Master Archaeologist

Chapter 229 Excavation!
It is naturally a pleasant surprise to find that the lady's tomb was stolen, not the main tomb.

However, after the Institute of Archeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was responsible for the exploration of the main tomb of M1, the situation became a bit worrying.

Chen Han found many robbery holes on the top of the seal.

These robbed holes are not robbed holes left by modern times, but ancient robbed holes.

Just from the outside, there is no trace of the hole being stolen, and it has been backfilled long ago.

However, through the soil layer exploration of Luoyang shovel, it can be found that the filling soil and sealing soil of these robbery holes are not the same soil layer, that is, the backfill soil.

In this way, it can be confirmed that the main tomb has also been patronized by tomb robbers, and more than once.

This seems to be the normal situation.

It is said that there are ten chambers and nine empty tombs in the Han Dynasty.

Why is there such a statement?

It is because the tombs of the Han Dynasty like to leave a large amount of soil.

Fengtu is just a bunch of mounds.

If you go to Shaanxi for a walk, you will find that you can see solitary or two mounds standing on the plain everywhere.

Very eye-catching!
And these mounds are the land of the nobles of the Han Dynasty.

Each mound represents at least one nobleman of the Han Dynasty buried below the rank of Marquis of Guannei.

It is precisely because of the striking features of Han tombs.

Tomb robbers don't need any compasses, tomb robber formulas, or historical documents.

You just need to find these seals specifically.

Each tall seal represents a Han tomb.

Therefore, the Han tomb will leave the phrase "ten rooms and nine empties".

The same is true for this group of Han tombs in Mt.

Tomb M2 has been newly robbed, and it may not even be the first time it has been robbed.

The main tomb of M2 has been robbed many times in ancient times.

The Nanchang Institute of Archaeology, which was in charge of the exploration of the M2 tomb, also soon found many traces of robbery on the seal.

The time span of these robbery holes is as long as thousands of years.

In other words, these two tombs have been robbed and excavated many times in the past 1000 years.

This made the archaeological team, which had recovered a bit of joy, become depressed again.

The cloud of ten chambers and nine empty tombs of the Han Dynasty once again shrouded their heads.

However, it can't be helped if it is stolen.

Moreover, it was stolen thousands of years ago, and even the tomb robbers have no place to pursue it.

What to do, you have to keep going.

Now that it is confirmed that the main tomb of M1 was also stolen.

Of course, the archaeological team chose to excavate tomb M1 first, which is the tomb of Haihunhou.

For a simple reason, this tomb is more important.

Moreover, everyone has already entered the main chamber of tomb No. M2, and the inside is clean, and important cultural relics have been stolen.

So tomb No. M1 is more critical.

After several consecutive meetings, the three archaeological institutes unanimously decided to officially start the excavation of the main tomb of M1.

At this time, it was already half a year after Chen Han arrived in Nanchang.

"The soil of tomb M1 is about seven meters high, and it is in the shape of a bucket. It was built together with M2 on the top of Dundun Mountain. It is juxtaposed from east to west. It belongs to the same tomb with different caves."

"There is a square large rammed earth base under the sealing soil, with two floors in total, of which the lower base is shared with the M2 tomb."

"This shows that the two tombs were built together."

"Tomb No. M1 faces south, and the plane presents a "Jia" shape, which is a standard Han Dynasty tomb style."

"At present, the entrance of the tomb has been determined. It is 17.2 meters long from north to south, 17.7 meters wide from east to west, and about 8 meters deep."

"The location of the tomb passage has also been determined. The tomb passage is 15.65-16.17 meters long from north to south and 5.92-7.22 meters wide from east to west."

"The actual total area of ​​the tomb should be about 400 square meters."

A series of data obtained through archaeological exploration was circulated in the hands of everyone.

I have to say that the Luoyang shovel is really easy to use.

No wonder it will become the designated tool for archaeology and tomb robbery.

Even with the emergence of various technological archaeological equipment in modern times, Luoyang shovel is still a must-have for archaeologists, something that must be learned.

I just used a Luoyang shovel to dig a bunch of exploratory holes on Mt. Dundun. Without formal excavation, I have already grasped the key information such as the internal size of the entire tomb and the tomb passage.

No wonder tomb robbers have been so rampant since ancient times.

After learning how to use the Luoyang shovel, it is really not difficult to find the location of the tomb, it just takes a little effort.

"Dig, dig!"

Zhuang Yunpeng held up his shovel energetically and cheered loudly.

After half a year of caving in Dundun Mountain, this time it is finally possible to formally dig the tomb and enter the tomb for archaeological excavation.

The mood of every archaeologist is quite exciting.

Because autumn and winter are approaching, everyone spent two days building a protective shed above the tomb before the official excavation.

After that, more than 20 archaeologists, together with more than 100 villagers invited from nearby villages, officially started the excavation of the tomb passage.

The tomb passage of this curtain is not short at all, it is a full 16 meters, and the width is five to seven meters.

To put it bluntly, this is not the longest tomb among the tombs dug by Chen Han, but it is definitely the widest.

From the width of the tomb passage, it can also be seen that this tomb is definitely not simple.

The widest point is seven meters, and the narrowest point is nearly six meters.

What does this mean?
It means that there may be large funeral objects with a width of more than five meters that need to be buried, so such a wide tomb will be dug!

Of course, after thinking about it for a while, Chen Han also thought of what kind of funerary object it was.

Chariots!

And it is a chariot and horse that can really be driven and used!

Maybe it was the car that Haihunhou used to use during his lifetime!

Moreover, it was not buried in the form of parts of chariots and horses, but a whole car was directly "driven" into the tomb, which is why such a wide tomb passage was dug!
Of course, this is just Chen Han's guess.

Perhaps, the tomb passage is so wide only because the coffin of the owner of the tomb is to be transported, and there may be no other reason.

As a lieutenant, the inner and outer coffins are at least five-fold coffins.

Generally speaking, the five-fold coffin can have a width of about five meters.

The coffin of Nanyue King Zhao Hu is a special case.

For example, the tombs of princes and kings or liehous excavated in the Central Plains, whether it is the famous Mrs. Xin Zhui (she is the wife of Liehou), or the younger brothers of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

The entire width of their coffins is more than five meters, reaching about [-] to [-] meters.

For such a coffin, a tomb passage with a width of about six meters must be dug before the coffin can be transported in.

"I don't know if there will be yellow intestine problems." Lin Ya, who was digging the tomb passage, said with some expectation.

"It's unlikely." Chen Han shook his head: "Huang Chang Ti Kuo was a funeral standard in the Han Dynasty that could only be enjoyed by emperors and empresses."

"Although, judging from the Han tombs excavated so far, the vassals and kings of the Han Dynasty generally used yellow intestines, and even Liu Xu, the Li Wang of Guangling and his queen who committed suicide on suspicion of treason, also used it."

"But when you reach the level of Liehou, you must not be able to use yellow sausage questions."

"Even if the owner of this tomb is Liu He, the first Marquis of Haihun, even if he used to be a vassal king, but his status at the time of his death was that of Marquis of Haihun, then it is impossible to use the yellow sausage inscription."

"You can look forward to it, will there be real chariots and horses to accompany the burial pit!"

"In the area south of the Yangtze River, no real chariot and horse burial pits of the Han Dynasty have been excavated yet!"

"Judging from Haihunhou's life experience of being a vassal king and being an emperor for a short time, he definitely has that honorable status to be buried with the real chariot and horse pit."

"Anyway, there is no hard and fast rule in the Han Dynasty burial chariot and horse pit!"

(End of this chapter)