Master Archaeologist

Chapter 216 Nephew A Chai Wang

"seal?"

The importance of seals, for ancient tombs, no longer needs to be repeated.

As long as the seal, especially the seal with engraved characters, can be found, the mystery of the identity of the owner of the tomb can be solved basically immediately.

As long as the archaeological staff in the main tomb room quickly put down their work, they ran to the No. [-] robbery cave.

This seal was found in the disturbed soil under the No. [-] robbery cave.

Apparently, the tomb robbers fell to the ground while transferring the funerary objects through the robbery hole.

This is normal.

Some small objects are often left in the robbery hole or in the disturbed soil next to the robbery hole when the tomb robbers rob the tomb.

On the one hand, it is because tomb robbers are still nervous when they are robbing tombs, and when they are nervous, they will be in a hurry and drop something.

On the other hand, it is really not an easy job to climb the robbery hole.

At least in modern times, it is basically impossible for people without professional training to climb the robbery cave with funeral objects.

In the process of climbing, some small funeral objects will be dropped.

Therefore, in general, if the stolen tombs are relatively clean, the disturbed soil near the robbed hole will usually be the only place that can be harvested.

"Square shape, nose button, button wear is round, and there are traces of seal and ribbon inside the wear. This is a very common seal."

"However, the print is a bit small. It looks like it's less than two centimeters long, but it's quite tall. It must be three or four centimeters high."

This seal found in the disturbed soil basically maintains the style of the square inch seal of the Han Dynasty, with a side length of less than two centimeters.

In fact, the seals of most dynasties have a side length of about two or three centimeters, including the emperor's seal.

The big square seal that needs to be held with both hands in TV dramas basically does not appear in reality.

"How about it, what words are printed on it?"

"Who is the owner of the tomb?"

There was a lot of discussion, and a small seal quickly passed the hands of many people.

When it was passed to Chen Han, he finally saw the engraved side of the seal.

Unfortunately, he was disappointed.

The inscription on this face is incised and consists of images of Bactrian camels and Tibetan characters.

He can understand the image of a camel.

But that Tibetan language is hard for a clever woman to cook without rice.

However, there are quite a lot of words, and it is estimated that there are seven or eight subtitles.

"Is there anyone who understands Tibetan?"

Kong Jianwen roared, and everyone present shook their heads.

Including the team members of the QH Provincial Archaeological Institute.

Although Qinghai was once the main burial area of ​​the Tubo Kingdom, more than 2000 Tubo tombs have been discovered so far.

However, not many of these Tubo tombs have been excavated, and most of them are still protected.

And even if a lot has been discovered, there is still a Qi family culture in Qinghai.

So everyone didn't have the time to study Tibetan, and most of them sent it to the Institute of Tibetan Studies for them to help with translation.

On the other hand, in Gansu next door, because of the existence of the Dunhuang Grottoes and a pile of classics written in Tibetan, there are many scholars who understand Tibetan.

"Forget it, send it to the Institute of Tibetan Studies to ask."

Li Chunchao, deputy director of the Qinghai Institute of Archeology, took out his mobile phone and turned off the flash, took a picture of the seal and sent it to Tibetan scholars he knew.

When doing archaeology in Qinghai, it is no problem for me not to understand Tibetan, but I must know a few scholars who understand Tibetan.

Especially the deputy director of Professor Ke, who has a lot of connections.

As soon as he sent the message, someone answered him within a few minutes.

"This is an ancient Tibetan language used by Tubo, which can roughly be translated as "the seal of my nephew King Achai."

After telling the news to other archaeologists, everyone fell into deep thought.

King Achai?
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology, Academy of Social Sciences looked at Professor Ke suspiciously.

Isn't this the royal tomb of the Tuyuhun tribe?
So what does King Achai mean?
Is it some prince of Tubo Kingdom?

"The Dunhuang Grottoes once unearthed a fragment of "A Chai Chronicle", and this "A Chai Chronicle" records the history of the Tuyuhun tribe."

"Modern scholars study the Tuyuhun tribe. If they want to find their history from historical materials and documents, then this "Achai Chronicle" must never be bypassed."

"A Chai is what the Tubo people call Tuyuhun."

With such an explanation, it becomes clear.

The source of this tomb can be determined, it is the tomb of a royal family in Tuyuhun.

"According to the tree rings of the burial shed, the age of this tomb can be determined to be 744±35 years."

"This time was the reign of Tubo Zanpu Trisong Detsen."

"Since the interpretation of the printed text shows that the owner of the tomb may be King Achai, then according to the relevant records in "Achai Ji Nian"."

"Preliminarily, it is presumed that the owner of the tomb may be Mohe Tuhun Khan, king of Tuyuhun under the rule of Tubo."

After thinking for a while, Professor Ke gave a judgment on the identity of the owner of the tomb.

Kong Jianwen frowned, and said with some doubts: "The annual ring dating of the shed wood has a difference of plus or minus 35 years. This time difference is enough for two generations of King Tuyuhun to overlap."

"How can you be sure of the identity of the owner of the tomb?"

35 years is not a small number.

According to the average reign time of the ancient emperors, and considering that the Tuyuhun tribe is a semi-nomadic and semi-agricultural society, the life of the nobility is not as pampered as the emperors of the Central Plains.

The reign of their first king may be even shorter.

There are only two alternations in 35 years, which is to say the least.

In this case, the owner of this tomb must have at least two or three candidates.

Why is Professor Ke so sure of the identity of the owner of the tomb?

"Old Kong, you don't know the lineage of Tubo Kingdom and Tuyuhun."

Professor Ke shook his head and explained patiently: "Look at the words on that seal."

"Nephew A Chai Wang, the "nephew" here is very important."

"During the reign of Tubo Zanpu - Chisong Dezan, the king of Tuyuhun - Mohe Tuhun, his mother was Princess Chibang of Tubo."

"Mo He Tuhun himself is Chisong Dezan's nephew."

"So this nephew, King A Chai, can only be Mo He Tuhun!"

In the process of conquering the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tubo successively annexed dozens of small states such as Yangtong (Zhang Zhung), Subi, Tuyuhun and other small states.

Of course, the "annexation" here is different from the unification of the Han people in the Central Plains, and is similar to the enfeoffment of the Zhou Dynasty.

Tubo just conquered these small states, and then crowned each of these small states as kings, but they all had to pay tribute to the Tubo Central Committee and send people to fight for Tubo.

This is why Tubo was also in chaos when the Jiedu envoys in the late Tang Dynasty separatist regimes.

Because the situation in Tubo is similar to that at the end of the Tang Dynasty, it is a bunch of separatist forces with tribes and soldiers in their hands.

When the central government was strong, such as Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsen, the tribes conquered by Tubo were all as obedient as kittens.

But once the Tubo Central Committee is not doing well, the small states will immediately refuse to listen to the tune and the announcement, and close their doors to separate themselves.

This Tuyuhun was the Tuyuhun tribe after the Tuyuhun Kingdom was destroyed. It was canonized by the Tubo Kingdom for generations, and it was also married to the Tubo royal family.

It is no wonder that Tuyuhun will be fully Tubo.

The Queen Mother is from Tubo, so why not learn Tibetan and speak Tibetan?

(End of this chapter)