters, but because some phalanges are not fully preserved, her height should actually be a little higher than 55 meters 1.5.

She is also the best preserved among the martyrs in this room.

Because it is well preserved, it can be clearly distinguished through the bones that this person was a middle-aged woman about 40 years old.

Moreover, there are traces of red cinnabar on her head, lower back and some bones, which indicates that she may have smeared cinnabar on her body after her death.

It's just that not all the dead who are smeared with cinnabar can survive for thousands of years like Mr. Sui.

It is worth mentioning that her burial objects are also very rich, compared to the last two who only have one or two burial objects, she has a total of eight burial objects!
They are bronze mirror, copper smoker, copper-framed jade goblet, pottery smoker, small jade ring, 2 small jade huang and a small jade seal.

The most important thing is the small jade seal, which was unearthed on the south side of her lower body, and it must be her burial object.

However, there is no inscription on this jade seal, it is just a yellow-white, soft textured square covered bucket button.

However, judging from the size of the seal, which is 1.5 centimeters long and 1.2 centimeters high, the person who died during his lifetime should be a mid-to-high-ranking official of the South Vietnam Kingdom.

Most likely, it should be responsible for managing the maids in the Queen's Palace of Nanyue.

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the number of imperial harems expanded, and there were as many as a thousand maids. There must have been a female official who took the lead in managing these maids.

Similar to the head eunuch.

However, the system of female officials in the Han Dynasty is not specifically recorded in historical books, and there are only occasional sporadic information between the lines. The specific titles and responsibilities of official positions are confusing to modern people.

We can only see a little bit of records from the history books.

For example, "Book of the Later Han Dynasty: The Biography of Chen Fan": "Zheng Sa and Mrs. Zhao and the female ministers are in chaos."

"Han Guan Jiuyi": "For the two ministers, Lang Bo, and the two maids, Shi, all choose the upright ones from the straight."

"Han Yi": "In the seventh year of Yongping, the Queen Mother died... 300 maids in the history of the maids all wrote plains, participated in white plains, and cited coffin elegy."

The "Nv Shangshu" and "History of Maids" here may be some levels in the female official system in the Han Dynasty.

Correspondingly, the Nanyue Kingdom should also have its own female officer system.

And this person was a little over 40 years old, and she was a woman, and she was buried as a martyr.

Obviously, it should be the head of the female official who assists the queen in managing the harem.

It's just that even if you become the head of the female official, you still have to be buried if you should be buried.

Maybe Zhao Hu thinks this person is good, he manages the maids in the harem in an orderly manner, he is a talent, so he plans to take her underground to continue to help manage the maids in the harem~
Moreover, the appearance of the female officer also provided a guess for the identity of the others.

Perhaps, the martyrs in the west room may all belong to the maids of Nanyue King Zhao Hu.

First of all, because these people did not have coffins, this shows that their status must not be high.

In contrast, the coachmen outside the door all have coffins, so these people's status is lower than that of the coachmen, and they are of the same status as musicians.

Obviously, it is only possible for servants and servants who serve people.

Secondly, these people in the west room were martyred, including the fourth person in the back, whose burial objects were basically small jade ornaments, belt hooks, and bronze mirrors covering their faces.

This kind of burial practice covered with bronze mirrors has never been seen in other areas, and it is the first case.

But assuming that the sex of the human sacrifice is female, it can be explained by covering the face with bronze mirrors. Women love beauty and prefer to use bronze mirrors, so covering the face with bronze mirrors after death is a kind of "dream fulfillment" meaning.

Therefore, it is speculated that it is more likely that the victims in the west room are all women!
It was a female official who led a group of maids under her command to bury Zhao Hu, king of Nanyue, and was going to go underground to continue serving the monarch!

(End of this chapter)